The 2 Paths
This was a picture taken of my grandfather passing out Gideon Bibles at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). As you read this, you will understand why this picture of my grandfather has become so significant to me. As I have worked on this site, I have fought and wrestled with God. I have been frustrated and exhausted and overwhelmed. This picture has served as a reminder to me of why I am here and what He has called me to do.
I look at my grandfather, “The Tired Gideon”, fighting the good fight.
The Gideons’ primary activity is distributing copies of the Bible free of charge.
The organization describes its link to the story of Gideon:
Gideon was a man who was willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do, regardless of his own judgment as to the plans or results. Humility, faith, and obedience were his great elements of character. This is the standard that The Gideon’s International is trying to establish in all its members, each man to be ready to do God’s will at any time, at any place, and in any way that the Holy Spirit leads.
I have never felt called by God to do anything. God gave all of us gifts as part of being in the body of Christ. I wasn’t sure what mine was. Recently, however, I have had an enormous sense of urgency that He placed in my heart.
JULY of 2014
I bought a house that was built in 1940 and I had all these plans for how I wanted to renovate it. The first thing I wanted to do was paint the outside of it because the whole house is tan, including the roof, and I thought it was ugly. I put it off and first did a few things that I wanted to the inside. Not to long after I moved in, however, God started increasing His level of conviction in my heart. I started looking at all things that were going on in the world and I knew He was testing me. Am I going to seek Him first and do what I feel he has placed in my heart, or am I going to put myself first and my desires for my house before him.
THE PARABLES OF THE WEDDING BANQUET hit me the hardest.
LUKE 14 : THE PARABLE OF THE BANQUET (Matthew 22:1-14)
15And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. 16Then said he to him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray you have me excused. 19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray you have me excused . 20And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22And the servant said, Lord, it is done as you have commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24For I say to you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
MATTHEW 22 : THE PARABLE OF THE BANQUET (Luke 14:15-24)
1And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables, and said, 2The kingdom of heaven is like to a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatted calves are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage. 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
DECEMBER of 2015
I created this website, which I named the “Narrow Gate Entrance” which I derived from LUKE 13.
LUKE 13 : THE NARROW GATE (Matthew 7:13-14)
22And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23Then said one to him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said to them, 24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
This verse struck fear in my heart, and when I started this site, I knew I needed to make sure that’s the gate my life was heading towards. There were so many verses that were in direct conflict with the way I was living my life. I was desperate to know the truth and His Story. I felt overwhelmed with how to process what I was seeing happening in the world and how it relates to my faith.
I felt like the walls were closing in and I wondered how He
could use me. I was doing everything I could just to keep up, but things seem to be moving so fast.
I was having more and more trouble discerning what was even right from wrong anymore. The lines were starting to get blurry.
(5 months later in) APRIL, 2016
I gave my friend a bible at a bible study we were having at my house every week.
After just a few days of reading,
this is the text he sent me:
( I had not mentioned to him
or anyone about my website. )
1 month later, in MAY, 2016
The company I work for took us for a team building exercise to play THE ESCAPE GAME. THE ESCAPE GAME is where a group will go into a room and you have an hour to gather all the clues to unlock the door and break out. It reminded me of another verse that had a placed a sense of urgency in my heart.
LUKE 21 : BE WATCHFUL
34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come on you unawares. 35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man
I was dreading going cause I hate these types of things and I was really tired but something told me I needed to go. That day happened to be one of the peak days of my overwhelm and frustration. On my way there I actually pulled off the side of the road and just started crying. I was crying out to Him a conversation that went like this:
“Is this really what you want me to be doing?”
“Why me? I am not equipped to do this.”
I sit behind a desk all day without much interaction with people.
I am not an eloquent speaker or great communicator or great story teller.
I felt like God was removing the scales from eyes but I didn’t know how to communicate it to others.
The more I saw happening around me the heavier my heart got. My brain felt like it was going to explode with all the research I was doing. I really just wanted some type of confirmation or sign from Him. I felt like God was removing the scales from eyes for a purpose but I really wasn’t sure where it was going to lead. I finally drug myself to the game.
They have 5 different rooms. A different game in each room.
The first thing I noticed in our room was a book called MUSIC CITY BABYLON, which is about the world of country music in Nashville, TN, where I currently live.
The majority of the research I had been doing at the time was trying to figure out what the heck Babylon was.
Our room also had a clue containing a bible verse.
LUKE 13
29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
I was not much help during the game. I was standing there looking at all the interesting stuff in the rooms. As time was running out, there was a map hanging encased in a box with a silver ball at the bottom of the casing.
The clue said “THE SHORTEST DISTANCE IS STRAIGHT LINE“.
So we were supposed to use the magnet to drag the ball, which was behind the map, and drag it across to each of the four different cities on the map. If the ball behind the map wasn’t guided in a straight line, it would drop and you would have to start all the way over. They started trying to drag it but it kept dropping because they couldn’t keep a straight line. Time was running out, our team was frantically trying to figure out what to do. I was honestly just ready to go home, but I happened to see a wooden board on the floor and put it up there for them to use as a ruler to guide him into keeping a straight line from point to point on the map.
It worked and the door opened. We were the only team that actually “Escaped” in time.
The next morning I was prompted in my heart to go back and read the verse that was a clue in our game.
LUKE 13 : THE NARROW GATE (Matthew 7:13-14)
22And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23Then said one to him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said to them, 24Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut to the door, and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not from where you are: 26Then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not from where you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. 28There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
When I realized that verse was in the context of the verse I based this site off of my eyes filled with tears because I realized that it was His confirmation
of what he had called me to do from the previous day when I pulled over in my car. I had used a wooden board to keep the path straight and level so we could open the door and escape during a time of panic and confusion.
Even more incredible is how God was showing me how all this tied back together with the picture of my grandfather and the story of Gideon. I knew the story of Gideon briefly at the time, but after this, I felt God prompting me to go back and look at the details of his story.
- Gideon was called by an angel of the Lord that sat under an oak.
JUDGES 6 : THE CALL OF GIDEON
11And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.
I live 2 miles from Vanderbilt whose symbol is the Leaf and acorn.The new visual identity, designed by Malcolm Grear Designers in Providence, R.I., is built around a central image of the letter “V” encompassing a stylized oak leaf and acorn.“The oak leaf and acorn have long been symbols of Vanderbilt and are found in the crest of the Vanderbilt family,” said Judy Orr, director of Creative Services. “We thought it important to have a sense of timelessness and tradition in our final product, which I believe we accomplished.”Oak Hill is a city in Davidson County, Tennessee, 3 Miles from house.
The Tennessee Governor’s Mansion, also known as the Tennessee Residence, in Oak Hill, Nashville, Tennessee, is the official residence of the Governor of Tennessee and his or her family.THE FRUIT OF THE OAK TREE (leaves and acorns) IS POISONOUS to cattle, horses, sheep, and goats in large amounts due to the toxin tannic acid, and cause kidney damage and gastroenteritis.
Gideon [h1439]גִּדְעוֹן Gidʻôwn, ghid-ohn’;occurs 39 in 37
- Gideon = “hewer”, “cutter down”,
- BRAVE WARRIOR
- feller,
- youngest son of Joash of the Abiezrites, fifth judge of Israel who led the Israelites against the Midianites
from H1438; גָּדַע gâdaʻ, gaw-dah’; a primitive root;
- to fell a tree; generally, to destroy anything:
- —cut (asunder, in sunder, down, off), hew down.
I then soon realized
the HEADQUARTERS of GIDEON INTERNATIONAL is stationed here in Nashville.