Beautiful Things

 Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I posted.  So many things have happened.  Kids are growing up, family members have died and went to be with Jesus.  The first 3 months of this year have been jam packed and then it happened....I heard a song that made me stop and think (you already know what I am going to say, ha!)  I felt like I wanted to share with the rest of the world.  I heard this song in the van when me and the fam were going somewhere, maybe a week ago, but I liked the song so well that I added it to my "favorites" playlist.  I haven't listened to the song not one time since then and then it happened, I was going back to work after a doctor's appointment and I started playing it.  It has been on repeat since this morning at 9:20 am.  The song is "Beautiful Things" by Benson Boone.  Here is where I would normally paste the lyrics, but this time, you are going to have to find it yourself.  The jist of the song is that this guy is begging God not to take all the beautiful things from his life.  That made me start thinking of all the beautiful things in my life.  I immediately had thoughts of my wife and kids and how beautiful they make my life.  We live in a ugly world.  Wait, let me explain why I say that.  I look at this world through the lens of the bible and if you see the world that way also, then you will understand what I mean when I say that this world is ugly.  This world is sinful and broken, that is what makes it ugly and hard to deal with at times, but thank God Almighty that this world is painted with "Shades of Eternity".  If you are a Born Again, Child of God,  then you see these "Shades of Eternity" very clearly and often and when you do, you have no problem raising your hands toward heaven and thanking the Creator of the Universe for the life and eternal life He has given you.  There is a couple of lines in the song that goes, "If everything's good and it's great, why do I sit and wait till it's gone?" and "But I'm up at night thinkin' I just might lose it all"  These two lines might be the saddest of all.  I think we sometimes look at the blessings and good things God has given us and we put our arms around them and try to hold them as tight as we can.  We mess up and trade the eternal for things that are temporal.  My prayer for myself is that starting today, Yahweh would help me to appreciate the beautiful things in my life more, to use those things to bring Glory to Solus Christus.  I pray that when these beautiful things fade or are snatched from my life that I would not shrink into myself, but that through mercy and grace, I would rise up and SHOUT, THANK YOU GOD.  You can count on it if you are a follower of Christ, that when your beautiful things are taken away, there will be more beautiful things come your way in God's time.  You just have to be willing to see them.  If your beautiful things have been taken, PRAY.  I pray that God would open your eyes to see them.  I am smiling right now and my heart is full.

What Happened?

 I can't believe it has been May since I last posted.  I will apologize to all of my two followers for leaving you hanging, 😂.  Not much has been going on in the lives of the Andrews clan, except everyday life stuff and like many other families this time of year, we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  But, I confess, "getting ready" for Christmas and "getting in the Christmas Spirit" has been tough this year.  It has been tough because of the time and energy I have been putting in trying to be successful and comparing myself to others.  Matthew 6 is a chapter that I recall as I am writing.  I have spent more time looking at everything that is wrong in my life and not near enough  time being thankful for what I do have in my life.  This pattern of turning my focus to myself, didn't happen overnight, but has been cycling over and over for years.  Here is what I mean,  I would start with great intentions to hype myself up to believe that I could do anything I wanted and that I was an absolute awesome human.  This attitude of excitement and self affirmation would continue for sometime weeks or months.  I would go around encouraging others and lifting people up and as I write this, that sounds good, but internally, it was less about them and more about me.  It is shallow.  Encouraging others or lifting them up, is not the problem, the problem was my attitude and the fact that I was attempting to promote myself.   It is during the excited, self motivated periods where I would lose my focus.  As well intentioned as I may have been, I took my eyes off of Jesus and was not lifting Him up.  For some of you, you will no doubt not see anything wrong with promoting yourself, because you reason, if you don't then who will?  I would counter that if all your effort and energy is devoted in focusing on Christ, then you will not give a rip about promoting yourself, but you will truly want to make Christ the center of your life.   If you are a follower of Jesus, then you also know that Satan is good at what he does; steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).  You also know, as a follower and disciple of Jesus, that Satan is always attempting to make followers of Jesus ineffective witnesses to others.  At the peak of my excited, motivated, encouragement stupor, someone at work, church, or family would say or do something that would make me realize that I am not the most awesome human and that I probably can't do anything I want.  I would essentially overnight, believe that I am a loser of a human being and that I can't be used by God and I am not useful to anyone else. I guess this could be described as a manic episode and while you may be tempted to feel pity for me or send me words of encouragement, I really just need you to pray to God, Yahweh, on my behalf and ask Him to continue to give me grace and strength in my weakness.  I appreciate the words of encouragement, but absolutely do not need pity.  I want to be content with where God has placed me.  I want to be successful at being a mirror that reflects the love and wisdom of Christ.  I want to be a rock of principles and standards that people will never question where and what I stand for.  My point in all of this is that as a Christian, as a believer in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus,  I am called to give everything I have to Jesus.  To do everything I do to the best of my ability for Jesus.  Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly and the only way that any of us can experience that abundant life is to throw ourselves down at the feet of Jesus with wild abandon!  When you do this, the freedom and slavery that you experience in the Glory of Christ will be unlike anything this world can offer.  I'll wrap it up here, but as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and start gearing up for a new year, I want to encourage you to focus on Jesus and let Him dictate your goings and comings.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Anthony.

