why am I content with cheap pleasures?

I get so frustrated with myself sometimes. I am continually contented with mediocrity and laziness. I know in my heart that life is so full, that I have been set free through Christ. Yet I continually find myself just drifting, being happy and satisfied with cheap pleasures. I have partaken in the joy that is brought through pursuing my God, yet I tend to choose laziness when I know that my diligence to follow Jesus brings great reward. O How it puts spring into my step when I am seeking to understand with my mind an infinite God. To behold his mysterious beauty is the greatest pleasure I can think of. How often I forget the happiness when I can be part of someone else seeing God's beauty. All of this requires me to have a soul that seeks God until he is found and never gives up. I need to be more earnest and eager to see my God. I hate it when reading my bible becomes a chore but without it I become starved for powerful truth very quickly. I love it when the bible comes alive and cuts like a sword, I love when it brings tears of joy to my eyes, I love it when when it sends my head spinning, and I love it when it leads me to a place where I can just be in awe of God. My soul mourns for those who have not seen the living God yet I often catch myself living just like them. The difference is that I know the overflowing joy and they don't. I have no excuse, I am simply content with what I know to be the lesser path.

I am trying out mobile blogging so this is my first post that i am typing on my phone. This way i can blog when i am not at home.

the reality of hell

Dan Kimball summarizes his sermon on hell

reckless pursuit

Running earnestly after you
a glorious adventure,
captivated by mysterious beauty.

Scared of where you will lead me
yet not wanting to go back.

I learn to delight in you alone
the cheap pleasures I once sought
no longer satisfy.

It seems too good to be true
but my soul is finally alive

This is what I was made for
the reckless pursuit of you
the God whose love I do not deserve

the conversation continues

John Piper and Sam Storms share their thoughts

follow-up

Denny Burk responds to Ben Witherington's post

is God seeking his own glory?

Ben Witherington's post raises a lot of valid questions and it is an interesting problem of figuring out what motiviation God has for what he does. Granted this might be a question that can be answered here on earth but it poses some interesting debates. I myself have held the view that God does everything for his own Glory, but Ben makes a good argument against this idea. Make sure you read some of the comments on the post as they some of the other sides of the argument.

running for president but having fun doing it

we need to be loved

"We are never at peace with God till we resolve to be loved in Jesus Christ."
- John Calvin

the story of William Cowper

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord

I started reading Ezekiel today. I am just awestruck by the description of God's beauty and glory found in the first few chapters of Ezekiel. I am very jealous of Ezekiel's chance to see the vision of God that he saw. I was having a rough afternoon trying to see God and I ended up just falling on my face before God and just giving it up. Then I grabbed my bible and just sat in silence reading it and when I read this my soul leaped within me.

Here is an artists interpretation of what Ezekiel saw:

sleeping is a waste of time

that is right. I hate my need to sleep. Sure it is nice to have a time of resting everyday, but all those hours add up. I looked up the data and here is what I found on a forum: "If you get about 7 hours of sleep per night, you're spending about 2555 hours sleeping! So, that means, every 10 years of your life, you will have spent 2.961 years laying in your bed unconscious!"

How much more could humanity accomplish without the need to sleep.

"Sleep, those little slices of death; Oh how I loathe them."
-Edgar Allan Poe

the need for relationships

"...relationships reflect God’s character and are a part of his design, there are so many implications. It means that valuing relationships is a good thing. It means needing relationships is a reality, not just some emotional response. One of my roommates mentioned the relief in realizing that it’s not “weak” to show your need for others." -Connie Jiminez

the Word, a sacrament?

an excellent post by Ben Witherington

come thou fount

I have fallen in love with this old hymn:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

here is the David Crowder band performing it:

why Mark Driscoll hates religion

17,000 watt stereo

this is INSANE!


17,000 watts stereo

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seeing the gospel

"I guarantee there isn't a homeless person in Portland who couldn't tell you the gospel verbatim. They've had to listen to it three times a day to get a sandwich. They've heard about Christ, but they haven't seen Christ. Who will sit next to them while they panhandle, who will enter their world? I've had friends doing that for 15 years. That is seeing the gospel."

-Rick McKinley, pastor of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon.

if you don't think Jesus is God ...

Read Hebrews 1, especially verses 8-12

I am glued to this passage

to put it in modern terms, this basically says that Jesus is DA MAN!

Living Theology

sweet blog post

why christians?

I wish I could go up to every person I know and let them know that there is a God, a God whose image they were created in, a God who loves them, a God who wants to give them abundant life. I wish it were easier to do this without people looking at you as a freak. Obviously if a stranger came up to me and started talking about a god like that (and I had never heard of this god) I might think they were a little crazy. I feel like such an inadequate representation of that God. I continually wonder why God chose flawed human beings to bring his gospel to the world he loves. Wouldn't it be better if he made christians perfect upon their salvation so that they would never make Christ look bad? Paul tells a powerful truth to the Corinthian church, he says that he was sent "to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:17-18 ESV) Verse 18 brings me the greatest joy and the greatest sorrow. The fact that the wrath satisfying work of Christ on that cross is the power of God. It is the reason that souls will even have the chance to come near to the throne of God! I heard a preacher make the point that Paul, unlike people today, was not concerned about how God could allow bad things to happen but he was wondering how on earth God could allow a sinner to be forgiven. He was just amazed that God would give adulterous people the chance to get off scot-free! That is the joy of that verse. But the sorrow is in the first part of the verse when it shows that people that are created by God to love God and enjoy God see the saving work of God's son as foolishness. I just want to weep sometime thinking about how some people who are living right now and will never embrace the abundant life that is offered through Jesus. I want so badly to see people embrace the beautiful savior and it pains me to see them walk away. I also feel anger toward myself because of all the times I have make Christ look unattractive by the way I live and the words I say. I feel like part of the problem, I sometimes feel that it is Christians who are stopping this glorious life-giving gospel from getting to people.

I just want to scream: "why the heck would God want us to be his representation?"

EDIT

video games-a wise use of time?

I love video games, They are the way in which i keep myself entertained when i would otherwise be bored out of my mind. But I think that is just the problem, we try to keep from being bored out of our minds by doing something that leaves our minds behind. Most video games are in no way stimulating to the mind. Movies can make me think about deep issues, playing sports or hanging out with friends cultivates amazing relationships, and reading forces you to use your brain.

