LaRosa Johnson {dot} com

Of late, there have been a few things on my mind & heart. Two of those things have been death and marriage, not particularly in that order.

The marriage issue has been making its rounds in my head for a while now. After seeing so many men of God stumble into the sin of adultery, it’s been one of those things that I’ve kept in prayer. First and foremost, I’ve been praying for these men & their families, praying for restoration, reconciliation, and continued growth in the Lord. Once I’ve lifted them up, I pray for others that I know who are married, I pray for the husbands & wives, praying that they don’t fall prey to similar temptations. Then, I find myself praying for my own marriage and my own strength. I don’t want to go down that path. It’s so easy to do, without really thinking about it; but, that’s not a path that I want to go down. I don’t want to get emotionally attached to any other woman to the point where that would even be an issue. I never want to cause my wife & family that kind of pain. I don’t want to bring my Savior that kind of shame. The hardest part, though, is knowing that as much as I pray, if I don’t continually keep my guard up, I can just as easily fall flat on my face. That’s a tough pill to swallow, and all the more reason for me to stay knit to Robin and my Lord.

But not only is there infidelity, there’s also divorce. I know way too many people who have or who are getting divorced. In some cases, I agree that it’s more than justified and biblical, but it still hurts to see, especially knowing that these are brothers and sisters in the Faith. It breaks my heart. When I heard about one friend’s divorce, my heart sank, and I wept inside. Again, that’s not a road that I ever want to go down, so I have to stay on my P’s & Q’s. At the very least, it’s situations like this that keep me on my knees interceding on behalf of others because it is so easy, even for Christians, to throw it all away and be done with it all.

The bottom line is that I want my marriage to work and to be an example of Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. I once remember an elder at my former church telling Robin & I that other couples (young & old) were watching us to see how we were going to react in different situations. Were we going to quit or stick it out? Were we going to remain faithful and continue loving one another? I realize that people are watching, and I want my marriage to be an example of what a Christ centered marriage should look like.

Then there’s the thought of death. As I was getting ready to leave work today, a co-worker informed me that her husband’s grandfather had passed away. I gave my condolences & prayers, but the thought of losing a loved one had me thinking the entire drive home. I tried to drown my thoughts with loud music, but my thoughts screamed even louder. I thought back to October 2007 when my grandfather (on my mom’s side) passed away. Even though I didn’t shed a single tear, I still miss him. And, I haven’t seen my other grandparents (or the rest of my extended family) since that time. Knowing that my remaining grandparents (my grandmother on my mom’s side [Granny], and both of my dad’s parents) aren’t doing well, I can’t help but want to visit and see them at least once more before they pass on to glory. I want to tell them that I love them and just spend some time with them.

Not only that, but I want my children to know who their great grandparents are. Growing up, I only had the opportunity to get to know only one of my great grandparents and I wish I had the opportunity to have known her better. I can only imagine the wisdom and knowledge that she had obtained in her many years on this earth. At the very least, I want my grandparents to be able to see their great grandchildren, considering that they’ve only seen Ramiah in pictures & they all grow so fast.

Family is important and it’s not something we should think about only when they’re dead and gone. We should take the opportunity to spend time while we have the time. So, with that, already having a trip scheduled for Detroit this summer to visit Robin’s parents, we’ve made plans to make a trip back to NC to visit my parents. While in NC, we’ll make the trip up to Virginia to visit my grandparents, Lord willing that He allows them to tarry that long.

Those are my thoughts tonight, death & marriage, marriage & death. Probably better stated as marriage & family; but, simply put, both are something I want to protect and respect. Grace & peace.

LaRosa Johnson Family, Life death, Family, grandparents, marriage, vacation

The last few weeks have been mentally taxing. It’s a rare thing for opportunity to come knocking at the door; and, it’s even rarer for an opportunity to literally knock the door down and place itself in your hand. Well, this is a situation I’ve found myself dealing with.

