Another Thought From the Book

The book defines the study of a book as “understanding,” “interpreting,” and finally “evaluation”; but as the author defined them, let me also. “Understanding” is asking, what is the author saying? What are the words used and what does that say? “Interpreting” is asking, what does the author mean? What is the meaning behind the words used? “Evaluating” is asking, is the author right or wrong? “Most of us tend to do the third reading right away and often never do the first and second readings at all. We give a critical analysis of the book before we understand what it says. We judge a book to be right or wrong before we interpret its meaning” (p. 67).
This is what I would call “listening,” for I know that the author is talking about reading a book yet I feel this could and should be applied to communication as a whole. So often I feel as though people are so quick to judge what I am saying before they even hear what I have to say. I don’t know how many time people have cut me off when I was talking to tell me that I am wrong. I know I am not an amazing public speaker, but yet at the same time, at least think about what I am saying before you throw your unthoughtfull words back at me.
Can we at least think before we speak? It just seems to me that in our American Culture those who are slow to speak and quick to listen are few and far between. (or as someone told me when I showed them this, “those who are slow to speak and quick to listen are never heard) Why is that though?!

Taking Captive Every Thought

Being that there is so much time to think or read as we slowly cross the boarder; I read a little from the book, Celebration Of Spiritual Disciplines. “This is why the issue of TV programming is so important. With innumerable murders being portrayed each evening on prime time TV, the repetition alone trains the inner mind in destructive though patters” (p. 65). This got me thinking about my movies and thoughts (evil thoughts) that run though my head. I guess that is why the Bible tells us to take captive very thought (2 Corinthians 10:5). It just brings me back to the thoughts of how certain people have been on my mind (things that have bothered me in how they said them) and the evil thoughts towards them kept me from reading just before (reading the book, these evil thoughts, of anger and spite, filled my head and kept me from reading anymore of the book until I gave them to Christ). But I can just see how true that quote is from examples in my own life. It is much easier to get rid of thoughts when I give them to the LORD right away, rather then when I have dwelt on them for a long time, not matter what kind of thoughts sexual, anger, hate, or bitterness.
Examples of this can be seen in many areas of my own life from the personality, to my sexuality, and my tendencies. I can just see how certain people have become just hated in my eyes when I they have never really done anything wrong, but just looked or acted different then me, but I dwelt on the idea that the way that they dressed or talked made them less then me. Even though I never knew their hearts, minds or desires; yet I would judge them solely on their outward appearance and physical actions. I see that in my sexuality and how I have a harder time respecting women when I have allowed my mind to dwell on lustful thoughts. That once I have allowed myself to think in that way, it is hard to stop at all. Or how I have watched violent movies the majority of my life and I tend to be more physical always wanting to punch or kick someone when they anger me. (Thank the Lord I can hold my temper, unlike when I was a child).
So over all I would agree with the book on how there is a lot of building of our inner minds without us even knowing that it does. But what is the practicality of that? Now that I have this insight and information on myself, what do I do with it? Where do I go from here? Does this call for the drastic measures to mediate the movies I watch? I just know one thing is for sure and that is simply that I need to guard my mind constantly. Making sure to bring every thought that is not of God to him, giving them to him and not dwelling on them at all. So I leave you with this, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Communication

God you have given us the ability to communicate with each other and yet as we communicate, something always get lost in translation. You would think that after 4,000 years we would be able to communicate with each other a little better then the pathetic way we do now. I mean as I write this out my thoughts are being translated onto this paper from electrical impulses to a written language but yet even though you can read the words, the idea will never fully be grasped by all the readers. Some here will say, “I believe the author is saying this” while another would disagree saying, “well actually this is really just a metaphor” or yet another might take it at face value. But yet with all these views the heart of the writer is lost. The emotion that drove the pen to paint a picture of words is left, who knows where, just lost in translation.
So why God, why can’t we truly understand the thoughts and motives of the author or one another, but are really only left guessing. So many times I feel as though I am left alone with my thoughts because I can’t express or explain myself well enough to have anyone understand me. I try and try, but yet I feel wall after wall between me and people because my translation is not strong enough to break down those walls and I am left alone with impulses, but impulses don’t keep good company.