This is just what i have noticed. Maybe my generation's downfall is going to be all the wasted time playing games. Now I believe that someone could play some games and have their brains challenged, not all video game playing is a waste of time, and with the whole "online revolution" in gaming could somehow lead to some deep relationships between people. But I know from experience how empty I feel when I look back on my day and realize I have wasted hours of my day sitting clicking buttons on a screen or pushing buttons on a controller. And what do Christians have to throw into this equation when considering the glory of God and the unwasted life he calls us to? Scripture does us to "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV). So the question is: is constant video gaming wise? is it part of the Lord's will for believers?

Something to think about
Pray about

a beautiful truth

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us."

- Richard Sibbes

i am excited

Donald Miller has a new book coming out!!

What if...

I had a conversation with a friend last night that got me thinking. In my "quest" to try to define the beauty of Christ I have begun to think more and more that Christ's beauty is first and foremost shown through God's creation and specifically through who we are as human beings, the image-bearers of God. Last week I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. While I was standing in line, I kept looking at all the different people around me, I was pretty much staring so I probably freaked some people out. But I was just looking at them through new eyes, I was just amazed to see how everyone looked different yet everyone looked beautiful suddenly to my eyes. Even the people I would normal look at and consider them ugly were suddenly the most beautiful people I had ever seen! What if God's beauty is displayed in a greater way through us as image-bearers than we realize? Granted that we are no longer the "good" human beings of Genesis 1, but we still are amazing works of art. Not only are we a beautiful creation in our complexity, our emotions, our diversity but we are also the only living creation with creativity in which to make our own works of art. We are God's Work of Art that has the ablitly to use our inherient creativity to make our own art. What if art is meant to be a way in which we as human beings display God's beauty? My friend made this statement "art speaks to people." What if art is a way in which we can "speak" God's beauty and glory to those around us?

skit we did at my church

The dawning of heaven

"Make up your mind that to behold the glory of God by beholding the glory of Christ is the greatest privilege which is given to believers in this life. This is the dawning of heaven." -John Owen

Word vs. Deed

What is the mission of the church? Are God’s people called to evangelize the lost by preaching the gospel and calling people to repentance? Or are we to spend our time and resources ministering to the needs of the poor? Are these two activities even meant to be distinguished from one another? Is the gospel preached when we act in harmony with the mercy and justice of God? Are the needs of the poor best met when we address spiritual need, rather than putting food in the bellies of lost souls?

Read the whole thing

Can't sleep

I have 2 mid-term exams tomorrow but I can't sleep. I feel overwhelmed. Tonight started out with theological frustration again as I spent some time in prayer. But I came to realize the one simple thing that I had forgotten about-The beauty of Christ. I think it is so easy to forget as I "study" about God that I am seeing God from a human point of view and from that point of view it is easy to get frustrated because he doesn't really fit into any box we put him in. The truth is that God's beauty is in his mystery. The journey of faith is all about following this mysterious God who has an attractive nature to him that loses its attractiveness if we do something other than just stand in awe of God. I want to learn more and more how to simply stand in awe of God because that is where we find our reason to obey, our reason to trust. I want to meditate more and more on the beauty found is God's unfathomablity(is that a word?). To be honest, I think I need to slow down on studying and pondering of big theological issues and just learn to be still and know that HE is GOD!(Psalm 46:10)

here is the essay I wrote a few months back on the beauty of Christ that kinda shows this passion of mine for Christ's beauty
Part 1
Part 2

Unplugging

This is a really cool blog post that I can relate to

I wish I was a better communicator

I wish I was a better communicator. I wish it was easier for me to relate to people, to meet people, to have meaningful conversations, to love them in a tangable way. I have come to realize that every soul on this planet is a human being just like myself. I think it is so easy to miss that. That other people are just like you. No matter who they are they all have life experiences, joys, things that they like to do, goal, questions, fears, guilt, loves, relationships, etc. I want to meet people at that level. At a human level. We are human beings because we all have these unique charateristics as well as the ability to share them. I think in the letter to the Romans, Paul touches on this idea. He calls us to "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another" (Romans 12:15-16 ESV). What if I could do that? I could share life with other human beings. The human life is a constant stream of joys and sorrows and we as people created in the image of God have the ability to share in others joys and sorrows. I have been asking God lately that he could give me tears. I want to weep for sin. I want to weep with those who are hurting. There are so many people in my life that I want to connect with on this level. But I struggle finding the words to say, when to say them, and just the fear of putting yourself out there. I think any form of love takes risk. It is just as risky to love a friend, a spouse, co-worker, or classmate. And again, I think that is the bottom line. We need love, the greatest commandment. I want to love God and have that love overflow into my love for others. I want to strive to embrace the risk that comes with love. I don't think my question of how to communicate better is an answer anyone can give. I need to just try. I need to learn through doing. And God alone will be the source of the love that comes out.

Christianity and Culture

This lecture opened my eyes to something that, if praticed, could radically change the way we live and display Christ to others.

Click here

the restless saint

lost
confused
scared
weak

having drifted
lost his way

thirsty
dry
barren
empty

having forgotten
the living fountain

despair
futility
fear
hopelessness

having no faith
that joy will return

his redeemer calls out
but trust is failing

his father calls out
yet he has forgotten
what it means to live

he fears death
and wonders
will life return?

he takes a shaky step
toward the one who calls him

the weight leaves his shoulders
the hope returns

how could he have forgotten
the life that is his?
how could he have forgotten
his first love?

he listens
to the God who knows his name
and he is filled with joy again

he is humbled
before the throne
of his Lord
his Love
his Life

text and context

This is promo for the 2008 National Resurgence Conference
I post it because I think it talks about something that is very critical.

frustrated

Last night I was very frustrated. I went to scripture to find some encouragement and I ended up reading Galatians and the beginning of Romans. I hate trying to figure out salvation. There are parts of the bible that just do not seem to fit in my understanding of what salvation is and it drives me crazy. I started reading Romans and ended up literally throwing my bible across the room because I was so confused and frustrated. I sometimes just have to wonder how the heck we are suppose to understand the bible. I mean it was written so ridiculously long ago, in a different language, in a different culture and to a completely different group of people that we in the 21st century know very little about. Our only reliable source of truth is the scripture yet I wonder how God expects us to understand it. Our hermeneutics(the art of biblical interpretation) is inherently flawed and no matter how much we fight the baggage we bring into our reading of scripture it is still there to a greater or lesser degree. Most would say that the Holy Spirit guides us in our interpretation which I believe is true yet so many different bible obsessive, Christ loving Christians still can have different interpretations of passages in scripture so I am just perplexed.

