Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 10-18-15: "Cain, Abel, and Tom Landry"

After Cain had killed Abel, his flesh and blood brother, committed the world's first murder, God asked him, "Where is Abel?" And we all know Cain's notorious response. We often use it ourselves in a sarcastic manner when we don't feel obligated to care for one another; Cain retorted, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The answer to Cain's bitter question is: yes. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. We have a responsibility to one another that all too often we shun. We think it's beneath us, a waste of our time. But as Christians, we have a responsibility to look out for one another lest we fall into temptation or stray from God. If we also care for those outside of the Body of Christ, for those who don't believe, they too will "by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation" (1 Peter 2:12). If we care for both our brothers and sisters in Christ, and those who have not yet come to Jesus, they will praise God for our compassion if we remain humble and give the glory to Him from whom love truly comes. "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one" (Colossians 4:5-6).

In November 1979, during a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Oilers, my uncle Mortimer Sturguess ran naked onto the field in an overzealous frenzy when Houston defeated Dallas, 30-24. As Mortimer was dragged from the field at Texas Stadium, coach Tom Landry handed my uncle his trademark fedora hat, saying, "Here son, cover up with this." The gesture stunned Uncle Mortimer sober. Coach Landry hadn't simply handed him a sweaty, used towel with which to cover his nudity, or worse, slugged him in his soggy gut while security held him in place. But with compassion and gentleness, he ruined a perfectly good hat - even if fedoras are really for women - for a man who had humiliated himself and his family on live television.
"For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty." -Job 6:14 

Mortimer Sturguess never forgot the kindness of Coach Landry. And to me, it encompasses everything about giving. Tom Landry gave of the best of his wardrobe for a total stranger, not merely a used handkerchief. Likewise, when we give to others, we give to God, and must give of the first-fruits of what we have – our very best. This is why God accepted Abel's offering of the firstborn of his flock, and rejected Cain's hasty offering of his fruit. This is why God have His first and only Son on the cross for you and me.

When we give, we must give our best, not our leftovers. And when we bless, just as when we are blessed, we must acknowledge Him who truly gave. Our good deeds should be responses to God's gorgeous command to love. God does not want good deeds done out of guilt and pressure – that's what tipping your server at Applebee's is for. Rather, a good deed should come from the heart, from the desire to walk in Christ's love.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

PS I really do tip, I was just...you know...some people give you the stink-eye if you don't, and that's not the reason to leave a tip. But we should totally tip our servers at restaurants, with a genuine heart for that person and how hard they work.

from the book Sheep Named Spike

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 10-11-15: "Mocked By Charles Manson"

A follower of Christ absolutely cannot afford to be distressed or discouraged when our beliefs are criticized by the world. There are three reasons for this. The first is that criticism and mockery mean little when one considers that in many countries, Christians are imprisoned or beheaded for their faith. The second is that a person only has so much emotional stamina to spend - energies that should be applied to ministering to those in need and to spreading the Gospel; it would be devastating to our mission if we let wicked words steal our emotional strength.

Finally, a Christian cannot let his or herself crumble under the words of this society given the depraved everyday goings-on in the world from which we were saved and set apart. After all, only the deranged would allow criticism from Charles Manson to tear them down. We must remember when ridiculed for believing in God's role in creation, in a Christ who rose from the grave, in eternity after death, that the same society who ridicules us is the same society in which:

- people deny the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre ever happened, and claim climate change is a myth,
- unborn human beings are killed without regard and with approval of governments and "rights" groups,
- an entire category of jokes is devoted to dead babies,
- women are sentenced to be raped and paraded naked through the streets of India,
- a nation prioritizes access to firearms over human lives, despite at least 230 public shootings in that nation this year alone,
- professional athletes are paid 90 million dollars a year while single parents work two jobs to support their children,
- Charles Manson has been engaged, and I can't even get a date.

This is not a world from which we should take ridicule to heart, not a society of high learning and evolved thinking. The principalities of this world are evil, but also absurd.