Enjoy this Sermon from Adrian Rogers

The Light and the Dark

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4,5

"Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
Psalm 46:10 

    John 1:4,5 is a very appropriate way to start this post and it would be appropriate for many others like myself for whom the light of Jesus has shown in their darkness.  Why did I say "their darkness"?  Because spiritual and emotional darkness takes different forms for different people and it doesn't affect everyone the same way.  I also am not a physician or a licensed counselor.  What I am though is a Jesus follower, a Christian and it is Christ who defines my worth. The reason that I tell you that, is that is where my experience and knowledge come from.  My reason for posting my story is three-fold.  1.  Satan has convinced me for a long time that if I ever told anyone about my struggle then I would suffer embarrassment, shame, and ridicule, 2. I want to help someone who like me, has allowed satan to keep them in the dark, and 3.  I want to glorify and praise the Creator of the Universe.

   

    For the better part of 10 years off and on, I have struggled with anger issues, anxiety, and worry.   The slightest little things would set me off and I would yell and scream at my wife, my kids, or my co-workers.  After the arguments and yelling stopped, I would try to wall myself off from everyone.  This portion of the episode may be the worst because of the despondency, apathy, and melancholy. Things that would normally bring me joy, I would not care about.  During this time, I could put on a well-formed mask for people who didn't know me, but for those that I care about and am around a lot, the mask was transparent.  I treated them so bad and I was a jerk.  After about a week of this treatment, I would go through a list of people that I had treated badly and apologize.  By the simple grace of God, they would forgive me.  Even as I type, I am floored at the amount of grace God has given me.  I am thankful for my wife and kids for how much stuff from me they have put up with and how much they love me. I realize that I will still have bad days, but through the process of sanctification, I am maturing spiritually.  I am thankful for friends and co-workers that have not abandoned me but have gone through cycle after cycle of my anger and apathetic moods.  My story is overshadowed by the story of Jesus and what he did for me on the cross.  This testimony is long, so I will stop here and the next time I write I will start with where the healing began.  I covet your prayers and know that I am praying for you to a God that knows exactly what you are going through.

Words

 So, I got to thinking about words.  The meaning behind them, the tone in which they are said, what they look like on a page.  Words are powerful, but only to those that receive them and believe them.  For example,  If someone was speaking to a large crowd on how to properly put together a scrapbook.  That is interesting, but I probably wouldn't listen closely, therefore I would not be inspired to put together a scrapbook.  If that same person gave a demonstration on how to build a nice grilling area on my patio,  I would perk up and maybe even take notes.  I would receive their words and based on the fact that the speaker knew how to build a nice grilling area, I would believe him.

Then I thought about our loved ones that have passed on.  We probably take for granted the words that they spoke to us.  Words spoken to us by people that love and care for us are, most of the time, discarded or looked over.  Why?  I have no idea.  Maybe their words get buried amongst all the rhetoric and noise that we are exposed to every day.  It is a shame that the words spoken to us by our loved ones only mean something when they are not being spoken anymore.  There is a song sung by The Band Perry, "If I Die Young" and one of the lyrics in the song says, "A Penny for my thoughts, oh, no, I'll sell'em for a Dollar, They're worth more after I'm a goner".  This is true for most of us.  Oh, what death stills from us.  That person that we loved so much and cared for, death takes the sound of their voice, their words, and then all of a sudden memories of the times we were with them come flooding back.  The words that they happen to have put down, become priceless. It is hard right now not to shed a tear as I think about those that I have loved and the talks that we have had and what I would give to hear their words.  