I think there are some things about God and even salvation that we were never meant to understand but what about the explanations in the bible that I don't seem to make sense? obviously they are there for our understanding. So what shall we do when those don't confuse us?

a glorious doctrine

The reason I am a protestant is because I believe that the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness is the only hope for anyone to be saved. I believe this is screamed in the bible. The truth that I am saved by Christ's efforts alone is too glorious for words. I cannot believe in the Catholic doctrine of inherited righteousness, it is just not what I think happened at the cross. I believe that all my righteousness, good deeds, and my perfect obedience to the law that God requires was already done in the life of Christ and that when I stand before God on the day of judgement he will see Christ's life in place of mine. The wrath of God was completely satisfied when Christ died and now God is able to forgive me, a sinner, because justice has been served.

One of my favorite hymns states:
"When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne."

DEEP stuff

"...the increase of grace has a tendency another way, to cause the saints to think their deformity vastly more than their goodness: it not only tends to convince them that their corruption is much greater than their goodness, which is indeed the case; but it also tends to cause the deformity that there is in the least sin, or the least degree of corruption, to appear so great as vastly to outweigh all the beauty there is in their greatest holiness; for this also is indeed the case. For the least sin against an infinite God, has an infinite hatefulness or deformity in it, but the highest degree of holiness in a creature, has not an infinite loveliness in it: and therefore the loveliness of it is as nothings, in comparison of the deformity of the least sin. That every sin has infinite deformity and hatefulness in it, is most demonstrably evident; because what the evil, or iniquity, or hatefulness of sin consists in, is the violating of an obligation, or the being or doing contrary to what we should be or do, or are obliged to. And therefore by how much the greater the obligation is that is violated, so much the greater is the iniquity and hatefulness of the violation. But certainly our obligation to love and honor any being is in some proportion to his loveliness and honorableness, or to his worthiness to be loved and honored by us; which is the same thing. We are surely under greater obligation to love a more lovely being, than a less lovely; and if a Being be infinitely lovely or worthy to be loved by us, then our obligations to love him are infinitely great; and therefore, whatever is contrary to this love, has in it infinite iniquity, deformity, and unworthiness." -Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

good advice

If you have wealth, do not glory in it, nor in friends because they are powerful, but in God Who gives all things and Who desires above all to give Himself. Do not boast of personal stature or of physical beauty, qualities which are marred and destroyed by a little sickness. Do not take pride in your talent or ability, lest you displease God to Whom belongs all the natural gifts that you have.Do not think yourself better than others lest, perhaps, you be accounted worse before God Who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God’s judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him. If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. It does no harm to esteem yourself less than anyone else, but it is very harmful to think yourself better than even one. The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.
- (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ)

the root of sin

Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota is probably my favorite author/preacher. I love his passion that just overflows in everything he does. One of his most famous books is called Desiring God. In that book he starts with the premise that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." This statement is probably, if you had to pick one, his single greatest passion. I read Desiring God 2 years ago but I am still pondering that truth all the time.

Just as a warning, I am going to be very open about myself in this post.

If I had to name the one sin in my life that causes me the most grief it would probably be lust. I fight tooth and nail with this every single day. Being a person who spends loads of time on the internet, it is a very difficult struggle. And not only do I struggle with sexual lust, but I struggle with other forms of lust too-such as a lust for material things. I think that covetousness is just another form of lust.

I have begun to notice something about my struggle with lust or even some other sins. I have been pondering and trying to find out why this is such a struggle for me other than the fact that I am sinful and I am a Male. I have begun to notice that the times when I am the weakest to lust in when I am living for an earthly pleasure. That is the reason that I quit playing computer games a week ago because I noticed what it was leading to. I then, yesterday, I returned to computer games and I fell victim to the lie of lust again. Because these games are something I enjoy so much they become my earthly pleasure that I begin to live for. And when I am living for earthly pleasure it is easy to seek other early pleasure. And what greater earthly pleasure is there than indulging our sexuality?

I am going to make a weighty statement. I will venture to say that Any time, anyone puts anything on the throne of their greatest pleasure other than God himself it is Sin. We were designed to find our ultimate pleasure in God and anything short of that is going against how we were created. That is the reason Jesus had to go to the cross; we had to be forgiven for us to have any hope of being able to return the the communion with God we were designed for. Jesus didn't just die to free us from guilt, he died so we could be restored to the relationship with God we could not have in our sin.

In conclusion, I think that the root of sin is our adultery against God. We sin because we are seeking to be satisfied by something other than God. I think that we have to earnestly seek after the goal of finding our pleasure in God alone, this doesn't mean that we can't enjoy some of the good things this world has to offer and that were created by God (God created sexuality but we perverted it) but we must place every earthly thing we enjoy below our desire for God. What kind of message would it declare to the world if we didn't need all the earthly pleasures, that all we needed was Jesus to be completely satisfied.

today was rough

Today was a rough day spiritually for me because I fell to some sin today. I am not fully convinced that Satan didn't have some major part in the horrendous guilt I was feeling as a result. But I really have come to rely on grace and been taught some things through it all. I had my faith tested serverely. I feel that I will come out of this funk I am in having a greater trust in Christ. I just didn't feel like myself today and even though things got better tonight, I still don't feel completely myself again. But I am excited tomorrow, for a new day; a day to be myself again and to wake up tomorrow and seek God's life.

This verse meant a lot to me today:
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17 ESV)

Michael Vick's Jury

the worship of knowledge and the lack of wisdom

I don't want to be another person ranting and raving about how this generation's culture is so screwed up, but this is a crazy century; knowledge is something that is everywhere with the Internet and television, so people are learning many things very quickly. It is also interesting that the amount of technical information we have is doubling every two year. It would be a tough argument to say that we are not a smart generation yet I would venture to say that we are definitely not a wise generation of people. Wisdom trumps all knowledge. People don't really care to listen to someone who is smart and knows a lot of facts. But what if we were a culture who was seeking wisdom instead of knowledge, what would that mean?

I have come to realize that, in my own life, I need to be seeking after wisdom. I think that this is a scriptural truth that is so often overlooked. I mean there is a whole book of the bible about wisdom. I love knowledge, its a glorious thing, I love how the Internet makes all sorts of education so accessible. But I also think we can end up going back to the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve had a desire to know what they were never meant to know and it got them kicked out of the garden of Eden and is the cause of of the evil and brokenness we see in the world today. I think we tend to laugh at or ignore wisdom and worship knowledge. I want to find a way to put the brakes on my desire to know and embrace a longing to be wise.

the simple truth

I have realized today that the christian walk at its core is simply about learning to trust and obey God. That is the way that I can draw near to Jesus, I draw near in faith and obedience. Its not about how much time I spend in scripture, or how often I pray, or my list of "good" things I have done for his kingdom. I need to place my hope in the promises of Jesus and obey what the Holy Spirit tells me I need to do. Most of the time the Holy Spirit talks to my through my prayer and reading of scripture but I need to have faith and an attitude of obedience for it to have any real effect.

is this a universal thing?

