BERNARD SHUFORD

People

Bernard Shuford — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:19:27 +0000

Don Wilton teaches that it’s a mark of a Christian to want to be around other Christian people. To enjoy fellowship with other believers. This is one of his five “points” regarding “totally secure” in your relationship with Christ.

In a big sense, I agree. My understanding of the Bible agrees that one of the ways the world knows we are “of Christ” is that we love each other. (It is, however, often entirely too easy to redefine “love” to fit our preferred mentality rather than let it be what the Bible intends…) I don’t support the type of Christianity that says “I’ll just stay home on the front porch and worship God while all the hypocrites go to church.”

However, I am saddened by the fact that so many really take this to an extreme and ONLY associate with Christians.

We have a great message to give to the world.

And they are NOT going to come to church to hear it if we don’t befriend them, love them, help them, and genuinely care about them.

As a matter of fact, I would say we’re not trying very hard at all to really win folks to Christ if we don’t do those things.

And, if we love Christians only because it makes holy living easier, aren’t we still missing something?

We’ve become insular. Even among a lot of “evangelical” Christians, we would rather fuss amongst ourselves about how evil the world is instead of being salt and light to them.

The greatest Christians of all are those who can love and live like Christ in the middle of the world that doesn’t love Christ without falling into sin.

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Motives

Bernard Shuford — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:35:52 +0000

Based on what Christ said about hating a man in our heart being as bad as murder, and things like that, I think our motives are really important. In one respect, just as important as our actions. In some situations, maybe MORE important than our actions.

Frustratingly, though, this realization results in a crippling over-analysis for me.

Most of the time, my motives are probably wrong. I know that. I don’t like it.

But sometimes, my motives are right.

Which do YOU think is most important, DOING the right thing, or having the right motive?

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Blank

Bernard Shuford — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:59:28 +0000

I’d love to write a blog post. It’s quiet, the kids are asleep, the wife has her hair up in a towel, and I could rattle off something quite spectacular.

Except that the seed thought, the core of blogging, is dead. I can think of NOTHING worth blogging about. I’m sleepy, I’m tired, and I’m sleepy.

So, the silence will have to do.

Thanks for dropping by!

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“Likes”

Bernard Shuford — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:56:47 +0000

I guess I’ll take the “Likes” system off the blog, to prevent jamming up the system.

Either nobody likes the stuff, which is discouraging news, or the idea of clicking a button to tell me that you like my stuff just hasn’t caught on.

Definitely don’t want to waste speed and network resources on a useless feature.

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Your Song

Bernard Shuford — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:55:38 +0000

So, what’s your favorite song of ALL time? Religious, secular, country, rap, pop – I don’t care. One song. Your absolute favorite.

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R12:1

Bernard Shuford — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:49:03 +0000

I beseech you, therefore, Bernard, that you present your desire to be “well known” as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.

Gulp.

It gives me pride that I know a LOT of people. It’s not unusual at all for me to run into people that I know in places that aren’t necessarily close to where we live. It gives me pride that they know me.

Sacrifice it. Give that feeling of self-importance to God. Put it on the altar. Put it there again, because it will rise up again.

It only matters that I know Christ and He knows me.

Really. That’s all. No other fame should be desired than His.

Ouch. That sacrificial knife hurts.

Downtime

Bernard Shuford — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:00:41 +0000

I’m mentally blown out. I’m spiritually burned out. I’m emotionally drained. I’m “stuck in the bed in the morning” physically wasted.

What’s a guy to do when he needs two weeks off so bad he can taste it but it is absolutely impossible within the next 2-3 months?

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The Wave

Bernard Shuford — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:19:01 +0000

So I went to pick up Trav at football practice today. We almost never leave him “alone” at football practice, for a myriad of reasons, but today was a little different in that his lil sis had Girl Scouts and Karma had to transport her there.

Trav was not entirely comfortable with the arrangement (his discomfort is one of the “myriad reasons”) but finally agreed that, perhaps, he would be okay.

I got there a few minutes later than I had intended, even though I was much earlier than I had to be to pick him up.

Within a couple minutes of me arriving at the fence, he spotted me. Normally, we don’t get a lot of attention, because, after all, we’re parents. This time, however, the look of relief was obvious, and his hand popped up in a wave that made it clear he was glad I was there.

Probably a hundred times a day, God shows up at the fence for me, and I don’t even notice it. When I do notice, it always makes me feel much better.

God’s looking at you. Have you noticed?

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Wow

Bernard Shuford — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:34:56 +0000

Today I worked with a man who dropped F-bombs and S-bombs like most people breath. I have never in my life heard the words used quite so repetitiously, except perhaps by teenage boys desperate to make an impression on some other teenage boy.

It really never seemed to occur to him that the rest of us weren’t using those words. Most of the guys I work with are capable of various bombs, but none of them just seem to spew them like Roman candles on the Fourth of July.

I think we Christians are often like that. Talking in our own little language, absolutely unconscious of the fact that everybody around us doesn’t use those words.

There’s a lesson to learn in just about everything, even exceptionally excessive “cursing”.

Wow.

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Sacrifice

Bernard Shuford — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:03:20 +0000

I regard Chuck Swindoll as perhaps my favorite preacher of all time. Chip Ingram rides in second, and Alistair Begg is a close third. I know it’s somewhat due to the time of day that I typically listen to the radio, but God has spoken to me through these guys many times.

Monday evening, I was traveling alone for about an hour and a half, and God used Chuck’s radio broadcast to absolutely slap me up-side the head with Romans 12:1.

My body, a living sacrifice. After all these years, it suddenly made sense. The things that are about ME, I need to make a specific effort to sacrifice them.

My thin skin – I need to sacrifice it. My desire to be heard – I need to sacrifice it. My whiny attitude of late – I need to sacrifice it. My desire to be right. My desire to be pitied.

That was just the start. I didn’t even hear the whole sermon, yet God’s just ripping me to shreds with it.

Who does God seemingly always use to get to you?

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