Things to come

My Love- Hate Relationship With an Orca

This time last week I was in Costa Rica watching a Michael Jackson impersonator. Although I am not and MJ mega fan, I can truly say that I like most of his hits. The show was enjoyable and they did “Black and White” which if you asked I would have to say is in my top 3 MJ songs. 

Now what does Michael Jackson have to do with my love- hate relationship with an Orca?  Well one of the songs that they did was “Will You Be There” the theme song to the 1993 movie Free Willy.

 

This Movie was about a Orca name Willy (played by Keiko) who was captured in the wild and moved to a Sea World type location. then a boy meets Willy and wants to free him from the park because the owners want to kill willy for the insurance money.  Long story short, they Free Willy.

HATE:

So what is about this movie that gets to me? The name.  My name is Willie. Not William but Willie. So with a name like Willie I have heard it all. The nicknames that the kids would call me it school… well lets just say I heard it all. But when things like Free Willy and Achy Breaky Heart came out I got teased in school a lot. 

(Now you maybe asking what Achy Breaky Heart has to do with my name and me being teased.  Well Achy Breaky Heart was sang by Billy Ray Cyrus and my name is Willie Ray Hoffmann. Billy Ray- Willie Ray, yeah really fun for me.)

After hearing this song again and thinking back to the movie, I wanted to revisit it because in all reality although I am not a fan of the name, the message on the movie is great. 

LOVE:

Over the years I have came to love the ocean and the life that is in it. Going to Costa Rica was amazing.  It will be one of those trips that will stand out for my whole family.  One night our group when out to the beach and I saw one of the amazing things I would ever see. A sea turtle just after laying her eggs and going back out to sea. 

As my family and I watch this awesome animal once again the sea had touched me. Later that night I went down to the beach and just seat there thinking of what more I could do for the area of the earth I loved so much.

Thinking about Free Willy I decided to re-watch the movie. I went to wal-mart and just so happen to find all 4 Free Willy’s in one set.  Now as I write this I am watching the 1st one.  One of My passion has and is the ocean and the life in it. We as humans like to destroy what God has given us. I see that God has given the ocean to us to take care of and I would like to do more to help. In fact I believe we should all do more to help the earth.  

The Rapture Question Part 1 and 2 by Pastor Brandon Park at First Baptist Raytown.

 

Though my blog is called “One Pastors Point of View”, I see that I am not the only pastor who does not necessarily believe in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture.   

Sermon from Mineola Baptist Church 8-4-13

My Time in Utah (Part 1)

Maybe I should start by telling a little about my draw I had to looking for a church to pastor in Utah. 

For the 7 years before I moved to Utah, I had been studying the Mormon faith or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints (LDS).  Mormonism was a very interesting belief system to me.  I say these young men walk by the pizza place I was working at, knocking on the many doors of the college apartments that where across the road.  It was the dead of Missouri Summer it St. Charles Missouri and here were these men in shirts and ties and long pants.  I really had respect for these men and still today I have respect for them for spending 2 years of their lives preaching what they believe. (You will not see a lot of Christians doing this.) 

When I first time I saw these missionaries, I was at bad time in my life.  I had lost a great paying job and gave up on my god complete.  See for year I was praying to a god of my own making and I had finally given up on it.  I planed to live for myself but one day I say two missionaries walking in the heat and I wanted someone to talk to. 

As I talked with those Mormons and they told me a very poor version of Jesus, I started to have questions.  (Now let me point out that when I say poor, I mean according to the Mormon I lived with and told this story to, they use the word poor. The Mormon missionaries gave a very poor “Missionary lesion”)

I started to look into faiths and soon became a born again Christian and joined a Southern Baptist Church.  Although I was now a Baptist I was still interested in the LDS faith.  So with studying the Bible, I also started to study Mormonism.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, END OF LINE…          

Wretched: Cutting off heads is not peaceful.

Words to Live By

"You want to know why there's so much darkness in this world? Could it be because a lot of folks don't see us loving one another?" - Fred Luter