This is the question that I wish to ask: Does everyone to a greater or lesser to degree have an overarching passion or goal that keeps them going day to day? I know that I have a passion that drives every major decision, but is this true for every human being on the planet?

being totally satisfied

I have to come to the realization this week that my ultimate goal of coming to the point where I am completely satisfied in Jesus alone is much more of a challenge than I thought. I knew it would be hard, but I think I experienced some the difficulty this week and it was harder than I expected. I want to come to a point where I enjoy spending time drawing near to God far more than I desire to do anything else. But I am constantly putting aside my love for Christ for other things. But I have also been realized that I have to rely on Jesus for my ability to draw near to Jesus. Because the truth is the as a flawed, sinful man and the only way I have any hope whatsoever to drawing near to Jesus is through his grace. I need to rely on this for this because, truth be told, my "religion" isn't going to go anywhere by my efforts. My "religion" is all about relying on Jesus for my good deeds and my ability to approach the throne of God. Maybe I am encountering difficulty because a part of me wants to please God by my own efforts, when I can only please God through simply having a child-like faith.

what scripture says about religion

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:19-27 ESV)

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:20-23 ESV)

the problem with religion

Spurgeon's wisdom

He who lives without prayer, he who lives with little prayer, he who seldom reads the Word, and he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high -he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren.
-Charles Spurgeon

it is hard to follow a 2000 year old radical

I think the roughest part of following Jesus is just the fact that it is so dependant on faith. We no longer have Jesus physically walking next to us. I really wish he was here in person. It is so hard to follow someone you can't see and faith is such a difficult thing to have in the 21st century, it sometimes feels weird telling people that you are pursuing a guy who lived 2000 years ago. I have just learned the importance of prayer and scripture in drawing near to God. I think it is our gateway to a two way conversation and relationship with him. We can hear about God or what he has to say through scripture and then we can respond back in prayer and I am starting to believe that the two must go together. We need to not just pray, we need to listen and we also can't just listen, we need to respond. A relationship is always based on a two-way conversation and it would make sense that God wants that kind of relationship with us.

knocking down an idol and returning to the living God

"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." (James 4:1-10 ESV)

Ever since I can remember the computer has always been a part of my life. My dad is a computer programmer so I grew up around computers and in my house the computer is pretty much always in use. What came with that upbringing was a love for computer games. I was never allowed to have a "video game" system in my house, only computer games. So being a child of this generation I played tons of games. I used to play every game I could get a hold of. I remember when my family's computer was a mac II. I remember playing games on that in my early years of elemetary school. Then we got a pc and that opened up a whole world of new types of games to me. Ever since then, 2 new computers later, I have been playing computer games mostly every day of my life. I was never one of those kids who hung out with other "video game nerds" at lunch and just talked about games, actually I have very few friends who actually play any computer games But I have come to the realization that computer games have become a major form of idol worship in my life. I have noticed the suttle way in which my passions are at war within me. I find myself somewhere, not at home, and having a strong desire and anticipation for when I get to go home and play some new game. It is pushing away my desire for Christ and my desire to love him and others. Therefore, I have decided to quit playing computer games indefinitly. I have recognized them as an idol that I need to destroy. I have noticed that when I begin to have passion for computer games it leads me to begin to seek other worldly pleasures that are not of God, ones that are outright sinful. I think that Satan is using my weakness with computer games to lead me quickly down a road that I should never be on. My ultimate desire is that I can so delight myself in God alone that I will look upon everything this world has to offer and see nothing but trash in comparison to my relationship with Christ, not that everything this world offers is neccesarily trash. There are many things that are earthly pleasures that are from God. I want to embrace those things but I realize that this one thing is something I personally struggle with and need to act accordingly.

So I am declaring my vow to cease playing computer games before all you reading this

my toughest battle

I find myself struggling so much with the daily aspects of the christian life. I hate waking up in the morning and having to fight to find my passion of God I had the night before. I know that the christian life is not about emotional highs, but there are times when I just want to worship God in everything I do but then other times when I fight tooth and nail with my worldly passions and getting to the point where I am passionately pursuing God seems near impossible. A want to have a love for Jesus that transcends all my moods and emotions and all times of day. There are times when I just want to draw near to God and other times that drawing near to him seems like a chore. I just wish there was a simple solution to this.

correctly handling the word of God

Here are two lectures on this subject, the first one is short and the second one is really long but definitly worth the time if you have it

1.Why is it important to take the sentences in the Bible seriously?

2.Hermeneutical and Exegetical Integrity Part 1--Part 2

these really got me thinking a ton about how I read the bible and how I process ideas in my head and even how I write things for this blog

some worship videos from Passion07

Fire Fall Down




Marvelous Light

wow

EVERY christian who wants to reach this world needs to listen to this

Part 1
Part 2

School

Tomorrow I start my senior year of high school so I am excited to see how everything I have learned this summer plays out when I go back to school.

pounded with truth

Today was kinda fast-paced spiritually for me. I ended up inadvertently listening to the same sermon from my senior pastor twice. But that was awesome because the first time I was writing everything down and the second time I got to listen very intently. He talked about scripture and its importance and how it is the life-blood of christians and my church. I went and heard him preach the 1st service then I went to high school group during the 2nd service. In high school group we talked about how important it is to be humble and unselfish in our relationship with others and the challenge presented was to start putting others first just in the youth group to start out so that it would carry to other parts of life. This was something that really convicted me and got me thinking about how amazing that would look if my youth group was composed of people who loved each other in a Christ-like way. The other thing that went along with that was our group being a group that just has plenty of spiritual conversations, this also convicted me and made me think about what it would be like if we could just ask people what God is teaching them every week or something. I began to think about ways for me to love others and look out for them spiritually. So then I went to 3rd service expecting to hear our other pastor preach but it turned out that he was not there today so I heard the same sermon again but like I said, it turned out good after all. Also, during the sermon God began to convict my heart about how I lack in loving my own family and how my pride is getting in the way of me being a spiritual leader in my family. I began to realize that my journey learning to love others needs to start with my family. I need to find a way to get past my selfishness and put those in my family first. This is a task that seems ever daunting.

