December 30, 2006

November 12, 2006

  • Listening and Learning

    Have you ever read any of those "what if books"? You know the type where someone takes a historical event and changes one minor event and the entire timeline of history changes. How about the "Choose your own adventure" books? These are the books where you begin reading and after a number of pages you get to choose what the main character of the books does. So you pick a path, turn to that page and continue to read. Well tonight I wish I had a do over, but I am glad that God is sovereign and he can use our choices for his glory despite us.

    Tonight I spent the evening talking and serving food to the homeless of Scranton. It has been my desire for the last year to get involved in doing this and it was only recently that my schedule opened up so I could help out the Scranton Rescue Mission. Tonight was only the second time I attended and I felt unsure of myself the whole time. Where should I be? What should I do? Should I just burst into the gospel or start off building some relationships. So when the service started I felt relieved I could listen and then help in serving. But afterwards God gave me two opportunities to serve, but not with food.

    The first was three young men mentioned in passing needing a ride to their new residence. Me being timid and unsure of what I ought to do heard it and talk a little about it but I did not offer assistance. Should I have given them a ride? I do not know. The first thoughts through my mind where not service, but safety and concern for my own life. These guys in no way seemed dangerous, but I was not yet comfortable offering the three of them a ride. I think I may have done it for one, but three intimidated me to much.

    The other was on the way home, but actually it started 2 1/2 hours before when I was running late or so I thought. I had planned to pick up a free 12oz hot beverage from Borders on the way in, but a dear friend and brother in Christ called which delayed my departure a few miniutes. No problem I told myself. I would just go after the meetings. Once at the meeting I found myself about 30 minutes early. So I went over after a few minutes of prayer and thought regarding what I ought to do and I talked with Frankie. [FAST FORWARD TO ME RIDE HOME]. On my way to Borders now so I got my Seatles Best 12oz Gingerbread Latte and headed to my car where I meet a man looking for gas money. So in my haste to get home to my lovely bride and children I trusted the man and give him some cash. Jumped in my car and headed on home. It is at this point that my mind, heart, soul, and the spirit of God begins to work. I have this thought, "Why did I not ask his name or give him mine. How
    about instead of giving money to who knows what why did I not offer to
    fill his whole tank at the nearby sheetz? Why was I not more prepared with tracks or a Bible?" Any option would have
    shown I cared less about me and more about his situtation. So the entire ride home I pondered, "What God can make me more sensitive to your stepping into my life with the lives of others?" He knows I pray for these types of opportunities, but why do I not see them when they are before me.

    So i am thinking I did it again. I missed an opportunity to be used by God, but then I had another thought. Was God surprised by my reactions in either situation? No! Was he caught off guard and so now he needs to alter his plans for my life and that of these other people? No! Truly God is not hampered by me when it comes to ministering to others. He knew my reactions before I knew that I was going to be living in NEPA. He has been orchestrating many things in my life and guilding me through them. While I may have missed two chances to be a witness he gave me two events to learn about my weakness and to grow from them. Truly God can use all events to his Glory.

    Recently I have been praying that God would make it clear to me what I
    needed to be learning. I have felt so out of touch from his spirit's leading as I listen to friends of mine talk about the lessons God is teaching them. But tonight I realized that I have not been listening to him speak. During ABF hour God delivered a message directly related to this topic via our teacher from Matthew 19 & 20. "What am I holding back?" "What sacrifice do I need to make for an investment into the Kingdom of God?" God wants me to be willing to break my schedule for the sake of others. God wants me to learn how I can love others more unselfishly. But the big thing I think God wants me to learn is that I need to be more aware of my surroundings and then ACT, MOVE OUT, DO SOMETHING for Him - minster to those around me. I mentioned missing two witness opportunities above, but in the last month in my focus on my life I missed out on a final opportunity to be a witness to my literal neighbor. Today he sleeps and even though I spoke to him of Christ before I know not where he is spending eternity tonight.

    I pray and long for the day that when God drives a
    stranger across my path and instead of thinking about getting to my
    destination I want to ask myself, "How can I go the extra mile for them."

    Please pray for me as I learn to be aware of my environment and then act for God's glory in it.

    Godspeed and goodnight,
    Wesley

September 4, 2006

  • Ella Renee Wilson

    It has been ages since my last blog but I thought this was worth an entry. Today my daughter was born.
    Ella Renee Wilson was born 4:12 9-4-6 at 20.5in and 7lb 14oz.
    What a beautiful little girl she is.

May 29, 2006

  • Monk Jokes

    Been ages since I have posted, but I found this and could not resist. I found this at The Lamp Blog.
    Wes

    A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is
    assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old
    canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices,
    however, that all of the monks are copying from copies,
    not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes
    to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that
    if someone made even a small error in the first copy,
    it would never be picked up. In fact, that error would
    be continued in all of the subsequent copies.



    The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the
    copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my
    son." So, he goes down into the dark caves underneath
    the monastery where the original manuscripts are held
    as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened
    for hundreds of years.



    Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot. So, the
    young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him.
    He sees him banging his head against the wall and
    wailing, "We missed the "R," we missed the "R." His
    forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying
    uncontrollably.



    The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong,
    father?"



    With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word
    was
    celebrate."