These thoughts led me to my next thought.  Jesus left us His words, which are far more valuable to us than any words I could ever say or put down on paper.  His words could not be stolen by death and while we can wish that we were with Him when He was on this earth,  His death, resurrection, and ascension made it possible for us to enjoy an eternity of His words and the Holy Spirit.  One day I will pass on from this life and the only thing that will be left of me is the legacy that I leave with my kids, memories, these posts, and pictures.  My legacy and values that I leave with my children, may perhaps live on for a little while, but memories and pictures will fade from the timeline of humanity.  I praise the one who has not and will not fade and when I die, I am going to spend eternity with Him.  I wrote at the beginning about words being powerful and I pray that today that these words on this screen have planted a seed that grows into a lasting relationship with Jesus.  If your struggling with surrendering your life to Jesus, don't, He simply says, "Come and Follow Me".   There is nothing more important and powerful than the words of Jesus.

One Second, WAIT!

One second.  It is nuts when you think about all the things that can happen in one second.  According to a google search and the site: bedtimemath.org  "With each second that ticks by, around the world 4 babies are born, 2 people die, Earth travels 18 1/2 miles through space, and the International Space Station travels 5 miles around us. In that same second, an unbelievable 20,000 cans of Coca-Cola are sold, along with 9 iPhones. 4 thousand stars are born across the universe."

Seconds could mean the end of a relationship or it could mean a new life for someone.  When you are finished reading this, there will not be any final resolution, but what I hope to accomplish with this writing, is that you will think about your actions and your words.  I admit that I rank at the top of those people that fly off the handle or get my feelings hurt way too easily.  My shortfalls in the area of grace towards others are a simple matter of spiritual maturity and keeping my focus on Jesus.  But, through prayer and studying God's word, I am getting better (I hope).  I am always reminded of Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  When we seek the kingdom of God, we see and treat people differently, we order our inner life differently, not because of anything we did, but because of Jesus and what he is doing in and through us.  

The idea of one second came to mind one day when I was at work and I noticed how some people were talking about how bad the day is and some was talking about how good the day is.  So, I thought, "We all get the same seconds.  Everyone has the same amount of seconds.  So, maybe the problem is perception and focus?"  The second before I meet someone new, I have the ability to make a difference in that person's perception of the second that we experience together.  Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean that my perception of every second is always right, but I pray that if my perception is based on the foundation of God's word then I can make a difference.  I hope that last part makes sense.  As a parent of a 19-year-old and two almost 15-year-olds, then I see the seconds that I experience with them zipping by at light speed, but of course, that is my perception, haha!  I am sure at times their perception is that time doesn't go fast enough.  So, I will end with this advice,  pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) and through the power of the Holy Spirit, keep your focus on Jesus.

In Christ Alone,

 

Anthony

 

Could it get worse!!?

 No pictures today.  I am feeling pretty down today.  This is probably the second time since May 2020 that I believe getting that MBA was the biggest waste of time and money that I have ever done.  You see, I believed the lie that told me I could do better for myself and my family by getting that MBA.  Load of crap.  I thought that getting the MBA would allow me to move up in the company that I am with, It didn’t and when that didn’t happen, I have spent the last two years trying to find a job that would pay more or the same as what I am making now.  This morning I learned that I was turned down for another job.  Useless.  That degree has not gotten me anywhere and I am stupid for thinking that it would.  My dad would have loved for me to have stayed at home and worked with him, but I had to be stupid and leave Winston County so I could come to the big city and be somebody.  I could have been somebody working with my dad.  Today is my pity party and no one else is invited and I don’t want any comments to this post.  I don’t need anyone’s encouraging platitudes.  It would be nice to know that the things I do matter.  I do believe things will get better, but right now it’s tough looking at the big picture, and frankly I don’t give a rip about the big picture.  I want the big picture to be the now picture.  I am sick of trying.  I am tired of plowing.  