So it is not even noon yet and already God is hitting me with so much. My afternoon is still a whirlwind that might take some time to figure out. I was spending time reading scripture, listening to scripture and also listening to some sermon podcasts because my ipod is finally working again. I also spent some time just allowing myself more and more to listen to God and hear his voice because that is a major thing he has been showing me over the past few days. I have begun to grow more intimate with God as every day passes and it is too amazing for words, I don't think I could ever put it in words if I i spent my life pondering this relationship. On thursday my senior pastor talked a bunch about how the goal of the christian is the get to the point where you are in constant communion with God and you can recognize his voice. Then yesterday I listened to a sermon that was basically about the same thing. So God has been just pounding that truth in me and showing me how he wants me to know him intimately. It has been amazing, I suddenly have a renewed sense of hunger for God that I haven't had in a long time. I hope to keep this hunger and to keep growing closer and closer to my God who I love.

praying for love

I've been thinking more about how christians should go about loving others and I thought about how Jesus, near the end of his life, asked God for his love to embody future believers. I think christians need to start daily praying for love. Because only God-like love will change the world and God-like love must come from God himself and not our efforts. I am making it a goal to begin to pray often for God to give me love, because if receive God's love, I know that there is a chance people can see Jesus through my imperfect life.

this smacked me in the face today

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."
-Jesus (Matthew 13:45-46 ESV)

Dave Dravecky

The former MLB pitcher shares his story

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

something to think about

"love is the new apologetic" -Eric Bryant

a guy's dream

this is a hilarious episode of King of Queens
It was so funny I just had to post it

And I admit it, it may not be right, but this is how guys are

Click here to watch

the way of love

I was watching some videos today about a Christian youth gathering in San Francisco. It saddened me and got me thinking a lot. One of the things that the guy on stage was preaching about was loving people when sharing the gospel but yet one of the things that they did with all the youth was go out to the court house and protest gay marriage and abortion. Then it seemed from the video that they were just yelling at people to just “get Jesus.” First of all I don’t think Christians should be out on the streets protesting, it just doesn’t seem like something I would ever think Jesus would feel the need to do. The youth conference was teaching that the students need be politically outspoken to change the culture around us because it is going downhill to fast and my generation needs to bring some morality. I am still undecided about how involved Christians should be in politics but I just think that trying to change our nation’s morals isn't going to do anything. The truth is that without Jesus, morals mean nothing and you cannot change how someone acts unless you change who they are at the core of their being and only God can do that. But I was thinking about the fact that most Christians preach telling others the truth in love yet we are not seen as loving people. I have even heard it stated that we need to just tell people about hell because the loving part is warning them about the impending doom. I am struggling with this issue because there has to be a balance but it is so hard to find. We must “preach” the word in the classic sense because it was what scripture teaches us and so telling people that they need to repent and receive Jesus is totally and completely biblical. However we must do it in love and I think that most Christians have forgotten what love is. I think we need to be sure we know what love really is. If we look at the life of Christ, he loved by caring for people. He hung out with the poor, the sick, and the despised. He not only preached truth but he went and embodied it by befriending the lowly. I think this is love. Love is caring about people, getting to know who people are, giving up your time to treat others like they are the only person that exists on the planet. I am amazed at how little I put other people before myself. I am a selfish person and this is a huge struggle for me. But the other point is that we should love to love the ones we don't want to love. We shouldn't do it out of obligation because that is not true love. To love someone just because they are human beings created in the image of God Almighty is something beautiful. It is such a tough balance but love has to be first.

Scripture just screams this idea


If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor 13:1-7 NIV)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12 ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:14-40 ESV)

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8 ESV)

I sometimes just wonder what it would be like if Christians would just lay their selfishness down, I wonder if I could lay my selfishness down and just love people and care for people and give up my time to treat others like the human beings they really are. You know what the main problem with the evolutionary world view? In that viewpoint, human beings are nothing more than animals. If you say you believe that we were created by God let us treat each other like that is true.

When I say that I want to display the steadfast love of God, this is what I mean, I want to treat and love people like they are people just like me. People with hopes, dreams, desires, and hurts.

Internet Crash

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Cross Talk

cool story posted by Ben Witherington

check it out

who I want to be

It seems like I am suddenly learning some things about myself that I never realized before. I can’t seem to figure why I am suddenly face to face with these things. Maybe it’s just because I am in the stage of life where I am making some big decisions about who I am going to be as an adult. Like my previous post where I was articulating a passion of mine. I think more and more that I personally need to live more passionately. I want to be able to articulate my personal passion and give myself to living it out. I hate apathetic people and I hate when I become one myself.

I googled(my spell checker didn’t like that word) Apathetic and the word definition is:

“Void of feeling; not susceptible of deep emotion; passionless; indifferent.”

I don’t want to be like this but I am caught in that trap constantly. Scripture tells too many story’s of passionate people and the difference they have made to spur me on to be a person full of passion.

I have decided what I will ask God for
This is it:

“May my soul run earnestly after you and continually rejoice in and display your steadfast love”

I want this to be my statement, my prayer of who I want to be

If you ever see me doing something or saying something that displays that I am not running earnestly after God or I am not rejoicing in his steadfast love or I am not displaying it please kindly let me know or yell at me, whatever it takes for me to realize it.


P.S. I am still working on this prayer so I might end up revising it again later, we shall see, I am still pondering all this.

love and my desire

I have been thinking about the love of God. It is just so amazing that his love never changes, that is something that has become foreign in the corrupted version of creation that we live in. Sin has destroyed love. Love has become dependant on the other person’s looks or performance. The bible describes God’s love many times as steadfast. It is completely independent of anything we do or are. This truth gives me a desire and a passion for God. He loved me first so I want to love him back with everything I have. I want God to be my first love, I want to put my love for him in front of my family, my future wife or anyone else or anything else.

I asked God something today

I asked for soul that runs earnestly after him

This is my ultimate desire

Powerful Beauty

Your hand
Holds the earth
You see
The boundaries
Of the universe

The stars tremble
At the sound of your voice
Creation declares
That you are real
And you are glorious

You see wickedness
And you declare justice
But you remember
Those who love your name
And you bring salvation

The heavens
Bow down before you
Yet you know
Your servants by name

You command
The galaxies
Yet you give mercy
To Sinners

sorrow

I was just struck tonight by sadness. I almost feel like crying. I spent some time with a bunch of people tonight and I was listening to their conversations and my heart fell. Just by what sin and what wickness is glorified in the lives of many. It is so sad. It reminds me again how corrupted creation has become. How people now find pleasure and enjoyment in things like sex and alcohol or drugs. We were designed to find pleasure in God alone. I was reading today about how Jesus wept of Jerusalem because he saw the consequences that were to come because they rejected him. I think I felt something similar tonight. I don’t want people to throw away their lives pursuing earthly pleasures when God offers them pure joy.

returning to my first love

I have had a rough time these past few weeks since I got back from camping. I started to drift from my love relationship with Christ and I fell into complacency and began to seek for pleasure in worldly things. It was really rough on my spiritually and now I feel like I have to relearn some things (which is a scary thought). But I have come to realize how far I have fallen backward and I am fighting to get back on my feet. The Lord is just so amazing in his grace and the fact that he is so much greater than any earthly pleasure. I have to keep reminding myself and embracing that truth. It is so hard. There is a famous quote that says that “the hardest thing about the Christian life is that it is so daily.” I think I have come to see that as a powerful truth. It is so hard to daily surrender to God and to wake up every morning and give your day for his glory and just get out of bed running after Jesus. And the more and more I make compromises in my relationship with Jesus the harder and harder it becomes to return to it. I want to know God, to find my pleasure in who he is.

