Foster City: The Safe, Crime Free City.. Or is it?

I worked today from 2pm-9:30pm.
It started off as a normal Saturday afternoon.
I did the shift change with Blanca.
After Blanca left, I was left with 2 other Baristas (Lillian and Mike) for app. an hour and a half.
3:15 rolls around and a borrowed partner, from another store, comes through the doors. Her name is Veronica and her shift is at 3:30.
Knowing Veronica from previous times before, I greeted her with: “Hey, I didn’t know that you were the borrowed partner today.”
- “..Yeah, Blanca called me in. I’m going to make a drink before I start working.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
3:30pm is the time.
Veronica starts…time to send Lillian on her 10 minute break.
All the breaks go through awesome. We are doing great on everything that needs to be cleaned and ready for the night/morning. This is called “pre-closing” at Starbucks.
Before I knew it, it’s 5:15pm and Lillian is off.
Cool, I already gave myself a lunch; the only breaks that are left are Mikes lunch and Veronicas lunch.
Mike goes.
Then Veronica goes.
I stay in the back and wash dishes and if Mike needs help on the floor, he’ll call me.
“*There aint no mountain High enough.. Aint no valley low enough.. Aint no riv-*”
“Did you take my wallet?” Veronica interrupted.
“Uh, what?” (I really didn’t know what she said.)
“Did you take my wallet?” She shouted.
“No…did you take mine?” I halfway joked.
“This is not funny! Where is my wallet?!” …

This is where our story begins.
What happened to Veronica’s wallet?
Nobody knows.
Maybe, you too can be a detective and help us solve this case.

The only thing worse than slipping on a wet floor at Starbucks is slipping on a wet floor while looking for a wallet at Starbucks.
Veronica did not suffer from this.
I was the one who slipped and fell.
Why?
The “river was wide enough, and wet enough, to keep me from getting to you babe.”
The song just had to be playing.. still playing… still playing.
Not the way I want to remember the song, but nonetheless, let us look for the wallet.
Running to the car.. Maybe it’s there? Nope. (Veronica was all over the place)
Ask Mike?
Yeah.. a.. No.

20 minutes passed and there still is no sign of the wallet.
I went out the side door and used the restroom, and came back with a breakthrough!
I used the side door.
The side door!
That couldn’t have been it.. could it?
Would a person in Foster city have the guts to use the side door of a Starbucks to steal a wallet?
I tried running the way it could’a happened in my head.
“So you’re telling me that in the multiple 3 minutes time frames that I am in and out of the back room, someone went around to the side door, came in – knowing that there was a possibility of more people being in the back room, or knowing that at any given second I could go to the back – and looked around, found a purse pushed in a hidden corner, took the time to open it, look around, took a wallet, walked out of the room and out of the store?”
That seems pretty gutsy, bold, and really odd.
In fact, what are the odds of that happening?
Especially in the City of Foster City.

She called the police to file a report. The police women finally came and asked me.. *Uh hem* confidential questions, that I cannot disclose here. *

The rest of the night, I was on the lookout.
Was it that asian guy?
Nah.
That middle age women?
Nah.
That dude that just purchased a latte with Veronicas license sticking out of a wallet?
Nah. That guy was too nice.
Okay… so the last one really didn’t happen.
But there is a really good lesson to the last statement.
Just because your nice, does not mean you wont go into the back and steal something.
I think it was a regular customer who has been watching us for a while and knows our system with when we are in the back.

What do you think?

The Lord Sovereignly knows.
That’s a good thing.
Maybe I should have told her that if she had more faith, then she wouldn’t need to worry about her money because then she would just be receiving checks in the mail.
Hm.
I disagree with that point.
And on that note,

-Patrick.

For Whom Did Christ Die?