My attitude is poor right now.  It will get better, but it’s gonna be a minute.  God has a plan.  I know that and I have no choice but to trust and wait.  But I think this last job I was turned down for is the last one I will apply for.  In the meantime, I will do what I know to do, I will work for my current employer like I am working for God and let my work be praise to his Holy Name.  No more LinkedIn, Facebook or any one of  the multiple social media platforms.  So, if you happen to have found this post, then congratulations, you didn’t come here via a shared post on Facebook.  So, to answer the question, yes it could be worse.  I am thankful for what I have and my attitude right now is not a reflection of how much grace He has shown to my family and I.  My attitude is simply a reflection of circumstances that have hit me in the face again today.  Thank God that His mercies are new every morning.  

 

  

Finished? Nope, Not Yet!

                                

 I wanted to write today, but really, there is nothing particular in my heart.  The way my blog ideas work is I may remember, hear, see, or do something that triggers a scripture or bible story.  When that happens, I start writing.  That is one reason why it is so important to read your bible and have God's word stored up in your heart because you never know when the Holy Spirit will use what you have read to bless influence or both.  

I am grateful and blessed that I have the desire to write.  That is funny and those that know me well would laugh along with me.  My only regret is that I put on such an act during the college years of my disdain for writing or being forced to write, that I avoided writing totally.  

My sons and I finished a grand project today.  This project could have been finished by a professional in two days, but I thought it was important for me to do something that I did not know how to do, but also it was a great opportunity for my sons and me to tackle something together that was way over our heads. I re-learned some things during this project that time has seemed to steal away from me and learned new things that I should have already known, though my wife had already told me.  

1.  Everything that you see on Youtube, is not that easy.  Just because you watch a professional on Youtube bust up concrete with ease and precision, does not mean you will be able to do the same.  In fact, when we did it, it was much messier and instead of taking a couple of hours, it took the three of us two full eight-hour days to saw, bust, and remove the concrete.

2. Just because your mind thinks your body is that of an 18-year-old, it is without any doubt, not an 18-year-old body.  My 47-year-old body needs more rest, more water, and at times multiple doses of anti-inflammatories.

3. The Pick-Ax.  Before this project, my boys and I have not had much experience with a Pick-Ax, but we have extensive experience with one now.  This tool is very effective but is also a demon to use as it will suck the air from your lungs and cause your arms to become as limp as that of a boiled spaghetti noodle.  We used it again today to finish.  I do not look forward to using it again.

4.  Post-Hole Diggers.  Before this project, I was very familiar with this tool.  But, it had been a long time since I used it so much.  WOW!!  My deltoid muscles have put in an internal memo that they are requesting they never have to be used in that way again for a very long time.

The point of all this is that this was a hard project.  It was hot, I couldn't have done it without the help of my sons, and though I had an idea of when we would finish, I did not know the exact day.  Our Christian lives are no different.  The Christian life is hard and it is not for the faint of heart.  Anyone who tells you that once you become a Christian, everything is supposed to be easy, they are lying to you!  Jesus has called us to serve and sometimes serving is not easy (John 15:20).  Jesus calls us to forgive (Matthew 18:21,22).  Jesus suffered and we will too.  We can not go through this pilgrim's journey alone.  Our life has to glorify God.  Our life has to be a testimony of who God is and we can not do that without Jesus.  He alone is the source of our strength and we must get out of this routine of keeping one foot in and one foot out of our Christian walk.  I could not have finished the project unless I was committed.  I made a decision to follow Christ and now I am committed to finishing and just like our home project, there are days when you just don't feel like working, but I knew that if I didn't finish then my relationship with my wife would be affected.  There are going to be days when you don't feel like following Christ, but unlike the relationship with my wife, Jesus will not leave you or forsake you.  He tells us that his burden is light and His yoke is easy (Matthew 11).  Jesus also gave us each other.  Tell your trusted brothers or sisters what is going on in your life and allow them to pour into you what they have experienced in God's Love.  We can't go through this Christian life alone.  Find a Bible-believing church and commit to that also and watch what happens.  Lastly, we don't know when Jesus is coming back, but we know that everything on this earth is temporary and will end one day.  Be ready, commit, and share the Gospel with everyone you can.  My prayer is that you will let the light of Jesus in and illuminate all the dark places in your life.  He is knocking.  Answer.  

Keep Plowing!!

Anthony