Why Did the Bridge Collapse?

passion

we need to fight, to battle

to live passionately

if not we are wasting our time

Work of Art

every artist seeks to create beauty
a painting
a portrait
a sculpture
a melody
a sonnet
a photograph
a color
an expression

but the great artist has reason to boast
for the massive blue expanse is his canvas
the proud mountains his paintings
the trees are his handiwork
the living creatures his expression
and the chorus for his melody

yet he has revealed his masterpiece
the declaration of his life
the image of his soul
his portrait
the ultimate work of art

Man

Sex God

I finished the book yesterday and i LOVED it


you should read it.

Check it Out

cool nooma video

015 You - Rob Bell

love

God has revealed to me his love in a new way. I just got back from a mission’s trip to Denver, Colorado. It was amazing, I’m not going to talk about all the details right now, but I want to talk about the main thing God taught me this week. I saw the power of love firsthand. Our team did a lot of things related to the homeless of Denver. We got to just love people. I had never really had that perspective on Christian outreach- just Love. But I have found it is the key. Love is the key and the power of Christ. I see what joy it is to just love God first and love people with that love that only comes from Christ. I want my life to be a living example of the love of Christ. I want to just love people for being people. I don’t think I ever saw other people as human. I saw people as statistics, or stereotypes, or projects and not human beings just like me. To see people as human beings completely changes how I relate to people and opens up doors for me to just love them.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”-Matthew 22:36-40 ESV

the faith of Moses

"By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward."
(Hebrews 11:24-26 ESV)

I am amazed by the faith Moses had. I mean how someone can view reproach as greater than the best treasures this world has to offer blows my mind. If I didn’t know what it was like to know Christ, I would put this guy in a mental institution. Moses denied the ability to be called the son of the king of all he new. In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered a god. Moses probably knew he had a chance to one day be the Pharaoh and “god.” I want the faith that Moses had, to give up the pleasures of sin with the eternal glory Jesus promises us in view. I think that our amount of faith in God determines how we fight sin. I think that sometimes I sin because I have little faith in God’s promises. I think Moses had a faith that could see God’s reward in a powerful way. I know that when I see Jesus in his beauty; Sin and worldly pleasures seem like dirt. It’s the times when I have little faith and have trouble seeing how beautiful Christ is, worldly pleasures seems so marvelous. I think that when Moses saw the reproach of Christ, he saw the day that the glory of Jesus that would be revealed and would display true pleasure. He was looking forward to the reward of being a friend of Jesus on that day as well as what Jesus promised to give him after that day. I am constantly asking God to help me to not forget the beauty of Jesus, and to remember the truth about what this world really has to offer.

It is time to declare War!

"Be killing sin or it will be killing you."
-John Owen

"we owe the flesh nothing but enmity and war."
-John Piper

". . . there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. . . Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. . . . The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. . . . There is something about war that sharpens the senses . . . You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little of no sleep, war keeps us vigilant."
-Ed Welch

 "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:12-13 ESV)

Disciplined

Discipline is something that I have not implemented very much in my life. I have routines, but I am very spontaneous. I have always thought that, when it comes to my relationship with God, I need to always just “want” to spend time with him. I never thought I should spend time with him when I didn’t have the desire to, I felt it was wrong to do it that way. But I have learned that God wants us to be disciplined. He wants us to spend time with him even when we don’t desire to. He wants us to set appointments with him and keep them no matter where we are emotionally. That is true discipline. I have begun to implement some new disciplines like this in my life. I also have begun to realize the benefits and importance of fasting. Before, I never really considered fasting anything special or worth doing. But I have realized that it is very crucial and important to my relationship with Jesus.

this made me laugh

Jewish Olympic Swimmer

satisfaction

I am not satisfied in my relationship with Christ right now, I wish He was my absolute treasure, something that I desire more than any TV show, computer game, time with my friends, or any other earthly pleasure. I feel the fight to make him my treasure seems so daunting and I still have a selfish fear of losing earthly things. But I am glad I am not satisfied, I hope to be never satisfied, I believe that it is dangerous to be satisfied in my relationship with Christ, I need to be constantly feeling the need to grow. My pursuit of God must be continuous for me to find him.

I hate sin

I hate sin
I hate what it can do
I hate how it destroys lives
I hate how it ruins relationships
I hate how it killed my Jesus
I hate how finds its way in
I hate its deceitfulness
I hate how it lies
I hate how it blinds
I hate how it destroys
I hate how it corrupts
I hate how it hides and waits to attack
I hate what it has done to God's beautiful creation
I hate how it makes creation groan
I hate how it makes me groan
I hate how it distorts beauty and love
I hate how it brings death
I hate how it warps our understanding of Jesus
I hate how it eats away churches
I hate how it brings shame
I hate how it loves falsehood and hates the truth
I hate how it has hurt my Jesus
I hate sin

"The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate"(Proverbs 8:13 ESV)


Jesus please come back soon! destroy sin once and for all

my hope is in the day when sin is no longer and I am free to worship Jesus at his feet without shame

"Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak...
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man"(psalm 12:1-2,8 ESV)

Wartime Lifestyle

back early

I am back early for mulitple reason, and have learned a few things about myself through this 4 day break and it has been good

one week

I am taking a week off the computer to focus on other things
I will be back May 27

Beauty part 2

I have come to realize that my joy in Christ comes from my experience beholding the beauty of Jesus. It is what draws sinners to the cross. When Jesus’ blood is seen as the beautiful sacrifice that cleanses this sin that is such an infinite offense to God, there no response but to run toward and embrace Him as savior. I read something by Jonathan Edwards that talked about this very thing. He basically said that believers are held captive by the beauty of Christ and unrepentant sinners will never (even when Christ’s glory is revealed to the world) see the loveliness and beauty of Christ. Then he goes on to say that if someone sees the beauty of Christ, it produces a love of God that is far greater than just the love someone feels for God because he loves them.