As I mentioned before, we American Christians should acknowledge how abundantly blessed we are in the fact that, in most cases, we only endure criticism and ridicule by peers and media for our beliefs and our Christ, when others throughout the world suffer truly horrible tortures and deaths for proclaiming Him. I think there are much fewer martyrs in America than we might assume. Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is no martyr. She made a choice to break the law and make a spectacle of herself, when she could have chosen to resign from her position, knowing she would have to perform duties contrary to God's word; I would not accept a job at which I'd have to sell Nazi merchandise or pornography. If one asks, "Why should she have to quit her job?", they must remember that Jesus never said following Him would be easy - in fact, He clearly states the opposite. And I would ask, "Why should she have to go to jail?" No, Kim Davis is not a martyr. Kim Davis is quite free in America. We should embrace the blessing of freedom to spread the Gospel to as many as we can before, in some dark time in the future, Christians truly are persecuted in America. We should also seek the peace of our land, as God commanded the captive Jews in Babylon through the prophet Jeremiah (29:7).

Before I make my own sole aim to angrily retort, "How dare you, with the blood of fetuses and refugees on your hands, with jeggings on your legs, condemn me for insisting there is one God who loves you?!", I must remember my commission is not to rave at the world, frothing at the beard. My job is to tell the world this: Jesus the Son of God is risen, and desires to remove their sins from them, as He did for an undeserving thing like me. My job is to tell the world that Jesus the Christ is inviting them this very day to eternity in His glorious presence, where there shall be no more dying, suffering, lying, shame, rage, or bleeding.
My job is to love the people of this absurd and wicked world, no matter what absurd and wicked things they say.

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 10-4-15: "An Uncomfortable, Inconvenient God"

I've often heard it said and written, as an antithesis to the existence of, or belief in, God, that the concept is much too "comfortable" and "convenient" for Him to be true. That with the idea of a God, we fit too well in the world, in the universe. I've learned, however, after reading the Bible, the Book from which a Christian should derive his or her notions about God, that though He is loving and wonderful, His truth is anything but comfortable and convenient.

How convenient it would be if His holy word did not tell me that life on this earth will be rank with injustices and grief; how convenient it would be if He promised me smooth sailing instead. But He doesn't. How comfortable I'd be in this world if He gave me an explanation of the universe's origin that didn't make Bill Nye think I'm a superstitious bumpkin. But He didn't. How I love to lust, to be angry and spiteful, to hold grudges, to hate. But what a buzzkill that I believe in a God who tells me these things are destructive to myself, and to others.
How convenient to my morality would it be if I had no one to whom to answer, to whom to be accountable, and if all my rotten deeds (and even my few good deeds) rotted along with my corpse after death as I cease to exist, and if those I left behind would wait for the sun to explode and to be like me. But, what an inconvenience it is to my conscience that I will answer to Almighty God for my time on Earth.
How comfortable it would be to blend in with the rest of the world, to be just like everyone else, a world where every fingerprint and snowflake are exactly alike and mean nothing (except when my DNA is needed for a conviction for my embarrassing acts in Santa Fe when I'd stopped taking my Lamictal regimen back in 2011).
How comfortable it would be to go unrecognized in the moral dilemmas we make, to have no conviction from Christ, who the world dismisses and calls a liar. But His Holy and inconvenient Spirit reminds me to speak up, to proclaim Him who died for me and rose again, and who longs for the souls around me in the world - the world in which I don't fit - to be saved as well.

God is beautiful, He is true, He is sovereign, He is merciful, He is good. I suppose He is convenient for me in that respect - that the only real God is the One who took on wrath and punishment on the cross, so that the punishments I deserved would never fall on me, so that I could live abundant life. I am one lucky bumpkin.
But how inconvenient it is for my flesh that the same God convicts me to do good and to shun evil. How inconvenient it is for my flesh that He tells me He loves me, and other gorgeous things that make my cynical mind cringe, when I fail.

