Trip to Israel
I just recently spent some time in Israel on a tour which was hosted by Insight for Living. More than 600 of us walked, climbed, crawled, and peered through many of the more famous sights Israel has to offer. We had the opportunity to listen to Chuck Swindoll preach on multiple occasions at various holy, and some not so holy sites. Chuck had a lot of very good and appropriate messages over the two weeks we traveled and worshipped together. Oddly, though, perhaps the most profound thing that he said may have been that which he cautioned on our last night together.
Clearly many of us will go back to churches where the pastor may not have had the opportunity and the privilege to visit Israel and see the sights that we have seen. Knowing this, he wisely cautioned that if we happen to come across a statement made by a pastor or someone else in authority in our church that we know to be different from what our pastor claims -- because we have been there; because we have seen it with our own eyes and he has not -- that we might be wise to take it easy on whoever that might be. How easy it would be to come back brimming with "Christosterone" and be the Christian bully at our church. Hopefully that is not why I am writing today. Hopefully God will grant me the grace to avoid that trap in the years to come. Of course since Chuck is the pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, the church that I attend, I don't have the luxury of pulling rank on him. Few could. But I imagine it would be a temptation to do so with just about anyone else. That said, hopefully I have 'called myself out" before the fact, and can therefore avoid that horrible trap.
I am still sorting through my pictures from the trip. I guess this is as good of a place as any to post them. I don't want to clutter things up with a pile of pictures, so I am thinking about how best to post them that will still be easy on the eyes. They should be scattered in over the next couple of days along with some of the stories of my trip.
Clearly many of us will go back to churches where the pastor may not have had the opportunity and the privilege to visit Israel and see the sights that we have seen. Knowing this, he wisely cautioned that if we happen to come across a statement made by a pastor or someone else in authority in our church that we know to be different from what our pastor claims -- because we have been there; because we have seen it with our own eyes and he has not -- that we might be wise to take it easy on whoever that might be. How easy it would be to come back brimming with "Christosterone" and be the Christian bully at our church. Hopefully that is not why I am writing today. Hopefully God will grant me the grace to avoid that trap in the years to come. Of course since Chuck is the pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, the church that I attend, I don't have the luxury of pulling rank on him. Few could. But I imagine it would be a temptation to do so with just about anyone else. That said, hopefully I have 'called myself out" before the fact, and can therefore avoid that horrible trap.
I am still sorting through my pictures from the trip. I guess this is as good of a place as any to post them. I don't want to clutter things up with a pile of pictures, so I am thinking about how best to post them that will still be easy on the eyes. They should be scattered in over the next couple of days along with some of the stories of my trip.
posted by TheBlogInMyEye | 2:08 PM
2 Comments:
Scott Curtis Randall was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 27, 1958, to
joyous parents, Fred and Darlene Randall. His sons are Joshua and David
Randall, sisters Christine Conley and Lisa Wagner, brother Clark Randall, and
seven nieces and nephews, Catherine, Caroline, Jessica, Clark, Jr., Davis, Lydia
and Alex.
Scott graduated magna cum laude from S.M.U. with a degree in Electrical
Engineering. He was employed by Texas Instruments for 13 years. Previous to
that he was a fine-finish carpenter. Scott was very analytical and could do about
anything. Early on he had a special talent in creative writing. He had a great
sense of humor.
Scott was very attentive to his family which was very close to him. He was a very
generous and humble servant of His Lord and did everything he could to help
others. He was very attentive to his parents. He wanted others to realize that he
in himself wasn’t good, but in allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to direct his paths,
he could accomplish good things. He fully realized that it was not any good
deeds he might do that would get him into heaven, but acceptance of the Lord
Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. He particularly felt a passion for those who
were much less fortunate than he and those who had made some major mistakes
in life. He enjoyed routinely giving out sweat suits to the homeless during
Thanksgiving season each year when it would get cold. He did a great deal of
volunteer work and mentoring with the Cornerstone Baptist Church Prison
Restoration Ministry in South Dallas and gained many friends there. He truly
was a man who would lay down his life for his friends.
After having many struggles throughout life, he learned in later life that possessions
do not make one happy, so he had very few of them. He enjoyed the freedom
of not being encumbered with “things.” He did not have a television set;
he preferred to study God’s word and memorize Scripture. He had the entire
Book of Romans memorized because it had such an impact upon his life. He
loved to read and also had a flair and passion for turning most conversations
into the truths about God and His Word.
Memorials may be made in Scott’s name to:
Cornerstone Baptist Church (Trinity Prison Restoration Ministry)
P.O. Box 152551, Dallas,Texas 75315
or
Stonebriar Community Church, 4801 Legendary Drive, Frisco, Texas 75034.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).
It is with great sadness that I pass along that my precious older brother, Scott Randall, the originator of this blog, passed away, Sunday, September 14th, 2008. Since there are 3,100 posts I thought it fitting to detail a bit more about my incredible older brother...
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