David in the psalms makes a request of the Lord. He states “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). That was David’s yearning. He wanted to gaze upon the amazing beauty of God. That is one of the many reasons why a christian wants to go to heaven. I long for the day when I get to see Christ in his glorified beauty. I can not wait for the day when the Bible says I get to see God face to face. When I seriously try to picture the beauty that is in Jesus I have trouble holding back the tears. That true beauty is so overwhelming. The word for beauty in that psalm could also mean benevolence. One could infer that David is talking about how the beauty of Christ is found in his kindness. The Bible does say that God’s kindness is what leads men to repentance (Romans 2:4). Some of the most beautiful aspects of Christ are his kindness, his love, and his patience with us.

However, I think that the most beautiful thing that christians get to experience on this earth is the cross; the time when God became a human to live among his creation and spill his innocent blood. How often I forget what really happened at the cross. I think we fail to realize how innocent and pure the blood of Jesus really was. The reason that christians can preach that the blood of Jesus can cover all sin is because it was the purest blood the world had ever seen. It was a blood so innocent no human being should be allowed to go near the one whose veins that blood flowed thru. This blood should be infinitely precious to us. I think to often in our culture we are trying to find ourselves within our selves. We try to found our worth in our self-esteem or self-love, but we should find our worth solely in the sacrifice of Jesus. We have been cleansed by the purest of blood, the blood of God himself. I want to be captivated by that beauty.

watch this

Beauty part 1

Beauty is something that can make me cry. I know, I am a guy, I am not supposed to cry, but there is something about beauty that makes me so happy the tears flow. Now, when most people think of beauty, they think of things in nature, a painting, a pretty girl, or even an emotion. But what about that mysterious beauty that is found solely in Jesus? It is that beauty which brings tears to my eyes.

The more I pursue my relationship with Jesus, the more he seems to reveal to me his magnificence. It is like beholding every wonder this world has at the same time and it is magnified because of the mysterious element where the true beauty is found. Mystery is something that draws many people. Curiosity itself stems from a desire to understand the mysteries of this world. This curiosity and love of mystery can be found in the Eastern religions. Their appeal is from the idea that someone can take a leap of faith into the mysterious and hope to find what they are looking for.

The difference with Christ as opposed to other religions is the fact that he is both personal and full of mystery at the same time. It is a strange hybrid between the known and the unknown. The mysteries of God come from our inability in our finite minds to understand a God who is outside of time. There is such beauty in the pursuit of this God that so far beyond yet so intimately close at the same time.

Sin comes from our desire for things of this world that to our narrow perspective seem beautiful but are really a forsaking of true beauty. For instance, you could find a beautiful aspect to selfishness. It feels good to fulfill my longing for the simple pleasures this world supplies. You could find that beautiful but is a warped understanding of beauty.

I think that the beauty of Christ is not necessarily something that we experience in a new way every day. The picture of Christ we have in the complete written word of God is so absolutely beautiful that it needs nothing to be complete in our minds. This is where the mystery comes in. The fact that even though it seems so full, that it must be complete, it barley touches the surface of Christ’s true beauty that could not be fully revealed to mankind because it is so beyond our understanding. It is something (when I go about my life) I want to see it again. It is a beauty that seems too good to be true, but it is and there is so much more.

my plans

I am already making plans to turn this blog into a book. I am going to take some stuff I have written on here and expand on it as well as add much more. I know, I am a little young to be writing a full book, but that just means I have plenty of time to work on it. I have really learned to enjoy writing; I guess you could say it’s my new hobby/passion. Writing allows me to express myself to a degree I would never be able to in speech. Writing is more fine tuned and articulate and I have time the think long and hard about everything I say before I say it. I have a notebook I carry around with me so I can write whenever I am sitting around doing nothing. So please give me feedback on my writings, I want to hear what you like and what you think I can do better.

Theology

Theology is a great tool in which to study the bible, how Christians should live, to understanding the world, and it help to keep our minds on the things of God.

But

I sometimes feel like some of it is futile. What is there to be gained from applying human understanding to a God who is so far above it? I think theology can lead to a lot of fundamentalism and a loss of the simple, powerful, and life changing truths of the bible.

Well let me take that back

Theology is good as long it is kept in a humble perspective. I think people can get so wrap-up in their theology that they forget that theology is very far from perfect. I think it would be dangerous to live your life based on a theological idea. (Other than the theology of salvation through Jesus alone, I think that is indisputable) But yea, I think trust in God is far more important than understanding him. I think loving God and People is much more of a priority than understanding theology.

Besides (this may be a little naïve of me, and you theology guys might chew my head off for this) but why not just wait till heaven when we get all eternity to study God right there in his presence! Let’s focus all our attention on loving and reaching this world which is lost and spinning out of control fast.

I don’t know, I am kind of just rambling, what do you think?

freedom!

John 8:34-36
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I have had to come to grips with the true meaning of what Jesus was saying today. In my struggle with sin my goal is always to please God. But what if that was not what our focus should be? Maybe our focus should really be on simply trusting God. As Christians our hope isn’t in our ability to fight off sin and sin less, but it is in Christ and the fact that sin no longer has any real dominion over us. In our battle with sin we must look solely to the grace of God and trust in that beautiful, marvelous grace. We are free indeed in the shadow of the cross.