I thank God for making me so uncomfortable, for being so inconvenient.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

"Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. Moreover He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.
And He said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you." So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness." -Ezekiel 2:9-3:3

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 9-27-15: "Soft Answers & Fake Accents"

Long ago, when dealing over the phone with customer service (particularly when it pertained to my internet service with a company I won't name), I found that the inevitable result of my shouting and cursing could be curbed by a simple trick: faking an accent. At first, I chose the voice of Al Pacino in Scarface, but it wasn't long before my throat felt quite rough and was frankly killing me. Aside from that, the Tony Montana voice actually encouraged the rage and profanity, rather than diverting it. So, next I chose a British accent. Having long been a fan of British rock, and listened to many interviews by many English artists, I felt I could fake one at least well enough to quell my anger while on the phone with [internet company].

"But Bud," one might ask...
"Captain Bud."
"But Bud," one might ask, "how did faking an accent keep you from flying off the handle?"

It's simple: I was too focused on keeping the mild-mannered British accent (not the angry British accents, like from Snatch...or were they Irish?) to lose my cool. If I said what I needed with a focus on not only communication, but on keeping my fake Cambridge accent, I found I was too preoccupied to handle being angry. And anyone who's ever been angry knows, anger takes up a lot of space in one's mind. There was simply no room for it in my brain or on my tongue with a fake accent.

In the book of Proverbs, it's written, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." If, mentally at first, then verbally, we can talk and think about our issues with a calm and cool voice - literally - it will do a surprising bit of good to avoid becoming more upset than we already are. Much like the fake accent, focusing on a reserved tone will leave us too preoccupied to lose our grip on being calm. Not only does it give us more opportunity to search for the right words carefully, so as not to add insult to an already ugly situation, but the softness of speaking in such a way can have a calming effect on one's body and mind. Maybe it's some kind of physiological thing I discovered.

And no, you don't have to try to sound like Rex Harrison while doing so. Be yourself.

As for the anger that must be released, there is always One to whom we can take those burdens. One to whom we can cry out, even shouting that we don't understand, that He's allowed us to go through something awful and unfair, that we've been unjustly treated, that we've treated others unjustly, One who, being our eternal High Priest, Advocate, and Savior who took on God's wrath on the cross, will listen to our most inarticulate rage with understanding: the Lord Jesus Christ.

But with people, we flawed and disappointed things, use a soft answer. An actual, verbally soft answer. Even if that soft answer doesn't turn away the wrath of the person offending you, it will certainly help ease your heart, and turn away wrath from yourself. Which is abundantly healthy, because anger will consume our thinking and eat us alive, rendering us broken vessels for Christ's love, dimming beacons for His light of life.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

"Make no friendship with an angry man,
and with a furious man do not go,
lest you learn his ways
and set a snare for your soul."
-Proverbs 22:24-25

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 9-20-15: "Queen Elsa Rhapsody"

This past Tuesday saw my last performance of my "summer job," playing Queen Elsa at children's birthday parties. I probably could have kept up the performances through the winter (fitting, as the character is from a movie called Frozen), but at this last party, I exhaled a little too hard and the paunch of my Elsa costume tore. This job playing Queen Elsa was a tough one. Not just because I've still never seen Frozen and didn't know what to say to the kids (besides "you kids go play - ol' Captain Bud needs to sit down"), but also because a nagging thought stayed in my mind, namely, a statute in the Torah (the Mosaic Law) that forbids transvestism.
I tried to remind myself, "It's not like I'm Tim Curry in Rocky Horror. And I'm not wearing this stuff to fill some sensual thrill."

God reminded me of what He spoke through the great prophet Jeremiah to disobedient, wandering Judah: "For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you'" (Jeremiah 7:22-23).