Now, most people, given the opportunity would jump on it without a second thought. Quite honestly, I would do the exact same thing, and would love nothing more than to take this opportunity up on its offer. But, there’s a catch. You see, the current circumstances surrounding my life are preventing me from accepting the offer, at least for the time being. More than anything, the one thing that’s keeping me from jumping all over this offer is the fact that I’ve committed myself to training my spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, which is something that I am absolutely not willing to abandon, especially not after having put in two years of work. I’m not willing to abandon what I know to be God’s will for my life right now, not even for what may be the opportunity of a lifetime.

In many ways, I know this is nothing more than a test of my resolve to see what’s more important to me. Well, the answer is quite obvious and it was easy to make, although it leaves me mentally taxed with “what ifs” and monkeying with scenarios. The fact of the matter is that I know where God wants me to be right here & right now, which is training my gift, and that’s where I’m going to stay.

Even though it’s not remotely related, I can’t help but to think of Saul when he was given orders to destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15). He followed Samuel’s instructions except for the fact that he kept back some of the choice livestock, instead of destroying it all as the Lord had commanded. It was at this point that God rejected Saul and his line as king over Israel. Although it doesn’t completely relate to my circumstance, it has taught me the importance of complete obedience to the Lord, and not just following His instruction partly. The words of Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:22 still ring in my ears, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” The rest of what he says hits pretty hard too.

I feel that if I took this opportunity right now, I’d be putting myself in the same situation as Saul when he didn’t completely obey the Lord. I have my instructions (finish my training), and I have to see that through, and not just do it halfway, even if I think this opportunity may benefit me & still be honoring to God. The fact is that this is most honoring to God, so that’s where I need to be. If the Lord wills, the door of opportunity will remain open until my training is complete and the Lord allows for me to take hold of it; otherwise, I will view this as a matter of testing to see where my heart and focus are. I will say that I appreciate the opportunity set before me, but it’s not worth squandering what God has placed before me.

LaRosa Johnson Faith, LaRosa, Life, Ministry ministry training, obedience, opportunity

I’m in the midst of my journey to read through the Bible in a year. Within the past couple of weeks I’ve finished Exodus & Leviticus, and now I’m about halfway through Numbers. It’s been an exciting read thus far. I’ve been motivated to read and a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense before is being comprehended this time around.

With my recent reading, the Lord has really been rocking me. I’m seeing how the Israelites are being delivered & provided for time & time again by the Lord God, only to spit back in his face & complain. On more than one occasion God was ready to take out the Israelites because of their disobedience. Even people that you wouldn’t think would rise up against the Lord, like Miriam & Aaron, had their moments. It’s crazy, seriously! The Lord provides manna, but that’s not enough; no, they want more meat! The Israelites want to know why they’re stuck in the wilderness & left to die or killed by those in the Promised Land, when they “had it made” in Egypt, when they were really enslaved. Oh, and you can’t forget the Levites trying to rise up on Moses & Aaron, wanting to know why they’re in charge.

In all of this, the Lord was quick to want to just take the Israelites out completely, wiping them off the face of the earth, wanting to just start over with Moses. It can’t be said lightly enough that God’s anger toward them was fuming and He wasn’t playing around. If it weren’t for Moses praying for forgiveness, I don’t doubt that God would have done it.

What’s the lesson in this for me? God doesn’t take lightly to grumbling & complaining. Just looking at the Israelites & their attitude, God wasn’t very pleased. I can only think that He’s looking at me in the same light when I act in a similar manner. More than anything, this is serving as motivation for me to continue walking upright, while making sure that I keep my griping to a minimum. Instead of complaining, I need to learn to be more thankful for what the Lord has provided, as opposed to looking back to the past or wanting more than what He’s already providing.

Thanks for the lesson, Lord!

LaRosa Johnson Bible, LaRosa, Life bible study, complaining, reading, thankfulness

Last month I started the process of coming up with ideas for Trailblazin Ministries, and I came up with a few that I felt would really benefit those who visit the site. The problem? They required a big commitment on my end, a commitment that I couldn’t realistically give myself to. The biggest of the goals was to do a plan that would take the site’s visitors through the entirety of the Bible in two years, with daily lessons Monday through Friday.

