"God Sent Me"

A college professor, an avowed Atheist, was teaching his class. He Shocked several of his students when he flatly stated he was going to prove there was no God. Addressing the ceiling he shouted: "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you 15 minutes!"The lecture room fell silent. You could have heard a pin fall. Ten minutes went by. Again he taunted God, saying, "Here I am, God.I'm still waiting."His count-down got down to the last couple of minutes when a Marine just released from active duty and newly registered in the class walked up to the professor, hit him full force in the face, and sent him tumbling from his lofty platform. The professor was out cold!At first, the students were shocked and babbled in confusion. The young Marine took a seat in the front row and sat silent. The class fell silent...waiting. Eventually, the professor came to, shaken. He looked at the young Marine in the front row. When the professor regained hissenses and could speak he asked: "What's the matter with you?Why did you do that?"The young marine answered, "God was busy. He sent me."

"God Sent Me"

My buddies. (original)

I spoke with my very good friend, Jimmy , last night. He is the guy I mentioned in my first blog. He is the one who encouraged me to start writing these silly things. Anyway we were talking and I started thinking, I have done a lot of crazy, fun and idiotic things with the youth at our church and guess who was there most of the time, Jimmy. I guess that is why Jimmy and I are good friends, we have so much in common. For example, I am young and Jimmy is, wait, that's not a good example. Jimmy is smart and I am, wait, that's not a good example either. Hold on, I know I can think of something. I got it, pie! Jimmy and I like pie. I am kidding, of course. We have a lot of things in common, first and foremost we both love God. We have a passion for the youth of our church, we both went to college to major in Physical Education, we LOVE pranks, computers, and we both like pie. These examples are just a drop in the bucket of things we like to do. But I think the one that brought us together is our love for the youth in our church.

In most cases, I am more comfortable talking to these teenagers than I will ever be talking to someone my own age. Why do you suppose that is? I think it is because God gave me a gift. Some people have a gift of music, or speaking, or even leading. My gift is to act like an idiot around teenagers. Once they see I am not like most other adults they feel more comfortable around me. They do not look at me as a old man, even though that is the nick name they gave me. They come to me for advice and for me, that is scary. I used to worry about it because I am not a very smart man. I mean, I do not have a degree in psychology or anything. But my buddy shared with me that God would not have put me in this situation if He was not going to be there to tell me what to say to these kids. I try to do my best, with Gods help, to tell them what I think God wants them to know. (See I told you Jimmy was smart.) Let me give you one example. I wrote about World Changers in my last blog. When I went to WC we took with us a lot of youth. We had so many young men that at the school we stayed at our group of guys was given to sleep in, the whole gym. One night after lights out a young man came over to my air mattress and sat on the corner and started talking to me. He was having problems with his girlfriend, his parents were on his case about which school he was going to go to in the fall, just a number of things a teenage boy goes through when trying to decide his future. Before I knew it there were two more guys sitting there talking with us. Here we are in the middle of a gym, surrounded by 75 other teenagers, talking about what God has in store for there lives. Like I said before, who am I that I should give these guys advice. Well I did my best and told them what I thought God would want them to know. Like, don't get married till you are 50! Just Kidding. You know, I always wondered if I told these guys the right thing. Then one day God gave me an answer. We were having some sort of get together at my house and one of the boy's mom was there. I was in my computer room when she came in and sat down to talk to me. We talked for almost an hour when she finally looked up at me with tears in hers eyes and thanked me for being there for her son. I told her I didn't do anything. But she said I did more than I would have ever dreamed. Come to find out the young man did not know what he was going to do with his life but after our talk he decided to go to college. I told her that it was God and not me. You want to talk about a blessing!

Sorry, I got off on a tangent. Back to my buddies. There IS another guy in my life who I guess you could say is my buddy, but honestly he is much more than that. He is my father, friend, savior. In some ways we have a lot in common and in others we don't. He was sinless, I am full of sin. He was a great teacher, I try to do my best. But on the other hand, He loves me and I love Him. One day we will live together, forever in Heaven. Jesus, Jimmy and me playing jokes on the youth there. You know we will because God does have a sense of humor. I mean just look at me.

Jesus is my Heavenly buddy. I hope you can say the same thing.

God bless,
Joe

My buddies. (original)

My FIRST blog. (original)

Hello and welcome to my first blog. I am not much of a writer. As a matter of fact, I don't like to write at all, but my buddy Jimmy told me I should start one of these things. And since Jimmy is never wrong, just ask him, I figured I would take his advice and at least give it a shot.


Any way, I would like to get one thing straight from the get go. I would like to apologize to anyone I have offended with the name of my Blogspot. I know there is someone out there who thinks the word "idiot" is politically incorrect. I did not mean it like, "a village who has lost an idiot" or "look at that idiot driving 35 in the fast lane." I also did not mean it like I was stupid. One time, my very good friend Jimmy and I took an IQ test that was being televised and I think I scored a 138 and Jimmy scored a 139, he cheated. Jimmy told me a genius has an IQ score of 145. So, I am almost sure I am not challenged in that area. I meant it like an idiot who is a goofball or is zany. That's me, a big ole zany goofball. A big ole goofball who will do almost anything for God. Especially, if it has anything to do with a youth group, teenagers, or a high school Sunday School class. What do I mean, you ask. Well for example, a couple of years ago I went on a mission trip to Savannah on a project called World Changers. World Changers sends teenagers into a area where, let's just say, that is less fortunate than others. People who cannot afford to have repairs done to their houses. These teenagers volunteer a week to work in the hot blazing sun, roofing, painting and repairing houses. In their spare time they talk to people about Christ and what he can do for them. My job during that week was to encourage my small group of teens. What better way than to let them paint my head with house paint. That's right, HEAD, not face, but head. Hair and all! Now many of you would say,"Yeah, I can see where you are an idiot." Well, like I said, I am a goofball. I still have people from that group who keep in touch with me. They may not remember the person who's house they painted, the not-so-good food they ate, or the hard floors they slept on, but they still talk about the guy who took a week off of work just to be with them for a week, encouraged them and let them paint his head. Let me assure you of one thing, I am not telling you this story to brag. I am telling you this story as a testimony, because God used me that week to show kids you do not have to be a stuffed shirt to be a Christian. You can have fun and walk around town with gray, red, and white paint in your hair. And believe me, it was not easy to get that stuff out, but it was all worth it.

In conclusion, I would like to say I apologize for for the other word in the name of my Blogspot, GOD. But I am not going to, God is the reason why I am writing these Blogs. I just figured out what I am going to start writing about. I am going to share my stories of the fun things Christians do. I guess Jimmy was right, AGAIN, I do need to start one of these things.

God Bless,
Joe

My FIRST blog. (original)