The Loyalty of a Dog

I have been reading this collection of articles that Rich Mullins wrote for this little column that he had in a paper. The story that I read today was one of his dog Bear. Bear loved his master, knowing his sent, running to him when he was scared, and always trusting his master. When Rich wrote those things I was encouraged, but yet at the same time it was a hard pill to swallow. This beast has more loyalty but less brains then I and yet I have more brains buts less loyalty then him. My dog is more faithful to me even when I leave him for months at a time; he is always ready to accept me back, even if he doesn’t know why I left him.
Why can’t I have that loyalty? Why don’t I seek God’s scent all the time (the Bible, His Church, or His disciples), but yet I don’t? There is little loyalty in my life. God help me become more like you, seeking everything that has your scent. God help me seek you in the hard times, in the good times, and when I can do it on my own. Let me always rest in You! God thank you for never letting me go!

Mexico 09'

Hello again my friends and family,
I have safely returned from my trip to Mexico and I am happy to be able to tell you about this trip and the work that God has done in me. First I want to tell you about the orphanage and the children there, for we were able to talk with the husband and wife that run the place and this is what they said. The majority of the children at the orphanage are there because they have come from abusive families. There is a few of the younger kids, ages from 4-6, who were eating any food that they found on the ground because they came from a place where they didn’t get meals all the time. It is a praise that they have been taken from that lifestyle and are now in a stable and safe environment.
The days that we were there we did many different things to be a blessing to the workers and the children including VBS, painting the bars on the window, cleaning up after all the meals, and finally taking the children out to a movie. Just so that you can understand all that we did alittle better, let me go alittle deeper into the things that we did. First let me explain VBS, which we did every morning Monday through Friday. So every morning before the kids ate breakfast we would do the VBS, which would consisted of songs (in Spanish) and then we would go a short skit with a story that would relate to the rest of the week. Then the children would have their breakfast and then half the kids would go to shower while the other half would do the craft, then switching when the other group. We decided to teach the kids about the parable of Jesus concerning the lost. (Luke 15) The first day we decided to just give them an over view of what the stories were going to be like and thus they would be able to better understand the meaning behind the story. Then on the last day, like last year, we went over all the stories and asked the kids questions so that they could think about the values of the story. It is always a joy to see the children’s faces and how they light up seeing us act out the skits on the stage. Then after the children had eaten their lunch at 12 they left for school and we would get to work on painting the bars that covered each window. Painting these windows was a task to say the least, the paint that we used was made so that it would dry in 30 minutes which doesn’t work very well in the hot sun of Mexico, for it dries in 5 minutes, but with a lot of thinner we were able to paint that majority of the bars before the end of the week. Then, like the year before, we took the kids out to the movies, which is a big thing for the kids. It gives them a change to get off the campus and feel like a real kid. It is really fun to see the reactions of the kids as they get ready to go into Movie Theater and the excitement that fills them so much that they can’t sit still. So that was a great day to be apart of, but as it was in Mexico the movie was in Spanish and I didn’t get much out of it, yet spending it with the kids was my joy. So the last big thing about the trip that I want to tell you about is the “party” they had for us on our last night with them. It started with performances of ethnic dances by the kids and then they finished with a Spanish song. It was something that I really enjoyed watching and how much effort they put into this for us really meant a lot to me. Then after their performances they gave us gifts that they had made to thank us for our work and to remember them as we went back to America. On top of that they decided to prepare this amazing meal for us to top it all off! So while they were performing, the older guys and the director of the Orphanage were outside grilling lots of meat for dinner, which is a real treat because most of the time they just use beans. But then with the meat they also had made up some wonderful salsa and guacamole to put on the burritos and it was one of the most wonderful meals I have had in a long time. Not because of the quality of food that we had before that, but because of the love and effort they put into it plus it was just plain amazing! But they didn’t stop there, because they also bought Coke for our team which is really no small thing.
Now that you have the run down of what went down let me take the time to share with you the reflections that I had while I was down there. The first was that I love the Mexican culture! Here are the reasons why; they love you regardless, they treat guests so well, they value friendship and family so much, and finally yet not limited to relationships are defined on the quality of time spent not the duration. I think with all of that God just really taught me a lot on this trip with how I should be living my life, with the things that I value, how I treat others, and how I view my friendships. Second God taught me a lot about communication and listening. There were many time on my trip where I was not able to communicate to the people that I was working with and sometimes I was unable to communicate to my own team members. Now I feel that I need to explain this alittle more so that you can comprehend what I am trying to think here… Let me give you a slight example, Americans communicate primarily through sarcasm and playful putdowns, but for me I am need to be encouraged and cannot function very well when the only form of communication is sarcasm. So now I had to try and communicate that to my team members, but sadly one of them really didn’t understand (this is why I said I had a hard time communicating with even my team) and for the rest of the week would continue to use sarcasm and what felt like constant negative comments. So God took this very negative aspect (in my mind, because it was really tearing down) and brought His glory out of it. Through this He told me that I need to learn how to be positive, uplifting, and edifying in my communication with other people. If the world is going to be putting down each other there needs to be someone to lift the people back up and so who better then the church? (Ephesians 4:29, James 3:5-6). Then along with God taught me about listening, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19) I felt that when I would speak this same person would never listen to me or what I was saying, but God told me that I need to learn how to be an effective listener so that when people need someone your ear would be ready. There is a lot more that I could tell you about in the things that God taught me or the detail in each of those stories, but that would be something you would have to talk to me in person about. So for now that is what I am going to leave you with.