March 6, 2006

  • word of the day - OCCIDENT

    Expanding ones vocabulary happens to be one of the major pluses of reading. This weekend I came across "Occident" which was a totally foreign word until I read it. Kenneth Scott Latourette's book A History of Christianity: Beginnings to 1500 (v. 1) used this term and it intrigued me enough to spend a few minutes researching its meaning. It seems to be the opposite of the word Orient in that it refers to the Western world as opposed to the Eastern World. According to Wikipedia and other online sources this term is antiquated and no longer used. One would most likely only see it in scholarly works or older publications. Maybe it is time to discover the offical definition of Orient. I was also able to learn about some obscure foriegn political groups, all because I did a word search on Occident.

    Occident (English in from the 14th century, via Old French from Latin occidentem (accusative), "sunset, west" lit. "falling down", c.f. occidere "to slay") is a now antiquated term for the Western world (literally, "the west") as opposed to "orient" (also considered antiquated for Eastern world). Cf., e.g., Occidental Petroleum ("oil from the west") and the French violent far-right political group Occident self-identifying as "westerners".
    (Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occident)

February 23, 2006

  • MACinizing my Life

    macmini

    Hey guys and gals of the net. Last night I bought my first MAC. A Mac Mini to be specific. Of course today I read an article talking about how on 2/28 they expect Apple to release info on their new Mac Mini. O, well! I got a good ebay deal and if I like it I can always resell it and upgrade.

    What I may need from the computing buddies out there in cyberspace is MAC advice. So keep your eyes open as I may begin asking for software advice from you old mac pros.

    Godspeed,
    Wesley

February 18, 2006

  • Day by Day

    Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
    For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
    For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
    O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
    May I know Thee more clearly,
    Love Thee more dearly,
    Follow Thee more nearly,
    Day by day.

    Richard of Chichester (13th Century)

December 12, 2005

  • What do you think?

    Teaching is as much about instructing as it is about facilitating. Without both holistic learning does not occur. They old adage goes some thing like this...

    You can instruct a man about knowledge, but if you instruct and facilitate you give him the tools to unlock knowledge for himself and others.

December 6, 2005

  • Ministry Opportunities Update

    It has been a while since I have posted anything here. It seems that I have been getting busy with the normal day to day issues of family life and with trying to administer additional blogs (see list below). But I decided it was necessary to blog today about some items I could use your prayers about. God has been keeping me fairly free in terms of how I minister formally to the Body of Christ. What I mean is that I have had few formal ministry responsibilities. This has been a good break for me, but God seems to be changing this. It has become apparent that God may have two or three regular ministry opportunities for me beginning this Wednesday.

    PRAYER MEETING
    Tomorrow I will begin a three week teaching series at prayer meeting as well as lead the prayer time. This will involve about 15-30 minutes of Bible Study followed by a time of prayer with one another to God. This will probably become a regular event as I will be doing some "tag-team" teaching along with some other skilled teachers of the Word. So please pray for my study time, delivery of the Word, and the attentiveness of the hearts to hear. After each lesson I will try to post my thoughts regarding each time.

    COAL MINE
    Dec 16th begins another new ministry opportunity for me if I believe God so desires me to be involved (currently I do). I will be one of four or more trustees for an inner-city youth program called the Coal Mine. This ministry is seeking to show the love of Christ to teens and children in the West Side of Scranton. Hopefully through various youth orientated events and weekly activities these kids will see the love of Christ and responded to the Gospel message given each week to them. There are also some one-to-one and small group meetings for discipleship occurring as well. My main responsibility along with the other trustees will be to help with the administrative tasks so that the leadership can have more hands on time with his team members and the youth. So please keep this ministry in your prayers as well as my "Final Answer" as to whether or not I should get involved.

    SCRANTON RESCUE MISSION
    Some time in the future. I will be working as a team member, I hope, in the Scranton Rescue Mission. This is an outreach to the homeless of the Scranton area. Rev. Schultz is the director and it is his vision to see a homeless center in which we can minister to men and eventually women on how they can have a relationship with Christ. This will be done through various formats with the end result of seeing them get back on their feet and leaving with a new relationship with Christ. I am not sure how I will be involved in the long run but I do know that my skills as a Computer Tech will be put to use as needed. So be in prayer for Rev. Schultz as he directs the vision of this ministry and for the homeless in our city who need food, shelter, love, and most importantly - Christ.

    MY CURRENT BLOGS
    My last and on going tech related ministries are as follows.
    Personal - http://www.xanga.com/soninthefaith

    A place for me to post personal information so you can get to know my heart and how to pray for me.

    Body Life - http://bodylife.blogspot.com

    A site I am trying to use to encourage a greater Body Life among Christians as I post articles related to the topic and other posts that can encourage and edify.

    ALTT ~ All Things Tech - http://altt.blogspot.com

    On this site I post various news and tech related articles I find useful or interesting to me and my readers. It is my hope that this site can be used by those in ministry as a resource.

    Nuggets from the Word of God - http://pastorfrasier.blogspot.com

    This site is administered by me, but I do not write the major content. I am reposting with the permission of the author an email newsletter that Pastor Frasier sends out on Sundays. He currently is teaching on 1 Corinthians one chapter at a time.


    Godspeed,
    Wesley

November 21, 2005