I tossed the ideas back & forth in my mind constantly in the days leading up to the new year, all the way up until yesterday. It was at that time that I finally decided that I couldn’t do it. I already have a lot on my plate, and there’s no way that I could feasibly do all that I wanted to do without suffering in another area. Would my 1st Thessalonians study suffer? Would my time with family suffer? Would my training suffer? I realized that something was going to suffer if I went ahead with this plan; or, at the very least, I would get a month or two into this and end up quitting, which wouldn’t look good at all.

Now, I’m not committing myself to resolutions, but I do have plans for the new year. First and foremost, I want to read my Bible from Genesis to Revelation in this year. I personally don’t think it would be wise for me to have made it to the end of my training to be a pastor without first having read through the Bible at least once. I started a chronological reading plan back in November and already have a pretty good head start, so I look forward to seeing this one through. This is one of my biggest goals.

Next to that is being a better father & husband, which is my first ministry. I can’t possibly live up to my new position of deacon or a soon-to-be pastor if I can’t manage my household well. So, I want to try my hardest to have consistent family devotions (maybe at least 1-2x a week) and pray with Robin more. I also need to work harder at spending quality time with each child.

I also want to be more diligent in my ministry training at Austin Bible Church. I want to make sure that I’m learning Hebrew & Greek to the best of my ability, and learning all that I can in the ministry workshop courses. That also means being diligent in working through my 1st Thessalonians study so that I can be prepared to teach it to the congregation when the Lord allows us to meet in our new building.

Finally, I just want to continue doing what I’ve been doing with Trailblazin Ministries, even if it does remain small. I realize that what’s important right now is my training & I just have to keep TM running. Once my training is done, I’ll be better equipped and have the time to do more with the site, which will allow me to better reach the world at large with the truth of God’s Word.

Those are my goals for the year. They’re all realistic & obtainable. Nothing high & lofty, and stuff that I should be doing anyway. The best part of it all is that I don’t have to do it on my own, but I’ll have the help of God the Holy Spirit, who is able to accomplish all things. Amen.

LaRosa Johnson LaRosa bible study, church, Family, goals, ministry training, resolutions

I’m not big on making resolutions for the new year, but I’ll admit that I have spent the past few days mulling over ideas. Not ideas of how I can improve myself or anything like that. Instead, I’m sitting here trying to think about ideas for ways to do more with Trailblazin Ministries in 2010.

Coming into this year I had come up with a few ideas that I thought were going to work out rather well. One of my goals was to start on a devotion series for 1st Thessalonians, after having finished James in December of 2008. Well, it got started but not until April, primarily because it took me forever to get my outline together for chapter one, and I’m still only part way through my outline for chapter two as we near the close of the year. The other major idea was to begin a study on spiritual gifts. That plan didn’t come together at all; I didn’t even get a chance to start on it. I guess the Lord had other plans & didn’t allow that to ever come together.

2009 wasn’t entirely a disappointment. The site got moved to a backend content management system (from Movable Type to Joomla to Drupal), as well as a much needed redesign. In terms of running the site, things are going a lot more smoothly. Plus, George Sly took on a bigger part this year, adding his own devotion series. So, I won’t complain. Even though all of the plans didn’t come together as expected, it was still a solid year.

Now, as I get ready to move into 2010, I really have a burden for putting up more content on Trailblazin Ministries, and doing it more consistently. I’m determined to get away from the music (not entirely, but it’ll take a major backseat to teaching), and I want there to be a heavy emphasis on teaching the Bible. There are two ideas that are really sitting in the forefront of my mind, but I really don’t know if I have the motivation to do them, even though I think they’d be great ideas.

