The Planet of Cham

I am reading a book that I borrowed from my mentor. It is called "In a pit with a lion on a snowy day." It is based on the life of a guy named "Benaiah." In 2nd Samual 23, you can follow his short mentioned life on how he chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and won. The author points out that he took a huge risk and it paid off. Because of that act & a few others, he became the head of guard for King David. So anyway, I had the book for a few weeks but just cracked it open on the way home from Seattle. Can I say the book is phenomenal! Well..at least for me. The book was written by a guy who planted a church in a theater in D.C. 

     The Book is about seizing God's future, but there is a twist. He is not talking about when everything is going well...he states: "What if the life you really want, and the future God wants for you, is hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure...your greatest fear?" That pretty much gives you some insight. He points out how God takes our craziest problems, greatest fears, and life-wrecking failures and turns them into an incredible future and an abundant life. Go buy the book, I would definitely type the whole book out on here, but geez..im can't focus that long. So I close with some of my underlined quotes (yeah..i have to buy my mentor a new book cuz I marked his up).

Quotes:

"God is in the resume-building business. He is always using past experiences to prepares us for future opportunities. But those God-given opportunities often come disguised as man eating lions. And how we react when we encounter those lions will determine our destiny. We can cower in fear and run away from our greatest challenges. Or we can chase our God-ordained destiny by seizing the God-ordained opportunity." (pg. 14)

"Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what's wrong. We're called to chase lions". (pg. 15)

"There is an old aphorism: 'No guts, no glory.' When we don't have the guts to step out in faith and chase lions, the God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him." (pg. 15)

"Lion chasers are always on the lookout for God-ordained opportunities." (pg. 15)

"I have a simple definition of success: Do the Best you can with what you have where you are. In essence, success is making the most of every opportunity. Spiritual maturity is seeing and seizing God-ordained opportunities. Think of every opportunity as God's gift to you. What you do with those opportunities is your gift to God. I'm absolutely convinced that our greatest regrets in life will be missed opportunities." (pg. 17)

"Maybe that is why God sometimes invites us to defy impossible odds. Maybe it is one way He can show us His omnipotence. Maybe God allows the odds to be stacked against us so He can reveal more of His glory." (pg. 23)

"But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of God's glory." (pg. 24)

"How you think about God will determine who you become." (pg. 28)

"Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem." (pg. 26)

"You know what the greatest tragedy in life is? It is someone whose god gets smaller and smaller with each passing day." (pg. 29)

"God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go." (pg. 30)

"Now here's the catch: Sometimes His itinerary entails coming face to face with a lion in a pit on a snowy day. But when you find yourself in those challenging circumstances, you need to know what God is ordering your footsteps. You can have a sense of destiny because you know that God has considered every contingency in your life, and He always has your best interest at heart. And that sense of destiny, rooted in the sovereignty of God, helps you pray the unthinkable and attempt the impossible." (pg. 30)

Enjoy - Cham

     You see, unlike the South, the Northwestern culture doesn't have a cultural standard that everybody goes to church..even on Easter. In fact, most people do not attend a church, but barely enough know anything about God, Jesus, or the Bible. Tim told me that he had one conversation with a lady who didn't know anything about Jesus. Well...seeing is believing. We were setting up for "The Commons" yesterday. It was early, 7:30am. We picking things up, setting up the room, and creating a great atmosphere for people to come and learn and meet Christ. In the midst of this setting up, a lady named "Joyce" struck up a conversation with Tim and a few others. She was Tim's neighbor and one of the first who had become a consistent attender at The Commons. Well her question was this..."How do we do baptism here at the commons?" Pretty easy and plain question, but the follow up got me. She said, "I have only seen sprinkling in a Catholic Church, so do we do that?" Tim replied, "No. We baptize through immersion." "What's that", Joyce asked. Tim described it as pretty much dunking a person under. Joyce in disbelief said, "Really? I have only seen something like that on O' Brother, Where are thou? ( A movie)" Then Joyce asked more questions, "Where do we do it? Is the water cold? Why fully dunked?" Can we say that I just woke up to the realization that people in this area truly are not aware of Jesus, the Bible, and Church. It was incredible and woo'd my heart. You didn't have the southern bible-belt to deal with at all. Genuine people who have no clue about Christ. Think of the possibilities. No southern fluff, no I can quote you the bible all the way through but still live opposite of it, no I am saved because my cat is a deacon. Just real people, real lives, real issues, and a real not knowing who Jesus is and what the Bible says. WOW!!!! Tim even told me that there was one guy who didn't even know what John 3:16 is. He could kind of quote it, but didn't know the reference or the full verse. You are not a southerner if you can't quote that verse. Maybe, just maybe, we might need to rethink our pursuit for global missions (I love global missions so don't misunderstand what I am saying) and put just as much emphasis in our homeland..especially the the Northwest. To be cont'd.....

So I am headed to Seattle for two weeks. My friend Tim started a church plant there. He has asked me to come and help technologically/creatively to get the word out about what God is doing at the plant. I am really honored to be able to serve in this way. I think if I had been asked any other time before May I would have egotistically done it but in my way and not God's way. I just am at a point where serving in any way means the world to me. It is so easy to look over the greatest serving opportunities just because we view them as small and insignificant. I did that for years, and God has me at a place in my life now that I jump for joy at the slightest opportunity. So, I hope not only to just give random updates on here about Seattle and the trouble I cause there, but I am really praying/hoping/asking that God will give me some vision for my future. I pray and hope I do to the best of my ability to serve. Much luv. ~ cham 

Something I am learning is that God uses our tragedies, happenings, experiences, and craziness to amplify who He is to others. This is especially true when others are walking through something that you already went through or experienced personally. A lot of times we think, "Crap, what good am I now" as we ponder or pull our hair out over the event(s). What we do not realize is that we are about to be a chart topper in someone's life who is going through something similar. It's something to put in perspective. In fact, it gives us meaning. At certain times, God puts us in front of a mic on the stage of life (figuratively) to share with someone because we can relate to what they are going through and bring a message to them of hope and understanding. Just remember not to get stage fright, you will know what to say and do. Just a quick thought as you walk through life. Just remember when it is your turn...STEP UP TO THE MIC

I think this is appropriate for my life, today. Sometimes it is good for me to sit and be reminded instead of trying to figure it all out. ~cham