A couple of nights ago, after work, I hung out with one my buddies who used to work at Starbucks with me. Andrew is his name and being a security guard, is now his game. He is a fellow believer. We’ve definitely built up a friendship, that I hope will continue to grow, even though we no longer work together.
The reason why I think we’ve clicked in such a way is for many reasons, actually.
Reasons like:
1. (The obvious one) He’s Christian; so we have a common devotion to knowing Christ more, and seeing His name be proclaimed “great.”
2. We both are “jokesters” from time to time.
3. We both like to just kick it, with no agenda in mind.
..And the list goes on.
With all other reasons as to why we get along so well, there’s one reason, at least with our friendship, that keeps us growing together.
…

We agree to disagree

…
What do I mean by this?
Do I mean that I agree to disagree with him on the matter of adultery, or stealing, or lying?
Of course not. If those were the continual patterns of his lifestyle (adultery, stealing, etc) with no remorse, nor a longing to be like Christ more and more, I would
1. lovingly come up to him and tell him that his lifestyle is wrong (speaking to him about the glorious gospel), and if he continued to live in that way, I would not be around Him as much as close friend. and
2. He probably would not be a Christian – which would be going against one of the reasons as to why I love to hang out with him in the first place.
No No No.. When I say that we both agree to disagree, I’m saying that we both have a common agreement to not get angry with our differences in

what we believe about God.

You see, among other things,  Andrew is an arminian.
How shocking right?
The majority of the the church holds to the doctrine of “I have a free will to choose God; He didn’t make robots.”
What makes this person different?
Well, He listens to my point of view (or actually the Bible’s point of view) – and I, to his.
And, I so desperately long to see Him grow more in the fullness of who God is – with Christ’s gospel, His sovereign grace, being central.

Anyways, I got done with work and we finally had a chance to sit in his car, with the heater on, and talk life. It did not take long before the things of Christ were mentioned.
I made a point that Andrew questioned. Or actually, it was a point that He had never heard before that interested Him; for it made sense.
The point was this:
We do not repent in order to get salvation. We repent because God has so moved in our heart, that the sins we once loved we now hate – for we long to be more like Christ.
So pretty much, repentance is not needed for aide in salvation. To say this is to say that Christ’s death is not sufficient. Christ finished salvation for His people.
In a sense there has been 3 different points that “salvation” was finished; based off of your perspective.
1. He finished it before the foundation of the world.
2. He finished it at the cross.
3. And finally, and the most accurate answer to when we are saved is:
He will finish it – save us – when He takes all of His children home for eternity.
Long story short:

Repentance is evidence of salvation; evidence of God removing a stone heart and giving a heart of flesh. Yes, if there is no repentance, there is no salvation, but, we repent not in order to receive salvation. Instead, because we are saved – because Christ bore the wrath of God in our place – we repent.

At this point, Andrew knew that I believed something different from the mainstream American church..and I was more than happy to share that with him.
I went to the heart of the matter. It is the doctrine of the reformed faith that arminians have the hardest time accepting. It was the hardest for me to grasp at first, but now it’s the doctrine I most embrace.
Looking into his eyes, with the street light glaring in, I posed this question:
“If Christ died for every single sin of every single human being who has, or who ever will live, then why isn’t everyone going to be spending an eternity in Heaven with Him?”
A mumbled word came out of his mouth.
*Hesitation*
“Well, it’s because God gave man a choice. Because of the cross, everyone has the ability to choose Him. He did die for everyone, but man has to believe in Him, and trust Him in order to be saved.”
….
(And this started the conversation of the Doctrines of Grace with Andrew.)
Notice His response. Right before I posed the question, I was speaking about repentance, and how men and women, who are already saved, repent. This made sense to Andrew. But not when I posed a question that implies that Christ’s death ransomed, not all people, but only an elected group of people.
Andrew and I had a long night of talking, and some resolution came, but for the most part, we agreed to disagree. But here, I want to describe the importance of The doctrine of Limited Atonement (or particular redemption)

First, what are the Doctrines of Grace?
A simple acronym may help:
TULIP

Total Depravity (man is so sinful, he cannot save himself)
Unconditional Election (God chooses man unconditionally)
Limited Atonement (God died only for His elect)
Irresistible Grace (His grace is irresistible to His elect)
Perseverance of the Saints (His elect will endure to the end)

Limited atonement is the doctrine I now most embrace because it is making a point about our God. The point is this:

God is successful in saving His people.

The words of Jesus state
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10)
Let me ask you this, if God was a substitute – a propitiation – for all men, and we know men are in hell and will be in hell, then was Jesus just joking? Was He lying?
Maybe He didn’t mean that He was truly going to SEEK and SAVE the lost (his sheep that have gone astray – his elect).
Or maybe, and this is the worst yet, Christ did not succeed in what he promised, and there are men in Hell, covered with the perfect blood of the Son of God himself, suffering the eternal wrath of the Almighty Father, even though they had a substitute (Christ) who bore God’s wrath on the cross.
So I worship a God that couldn’t succeed on the cross?
That’s what you are telling me?
“Oooh.. no, that’s not what I mean”
..Then what do you mean?