The first idea is to have Trailblazin Ministries go through the entire Bible. I had thought about doing it in a single year, but that would be about 5-6 chapters per day, Monday through Friday; yet, if I do it in two years, it cuts the reading in half. Now, along with that, I would give my own summary & commentary of sorts on the text that’s being read. The big thing is that it’s such a major commitment and I don’t want to get it started and then quit a month or two into it. I’m afraid to try because I know my tendency to not see things through, as well as not really knowing how heavy my schedule may be. But, if I don’t try, I won’t know if I could have ever done it.

The second idea is more feasible, but I’m still not quite sure how it would work. It would be to do a “word study of the week” where I pick a Greek or Hebrew word and put together a word study on it, with definition, a listing of its usages, and so on. The only real hard part here is that most of my original language resources are in copyright and I don’t want to run into any kind of copyright issues if I have to copy & paste text. That’s really the only big hurdle and it’d be easy enough to plan out the list for the entire year.

Not to mention, I’d also like to do something more with my podcast.

All of this would be on top of maintaining the 1st Thessalonians devotion series, as well as any other content. I’d love to make this happen, but quite frankly I’m scared of failure. I really don’t want to start something and not see it through. So, pray for me, pray that I can get some clear direction for which way to take Trailblazin Ministries in 2010. If you have any ideas for content or for the podcast, feel free to pass them along. I’m open to all ideas, and I’ll at least consider them.

LaRosa Johnson Ministry bible study, Ministry, new year, planning, Trailblazin Ministries

One thing I’ve learned in my 5 years of marriage is that sometimes life requires sacrifice and selflessness. Earlier this week, Robin did something that was pretty selfless & sacrificial, in order to make sure that things remained in order in our house. Well, today, after examining some things, I’ve chosen to do the same, but this time for the benefit of Robin, my lovely wife. I won’t go into details, but I’m glad to be able to do it, knowing that it’s the best decision that I could make, even if it might mean I feel like I’m “losing out” later on. In the long run, I know I’m a winner because I will have done what’s right & for my better half.

LaRosa Johnson Ramblings, Robin sacrifice, selflessness

It’s nice when you wake up and get an unexpected surprise. Today I had a twofold surprise. First, I woke up this morning and was checking Google Reader and was going through all of the blogs I follow. There’s nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that Logos mentioned me in their latest blog entry. Last week, I posted an article on Trailblazin Ministries that gave an overview of Logos Bible Software 4. So, in their blog post, they were talking about all of the different users who had made videos talking about the software, and I was one of the few mentioned. That was really nice to see given the fact that I put it up on the site and only publicized it through a single tweet on Twitter.

The bonus to this is that the desktop app pulls in the Logos blog and displays it on the home page. So, I get the extra blessing of seeing my name displayed in my Bible software’s home page. How cool is that?! I don’t know, I’m a geek like that, but it just made me feel good. More than anything, I’m just glad that people appreciated the video and found it worth talking about.

The second surprise when my in-laws, who are in town for Thanksgiving, unexpectedly gave me a few dollars to have as spending money. That was a pleasant gift, the kind that gives you warm fuzzies. Now to figure out what to spend it on, LOL. I’m thinking about buying more books for Logos. I’ve got my eye on the MacArthur & McGee eBible packages so that I can import the unlocked books into Logos 4, but I’ll think it over.

Anyway, both of those were nice surprises and I thank God for them. A nice way to round out all the thankfulness that I expressed this past week. Thanks God.

LaRosa Johnson LaRosa, Life, Stuff on the Web blessings, Family, gifts, link love, Logos 4

Tonight I decided to try something new with my studies. For the longest time, I’ve been using the note files to take notes for my studies, which is basically the stripped down equivalent of a word processor. Since upgrading to Logos 4, I’ve found it to be a little bit limiting in the way I take notes. So, looking for a better solution, tonight I thought I’d give Microsoft OneNote a try now that I’m trying out the Office 2010 beta.

Given that I’m using two monitors for my study (at least at home) this is pretty feasible. I just move the OneNote window to the second monitor (in the same position that I previously had my Logos 4 notes file), and take notes like I normally would. The primary advantage to taking notes this way is that it’s super easy for me to organize & rearrange my notes, plus my outlines are formatting properly. The only real drawbacks are that my Scriptures aren’t hyperlinked automatically & they’re not searchable from within Logos.