Last thing that I would like to leave with you is prayer requests, both for me and the orphanage. First I will start with me and leave the best one for the end! This trip has meant a lot to me and has taught me so much; my request is that I don’t forget this or the things that I have learned. It is also my prayer that I take what I have learned and help others and lift them up with the encouragement that God has given me. Second is prayer about my returning to the orphanage. There is a lot of passion in my heart to return and I want to seek God in when I should go back again. I want it to be in God’s timing and also in His blessing. So please pray for that. Now for the ones that need the prayer the most, the orphanage! There are a few things that needs your prayers; first is for the fanatical support for the operations of the orphanage as a whole, second would be for the health of the children, for when we were there more then a few were sick, and third for the hearts of the children. Although they have daily devotions, prayers before meals, and Christian leaders the hearts of the kids are not all saved. So the prayer is that they would be touched by the Holy Spirit before they leave the orphanage so that they would make a difference in the world. So please remember them in your prayers.

Your brother in Christ
Jerome Peterson

God answers prayers

God knows me best, that is the one thing that I know. But what I don’t know is why he does things this way and not my way, but then God lifts me up and I can see the whole puzzle, not just my piece I am trying to fit in.
Theses last couple weeks have been hard and I feel like a fat kid trying to run the mile. I see everyone once else jogging like they have been trying for a marathon and this is just their warm up, but here I am huffing and puffing trying to get round the first turn! Then I look ahead and see I still have three more laps to go. I cry just thinking about all the pain that I still have to go through to get to the rest of finishing this race. But as I think bout letting the tears flow out, I hear this wheezing of another runner with more pain then I could ever have. Now on top of the pain of this race, I have the guilt of thinking I am hurting when they are worse off! The weight is more then I can bare right now, my knees buckle and then a fresh wind blows past my face like a gentle kiss of a loved on, and as it passes by it kisses the sweat on my brow. Like a towel wiping off the mud, so was the pain of this race and refreshed I press on to make it around yet another turn.
God I know that I don’t know everything and I don’t know why I feel alone in this crowed school of Christians. I may never know, but as I prayed against this loneliness that haunts me in my days and nights, I thank you that you are more faithful then the rising sun. That when I am ready to collapse you send me a refreshing breeze to pick up my spirit and send it again on the race that you have set me to. God you are good and I thank you for that. I praise your name and bow before it. To God be the glory, the honor, the power, and dominion in my life forever and ever Amen!