Obey God's voice. And what does God's voice speak to us under the New Covenant sealed by His own blood on the cross, a Covenant foretold by the Torah itself? God speaks, saying we are not under the threat of a cosmic hammer; we are not under the world's misconception of God - we are under the law of the true God. Not the Law of the Moses, the Torah, that beautiful prelude of salvation to come, but the law of grace and righteousness in Christ Jesus.

As I learn more that Christianity is not about rules and fear, I realize that the "secular" world has barked more orders at me than any pastor ever did. The world tells me: "Don't do this, don't do that. Don't say this, don't say that, lest you feel the wrath of Twitter and a boycott. Don't eat this, don't eat that. This is now acceptable, that is not. Saints worthy of praise are: Darwin, Dylan, Reagan, Roosevelt, O'Reilly, O'Maher. And, beware of boogeymen and devils like the Illuminati and vaccines that cause autism."
The world makes for a fickle god with its own unstable religious doctrine. A doctrine of rules and regulations, of exclusion and prejudice, of ignorance, of humiliation, with no redemption unless Oprah can get a tearful interview from it.

I thank God that His voice commands no such things. I thank God that His voice calls me back to Him when I stray, reminds me of the unkillable truth of His joy when I'm alone. I thank God for such a beautiful voice to obey.

OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
"Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!" -2 Corinthians 3:7-11

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 9-13-15: "Am I Right, Fellas?!"

Last week, I became enamored with the new lady who works in my apartment's office. She's one of the loveliest dames I've ever seen, and makes Rebel Wilson - the most beautiful woman in Hollywood - look like Ron Perlman. I declared to my friends that the mystery lady and I would surely someday be married...I didn't know her name - I assumed I'd probably see it when we signed the paperwork at the Justice of the Peace. Ever since that gorgeous new lady began working in the apartment office, I found any excuse I could to go and see her: I took a croquet mallet to my walls just so I could go to the office to report the damage, and I even pretended I couldn't read or write, so she'd fill out my checks for me.

But I was soon convicted by the Holy Spirit, who once spoke through my brother in Christ, Andrew, who has often discussed his own struggle with the carnal mindset. Andrew once said that, as Christians, men should look at women not as their next potential love interest, but as sisters. Andrew was absolutely right. If we Christian men don't see our sisters in God in this way, or if we don't see unsaved women as potential sisters rather than potential girlfriends, our understandings of the Holy Spirit's instructions to the Church through Scripture have grown dim.

My mistake with women, emotionally speaking (never mind the fleshly lusts), has always been getting too attached to them within an extremely short time of meeting them. As evidenced with the apartment office mystery lady, I see a future that usually won't come to be, and my disillusionment is nobody's fault but mine. When it comes to the ladies, we men-folk should see ourselves as their brothers, their fellow saints in Christ, their teachers, their students, their protectors, their friends, as surely Christian women should see their male counterparts. And when it comes to the unsaved dames, we must see them as we see any unsaved person - someone to love in a Christlike manner, someone to whom to witness, to bless, someone for whom to sacrifice of ourselves so that maybe they would be led to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we don't see women - sisters in Christ or daughters of the world - in this way, we objectify them. And when they reject us, turn us down for dinner at Outback Steakhouse, or don't reciprocate our gooey, mushy, crushy feelings, we scoff at them to hide the pain, saying things like, "If that chick don't wanna know, forget her! Dames...am I right, fellas?!"
And what an abundant chance to show love has been lost.
Should we fall in love with a woman, that's beautiful. But, after prayer and discernment, when we know it's right to pursue a relationship, let us keep her exalted as a sister in Christ until she becomes a girlfriend, and after. This is how we can keep our relationship with her, whether it be platonic or romantic, in a godly perspective - if we continue to see her as our sister, bound by the precious Blood of the Lamb, we approach and react to every disappointment and every delight in a way that is fitting for the saints: patiently, with wisdom and edification. For there is "neither male nor female," but we are all one in Christ Jesus.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
"For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." -Galatians 6:8

"Young women of Jerusalem, promise me by the power of deer and gazelles never to awaken love before it is ready." -Song of Solomon 8:4 (CEV)

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 9-6-15: "Captive Hearts"

When the Supreme Court voted to legalize same-sex marriage in June, God told me (not audibly, but you know what I mean), "Muse on this in your heart, but don't speak about it; wait until I give you the proper things to say." Now, He has.