I’ll continue to give this a try and see how it goes. The real challenge will be when I start studying without the aide of the second monitor and I’m back to having a more confined workspace.

Anyway, I’m going to continue working with this and see if I can refine the process a bit for better note taking. The one advantage I’m already seeing is the ease in moving between OneNote, Word & PowerPoint. Who knows, OneNote may be the way for me to go permanently.

LaRosa Johnson Bible Software, Tech Stuff Bible Software, bible study, Logos 4, Microsoft Office, OneNote

Just a quick note on a Sunday night before I head to bed.

I’m really enjoying the latest version of Logos Bible Software. The latest version is version 4 and it’s a great application. It’s made my studying enjoyable and given me that extra boost to want to study the Bible. One of the cool things about it is the accompanying iPhone/iPod Touch app that they released in conjunction with the desktop software. It allows you to access your library (and I have a pretty large library) on the mobile device without having to repurchase books.

The iPhone app is really nice and it made me drink the Kool-Aid. I said I would never buy an iPod or Apple product, but seeing what the Logos app was capable of and basically doing what I had always hoped a Bible software company would do (i.e. not making me repurchase books I already own in digital format), I couldn’t resist. So basically, I bought an iPod Touch (8GB) just so that I could use this app. I’m still not abandoning my Zune just yet though as a music player.

What’s more, I even bought an 18.5” LCD monitor ($99 @ BestBuy) for my desk to expand my workspace now that Logos 4 has the ability to “float” a window & move it to a second monitor. This has really helped to increase my productivity and efficiency in studying. Having the real estate from two monitors really improves my workspace and makes it that much easier to study.

It’s getting late, so that’s all for now. Look for a video review soon (hopefully, if I can swing it) on the Trailblazin Ministries website.

LaRosa Johnson Bible Software, Tech Stuff Bible Software, bible study, bibles, iPod, Logos 4, software

Over the weekend, while I was installing Windows 7, I had quite a bit of time to sit back & think. During that thinking, I think I had a bit of an epiphany, or something like that. It’s probably more along the lines of a personal revelation than anything else, especially given the fact that it’s a pretty obvious fact to most people.

What is that revelation? Simply put, you should use what’s going to work for you without worrying about the thoughts & opinions of others. If there’s something out there that works for you, then by all means you should use it, regardless of what people may think. For example, I still like & drink Kool-Aid at the age of 27, and I could care less what some of my friends may think. It’s a personal preference, it works for me, I like it, so I’m going to continue drinking it. Or a better example may be my use of the Microsoft Zune over the infinitely popular iPod from Apple. The Zune may not have the same cool factor, but for me it’s more functional and gives me a better experience than I would have if I owned an iPod.

Along those same lines, you shouldn’t try to make something be what it’s not designed to be. Of course, there will be people out there that think you should, for whatever reason; but I don’t think that you should. A Honda Civic isn’t designed to tow & haul stuff like a Ford F-150, so why would you even attempt to make the Civic perform the functions of the F-150? Instead of trying to make the Civic perform like the F-150, why not just use the F-150 and be done with it? That’s how I feel about some things. Some things are designed with a particular audience in mind, and it should be allowed to function in that capacity. We shouldn’t try to force it to be something that it’s not; instead, we should embrace it for what it is & use it for what it was designed for. At the same time, if you know that you’re going to do a lot of towing, skip the Honda Civic altogether and just use the F-150 because you know it’s going to be able to perform the way you need it to.

That’s the realization I came to this weekend. There’s been some stuff that I’ve been trying to push and use in a way that it wasn’t designed for. The problem with that is that I have the proper tools sitting right next to me; so, instead of forcing my screwdriver to be a drill, I just need to grab my power drill and use it to help me accomplish the job quickly & efficiently, especially when I know that it’s a better tool & I like it better anyway.

LaRosa Johnson Life, Ramblings decisions, tools, usefulness