Artist of the Sky...

I am continually amazed at the beautiful displays of artwork that we so often get to experience as the sun sets or the sun rises. How can you not see these things and not be in awe of our Creator!? Does he have time to paint the sky? I don't know probably. Does he paint it for us? Maybe, if not I'm sure enjoying the heck out of it anyway. Does he paint it as a reminder of who our creator is and his greatness? I think most likely.
Could you imagine if every morning at 6:43am a flash of light would appear and the sun would be up. Then as the day concludes and the sun nears the horizon like a light switch turning the light off the sun is gone. Not real exciting and not really that impressive.
I am however impressed and wonder likely till the day I die how it is that on a 99% clear evening that there may only be a few clouds in the sky and they are so convieniently placed right where the sun is going down causing beautiful colors to emit through the clouds as the sun sets. How? Why? The sky is clear except for the four clouds in the west changing from yellow, to gold, to orange, to pink, to red, to maroon and on in to darkness. Incredible.

Its absolutely inexplicible how light, the sun, refraction, speed, time, rotation of the earth, 24hours, lightyears, atmosphere, and clouds all work together to create such masterpieces. Coincidence of the daily occasion? NOT HARDLY. More like Perfection.

Yet we sit here on this ball of dirt and if we so choose to pause we can enjoy and experience new and unique works of art almost daily. How fortunate are we!? Its right before us screaming in color and vibrance asking us who is your creator? So then what is our response?

Until Dukey Drops again..............Much Love....................

Sleepless in Hays

You ever have a night where you just can't go to sleep? Its not so much that you're not tired becasue I am but that you've had some great conversation and you're pondering your dilemas, the worlds dilemas and everthing in between. You could have went on and on until the sun came up but you HAD to quit because the sun will come up and you will have to go to work. Its great but knowing that I have to work in the morning really isn't so great. And when you make yourself conclude you wish you could write everything thats in your head on to paper and pick up where you left off....almost impossible. Its just one of those moments that you just want to sit and marinate in...or at least I do.
I guess with that I'm going to marinate.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke

Until Dukey Drops again.......Much Love..................

Comfort of the legalist

I know its late...but I got some stuff so its just gonna be late.

le·gal·ism Pronunciation: 'lE-g&-"li-z&mFunction: noun1 : strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code
What is right? What is moral? Is the church right? I ask this not in the reference to "ethical relativism" with the idea that there is no truth, and what I do and believe is my truth and your truth is yours but more so just to ponder the thought and evaluate the values of which we stand by as Christians or as churches.
We as Christians are quick to lend grace and love to someone who we may not see on Sunday at church or at any given ministry but one of our Christain brothers or sisters make a mistake and by all means Gods grace is the only grace they can find becasue it sure isn't coming from the person that sits in the row in front of you at church. In fact its likely that they will talk about you and how what you did was so wrong or that maybe it was something else. I'm not gonna pull up any definition but I'm pretty sure thats gossip. Still as much of a sin as bring drunk, murder, adultery and everything else thats gonna be named in church as the bad sins. Oh we won't say it in so many words but our actions and the way we talk we give gossip, among other things, the free pass in church.
Someone who is going to be this way is most likely not going to go out of his or her way to be apart of someone elses life but instead will sit at church in spiritual arrogance and condem and gossip. How is that right? Let me answer that question...ITS NOT.
And so we preach we need to reach the world. We want people to be saved. We want more people to come to church. We will invite people we work with to church and we will tell them about the great sermon we heard. We, in our hearts, want people to know Jesus but how is it that they will know if they never see. Yeah we all have co-workers that we share our "neutral" workspace with but when we leave work we never see them outside the workplace. Our occupation is rarely a real picture of your life. And we say, "but I invite them to church all the time and they never come?!" It may be true and they may never come to church with you but thats all they see. So the perception they may have is gossip, church on sunday and revivals that shapes who Jesus or being a follower of Christ is to them. Then we ask them to come be uncomfortable in our environment. Given that picture I would likely not want to step into an uncomfortable environment either. Maybe they have church experience and all they see is they get the obligitory "welcome" hand shake, some gawks, a "gold star" for attendance and a nice talk when they show up. I'm thinkin' naw I'll stay at home. Its comfortable in the chair or the pew at church for the Christian but not for everyone else and again we want them to join us. No wonder they think we are too good because we are never willing to be uncomfortable and join them in their environment. To live life beyond our daily comfort zone just may communicate that you really care about who they are as a person and not more so as another person sitting in the pew or chair on sunday...because Lord knows we don't need more people just sitting on sunday. Yeah its comfortable but whos life do you impact? They may gossip that you walked into a bar but I'm pretty sure that life will go on. Jesus was judged and ridiculed for some of the company he kept and the places he went so why shouldn't we. Now this isn't to suggest that six days a week we should go find the local bar, strip joint, club or any other place for that matter and just be there but if you're invited by some friends to meet up at a bar to watch the All-Star game, have a meal or just chat don't find some lame excuse about your bible needs polished and you can't make it. Maybe it should be dusted off and see where Jesus walked. Be uncomfortable. Be available. Share in life with others. Sharing isn't with the expectation of getting anything in return. I believe that lasting impacting life altering change happens not just when something is heard but seen.
Well theres a truck load....Enjoy. Thanks for the chat pops. Look what you started. HA!! Until Dukey Drops again...........Much Love...................