In Christian history, the name "Babylon" has often been applied to any place known for excess and decadence. In the early days of the Church, Christians and Jews alike referred to the authority in Rome as "Babylon." Rome...that place of rampant murder of emperors and politicians, and sexually immoral behavior not seen since Sodom and Gomorrah. So, if the followers of Christ who lived in such a place were focused on proclaiming the Gospel rather than trying to prevent various sexual sins (including homosexuality, quite the norm in Rome) via political power, why aren't we in America doing the same? Granted, those in Rome didn't have much political power with which to work, lest they lost their heads (literally), but you understand my point.

The fact is, so many in Christ's Church reacted to the same-sex marriage issue (long before its legalization) as if America were our god. We weren't dismayed by the fact that God's word forbids homosexual relations - we were dismayed because it's not what John Wayne would do. We were dismayed because it's not the good wholesome America of the 1950s - apple pie, crew cuts, and segregated schools. We chose to live in political strife, rather than accept, and practice, what Christ's word tells us - that the world will turn further and further from His instructions, that people will heap up for themselves teachers of false doctrines; that we're to persevere and spread the Gospel despite living in evil times in an evil world. What little faith we have in God's word to be so surprised when these things come to pass! What audacity we have, what distrust in our Savior, to seek an answer in a good, decent candidate who can lead our country in "the right direction again," instead of earnest prayer and sacrifice.
We were up in arms with posts and polls, instead of prayers and petitions for those in need. We looked forward to reading the voting ballots for various propositions to proclaim same-sex marriage unconstitutional, more than we looked forward to reading God's word - the word written by the Holy Spirit through those who lived in turbulent and decadent times, but whose desire was not in legislation, but in leading the lost to Christ.

When we base our faith on politics, worldly protocol, and other such idolatry, we try to manipulate Jesus into "our" Jesus - the conservative Jesus, the liberal Jesus, the middle-of-the-road Jesus, the hippie Jesus, the tough guy Jesus. We place our idea of the American dream and American values over the commission given to us by our Christ. If we think America didn't fit the Babylonian description before the same-sex marriage debacle, or that the exaltation of homosexual relationships is the only sin that makes us like the decadent Babylons of eras past, we are certainly deluded.

The prophet Jeremiah told those in sinful Judah that the nation would be overrun, its inhabitants taken captive to Babylon. The Lord instructed Jeremiah to tell the captive Hebrews in Babylon to live life for God, despite having been taken captive to a foreign land, rank with other forms of the ungodliness that had caused His judgment to fall on Israel and Judah. He also rebuked false prophets who said it wouldn't happen, that Judah was safe from destruction - much like we in America have the same notion that we're somehow immune to becoming a fallen empire like Assyria, Egypt, Rome, and even Babylon.

Jeremiah wrote to the captives there:
"Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters - that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD" (Jeremiah 29:5-9).

If those in Babylon were instructed to seek the peace of that ungodly empire, and to even seek the good of its leaders as the prophet Daniel later did when Babylon fell to another empire, what gives believers in modern America a license to live in strife and debate, rather than in love, in ministering, in being witnesses for the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Isn't that our best way to seek the peace of our nation?
A debate on same-sex marriage never led a soul to Jesus; nor did a vote, nor did a Facebook profile picture that changed the pink "equality" sign into a cross. These things never fed a starving belly nor tended to a helpless person's wounds. God's instruction to believers in America is no different than His directions to those carried away to Babylon, or to those in the early Christian Church, so abundantly slaughtered by Rome - to seek the nation's peace, to be holy. To be holy is to be set apart. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).

How will Christ's love be evident through us if we serve American values - whatever those are - rather than the Lord Himself?