It's Just The Normal Noises In Here

I've been pretty tied up with work the past week, and not had the opportunity to type to my own blog.

So here's what's up.

Grafted In played the evening service at Hennessey Baptist Church on July 30th. We played the entire service and were well received. Told our jokes etc.... and played 19 songs. Some of our fans from Oklahoma City made the trip to Hennessey and that was nice. We really appreciate that kind of support. We'll be at Swadley's again this Saturday, August 12th.

Baptism.... Henderson Hills decided not to vote on the Baptism issue. And the Baptist Messenger came out with a very good "special addition" about Baptism.

Middle East..... The UN has reached an agreement on a resolution. Not many "experts" really expect either side to cease fire. I'm not an expert but I don't see an end to this in the near future. The bible prophecy sites are all pretty active right now. Many are talking about this as the start of what will be Armagedon. Who knows? I don't know, but my television is on Fox News all the time because I find it fascinating. And I guess I'm expecting some prophecy to be fulfilled at some point.

And lastly, I had an opportunity to "share the gospel" ..... sorta .... outside Walmart the other day. I'm not sure I did a very good job.

Acutally, I was at Walmart during lunch and as always when I go to Walmart, I parked about 2 acres away from the front door. It was the Walmart at Memorial and Penn. As I was walking up the "isle" that led to the entrance, I noticed the sound of the "music" getting louder. And could see that the traffic was stopped in front of the store, but there was an opening for people to walk between cars, in and out of the store.

Let's be honest, the music was Gangster Rap. And as I got there, the 3 African American young men in the car saw me coming. Let's just say the radio in the car was worth considerably more than the car was worth. I'm wearing dress clothes etc. So the driver decided to close the walk through gap that everybody else had been using, in front of me. And they thought it was pretty funny.

I was able to make it between their car and the car in front of them. As I cleared that narrow gap I looked back over my left sholder and semi-shouted..... turn that garbage down! OOPS. The driver bailed out of the car. He clearly looked like he could start at corner back for a number of division 1 collge teams. And, he began yelling at me. Again, being honest.... I didn't understand a lot of it. The music was loud, and the dialec was just ... unfamiliar. At some point I understood him to say "WHAT DID YOU SAY"?

I looked at him up and down, and me being the idiot that I am replied "I said pull your pants up, get in your car, and turn that garbage down." Well this set off a string of "colorful metaphores" and I quickly became pretty scared. In fact, I thought I was about to get the tar beat out of me. (I know there's at least a person or two who probably thinks that's a good idea :) ) But there was a number of people standing around. Not that they could hear what was being said, because of the loud gangster rap... but they were at least watching.

So when I had a chance to get a word in edgewise, I said... or kinda shouted "HAVE YOU EVER MET JESUS CHRIST?" He looked surprised, and after a couple of seconds started another string of colorful metaphores that were aimed at God instead of me.

By this time my heart is in my throat and I know I'm about to receive a black eye that was worse than our pastor's recent one :)..... He stopped talking for just a second, and I said... or kinda shouted again the standard Baptist question that we all get drilled into us. I said.... "IF YOU DIED RIGHT NOW, WOULD YOU GO TO HEAVEN OR HELL??" And as soon as I said that, I became afraid that he would take that as a "threat" of some sort. But he looked shocked. And he didn't say to much. And again being honest, what he did say I didn't understand much of because of the noise, and the dialec. But he turned around and got in his car.

They didn't turn the music down. And I went in walmart sweating profusely. It was about 102 degrees outside, and my blood pressure was setting an alltime high I'm sure.

I kinda reluctantly told my wife about this and she asked me to put a "in case of emergency" statement in the address book on my cell phone. :)

My Grafted In friend Angela said there was probably a big burley Angel standing behind me.... and not to try that again.

My mother said I was an idiot and that she thought she had raised me to be smarter than that.

But none felt like I had "shared the gospel". :)


Believe me, what I've described is not a normal event for me. Next time, I'm going to do a better job of witnessing, I hope! Or at least keeping my mouth shut when I'm around gangster rap.