That is not the King of all Kings that I worship.
I worship the one who promised salvation for His people.
The one who succeeded on the cross 2000 years ago.
The one who bore the holy and righteous wrath of the Father, as a propitiation, for my sins.
The one who said it is by grace, that I am SAVED.

Because of His death, I am not “savable.”
To say I’m “savable” is declaring many wrong things.
But two pop out clear in my head.
1. God is a weak begger who could not fully save people and is ringing His fingers in heaven – worried – for people to make a choice for Him – and if they don’t He’ll be weeping for all of eternity because man’s will superseded God’s will of having an eternity with Him.
2. I am not saved fully by grace, but it is the work of my repenting and believing in Him that I am saved.
And we go in a circle with point 2. Remember Andrew?
I stated that repentance is and only can be after salvation. Why?
If you believe in salvation by grace, then this has to be so.
Grace, to be grace, is absolutely free. There is nothing that you can do at all to obtain it. It has to be sovereignly given to you.
Who is salvific grace given to?
Ah, only those Christ has died for.
He did seek and save the lost, but the lost arent the ones people normally think of. The lost he died for, are the elect. The ones that were supposed to be lost from the foundation of the world; so ultimately, they would be found by Christ.
The amazing thing about His grace is that, I, a God hating sinner who deserved His eternal wrath, can now walk away free. Why wouldn’t I repent? Why wouldn’t I want to know this God more? Why wouldn’t I  want to have the very thing which accomplished salvation for me (Christ on the cross), be the very central thing in my life that keeps me going? I love Jesus, and thank Him for His death on the cross for all of those who would believe, and long to be with Him for eternity.

So, for whom did Christ die?
His people, those who would believe, the elect. However you want to put it, this is what’s true.

May God sovereignly grace you with joy for Him in all aspects of life!

-Patrick

Another Day

So today was chill.

Woke up to the sound of Paul Washer’s voice proclaiming:

“I want you to know the southern baptist convention can drop dead, if it hasn’t already…”

What a great alarm. You feel so motivated, even at 8:30am, to get up and read, preach, and live the gospel – with Christ being fully sovereign.

Ah, how nice it has been to get today off of work.

No waking up at 3:45 am to be in a 4:30am.

Can’t complain!

(I actually don’t do a whole lot of morning shifts anymore. I’m more of the closer. I would say 60% closing, 40% opening.)

So, Dave came by at 9ish and we got some Stacks morning goodness with the daughter (his daughter.. duh). We did the usual; talk theology and the gospel.

Why speak of anything that does not center Christ as supreme?

And then continued the usual with the usual at the CAD house. And you all know how it goes from there..Kickin’ it in the dark room with some background music/a sermon by john piper.

Aaaallriiiight!

Good times.

 

Eventful day?

..Not in the slightest.

Good day?

of course.

Actually, it was a golden day.

Till next time,

-Patrick

Why Blog?

To jot down my daily activities?

..Yea..

To reflect on what I’ve been learning through life?

..Sure..

To give feedback and reflect on what I’ve been learning in God’s word through personal study, and in church?

..Sounds good..

As the answers began to unfold and I gave myself more reasons as to why I would blog, the main reason finally came out. It was the same reason why I should do anything:

For the glory of God. 

We should be joining the apostle Paul in declaring the glory of God in even the most “minor” parts of our days. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Even if its only the “5 minute snack,” our purpose and point of that “cheesy cheeto” is to thank the one who gave it to you and to proclaim His goodness.

(Or you could just go super Jonathan Edwards and not even eat the cheeto because, well.. that cheeto probably is not the best thing for you as it will hinder your ability to maintain suffcient energy to fully study God’s word… But thats another topic!)

But anyways, since God has graced me with the oppportunity to use the computer, I should be doing all that I can for His glory on the computer. 

And when is the fullness of God’s glory expressed?

Through His marvelous gospel!

So, I hope and pray that my time on this blog will be in devotion to Gods glory. Hopefully men, women and children will all see God’s working in my life, due to His sovereign grace – which has set me free! He has opened my eyes, and my lips are filled with a new song of praise to the King of Kings! I pray the proclamation of His gospel through this blog would be clear and that all would be encouraged!

Until next time,

-Patrick