The Beauty of Christ

This blog really got me thinking

when christians fall

here is what we can learn from that and how we can find ecouragement

crazy week

It has been a very crazy week this past week. I pretty much spent all week at school working as part of the stage crew on my school's musical (Fiddler on the Roof). It was a hard 6 days for me. I came face to face with some of my weaknesses. Spending so much time with all my friends in the stage crew gave me an opportunity to be who I really am. Now it gave me the opportunity but I didn't really use it. I feel back on just being the shallow me that I tend to be around others. It is so hard for me to open up sometimes. I have no courage to do it and no wisdom in how and when. Only when it is just me and Jesus then am I able to feel like I can be myself. That is good and all but it won’t help any when it comes to displaying who Jesus really is to those around me. I want people to see the Jesus that is a radical and life-changing force. It hurts me when so many people see Jesus as a religious character or even as a big god in the sky. And I have no courage to speak up about him. I feel like this whole week I couldn’t open myself up at all. When I open myself, it results in showing what I really deep down care about and that is solely Christ. I mean, I owe him everything. My life, my breath, my everything is his because of what he has done. But I, out of fear, or lack of courage, or lack of wisdom, or even selfishness, tend to bury that. I am at the prime of my high school years but all I can do is feel sorrow because so many of those I talk to every day at school are missing the ability to partake of the beauty, the hope which is knowing Christ and sharing in his glory. Part of it is the fact that I am afraid if I put myself out there, than all those peoples’ religious backgrounds will destroy their ability to understand the gospel of Jesus, how he can do it ALL for them. I wish I could just gather every friend I have together and just sit with them and share the story of the bible with them. The story of why Jesus is such a big deal to me. I guess you could say that is my far-fetched dream. But I just wish it was easier to for me to speak up. I have also, in my busyness been shown what it is like if I fail to spend time everyday with my God. Every day that goes by without spending time with him leads me more and more down the path I don’t want to take. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Christ would have me do with my free time. I don’t feel like spending time on the computer or playing guitar or whatever is the best thing to be doing. But I don’t know what else to do. I want to live every moment of every day for the glory of God but I am not sure how, practically, to do that. I have been praying a lot lately that the Lord would give me wisdom on what to do 

easter reflections

Easter has always been just another holiday to me. It has always been a sunday where I go to church, and then listen to people talk about Jesus rising from the dead. I would then go home and have an easter egg hunt and just sit around and think about candy. This year has been very different for me. It has had a lot more meaning and has been kind of a depressing weekend. Starting on good friday i have been overcome with thinking of the horrors of the crucifixion. I am amazed at how Christ, who was God in the flesh, let himself be led to the slaughter by his own creation. He was their king, their king and creator. How does that happen? What kind of evil is it to kill your own creator. And was blows me away is that Christ was able to forgive those who did it. The creator was able to forgive those who spit on him and hung him on a cross. What kind of a God is that forgiving? And I was also thinking about it from the disciples perspective, the bible seems to suggest many of them didn't understand Jesus when he said he was coming back. What a horrible night for them, to see the man they had followed as the son of God be murdered in such a brutal way. That must have been a sleepless night for most of them, it might have even been a sleepless 2 nights.

As I progressed through the weekend and got to today I have been so grateful Jesus is alive again. I am so thankful that he rose again. If he were still dead this world would have no hope, my pursuit of God would be in vain. I would be on the fast track to hell with no way out. Jesus would have proven to be a fake. I would have no hope of any salvation. But the truth is that he is alive! He came out of the tomb to the great joy of the disciples. The resurrection is the believers' joy! Let the words "He is Risen" fill you with a new and fresh joy this easter.

What can one man do for God?

Ever wondered what a single person can do for the kingdom of heaven?

check this out:

Good and Bad Religion

This is sweet sermon from the senior pastor at my church last sunday

Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus Christ

This is SWEET!

Just thought i would share one of my favorite Psalms:

-Psalm 63-

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

This is how I want to live my life-Always seeking God like david in this psalm!

"The Morning I Heard the Voice of God"

God can still speak today.

Check it out

joy, dancing, and sorrow

There are times in my life where i experience joy that is so complete that I want to just blow up. Times I want to just run around screaming "I LOVE JESUS!!" Sometimes my joy makes me speecheless. I have had times when I could not speak, I can only cry. When I get to see God face to face in heaven, I am scared I might just blow up! In 2 Samuel 6:14 David, The King!, dances before the Lord just because the ark of the covenant was brought back to Jerusalem. How much more reason, given Jesus, do we as christians have to dance. And the beauty of our dancing, is the fact that it is an act of not only overflowing joy but of surrender to the God of the universe. We empty everything we are before God and he fills us back up overflowing.

But there is another part to this joy. With this knowledge and joy comes sorrow. The sorrow I think that Jesus had when he weeped over Jerusalem. I have sorrow for the people who are completely missing all this joy. The ones who the bible says are blinded to the Gospel. I have wept over my friends before because I fear they will never know Jesus and his radical power to change lives. I ask the question constantly before God: "why me?, why did you reveal your gospel to me? I am just as guilty as the rest of the world! I deserve HELL, and you showed me the way! why can't others see this truth too? Why have you allowed the god of this age to blind anyone's mind?"

If you are reading this and you don't know Jesus in a way that he makes you want to blow up for joy I plead with you to get to know him like that. If you are a christian, forsake yourself and give everything to him. If you are not a christian, come to the cross of Christ and he will give you forgiveness and life and Joy. He can make you right with God solely by his sacrifice.

our focus and pleasure

C.S. Lewis says that

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

That is a true that is hard to grasp sometimes in life. Facing my failures in life, I sometimes can see that the reason for my failures is that I love cheap, easy pleasure. So often during my day, spending time with God is not something that I look to for enjoyment. I want to quick, easy pleasures to enjoy. I so often lose sight of the joy I have found in God. I too easily forget what it is like to communion with Jesus. I hate losing focus.

As a christian, my focus should be on Jesus. If my focus strays but a little, life becomes that much harder and regretful.
It's hard for me to live among people of this world. When the whole world is focused on these cheap pleasures, I begin to be influenced by that without even knowing it. Even the christians I know can hurt me when I see them focused on other things as well. Why do christians talk about video games, or movies, or sports when they get together. I don't mean that those things are bad to talk about, but what about when they are ALL christians talk about. I don't know about you, but i LOVE to talk about Jesus. I like theology because it gives us a way to talk about God by using the resources of our minds.

I guess all I'm saying is that christianity and church is all about Jesus, and our lives should be the same. And that, is one of the easiest things to say and the hardest to do.

Who then are you, my God?

I have been reading Augustine's Confessions. This is the way he describes God:

Who then are you, my God? What, I ask, but God who is Lord? For 'who is the Lord but the Lord', or 'who is God but our God?' (Ps 17:32). Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge' (Job 9:5, Old Latin version); always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' (Gen 6:6) without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains (Luke 15:7); you are never avaricious, yet you require interest (Matt. 25:27). We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? (I Cor. 4:7). You pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, they have nothing to say.

Who is Jesus?

Chuck Missler wrote this sweet little article or poem or whatever you want to call it answering that question called "My King"

Spurgeon on salvation

I read this awhile ago in Charles H. Spurgeon's morning and evening devotional book and i really liked it, and don't be surprised if in the future i put more of these up because i love Spurgeon's writings.

Mr. MacDonald asked the inhabitants of the island of St. Kilda how a man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be saved if we repent, and forsake our sins, and turn to God." "Yes," said a middle-aged female, "and with a true heart too." "Aye," rejoined a third, "and with prayer"; and, added a fourth, "It must be the prayer of the heart." "And we must be diligent too," said a fifth, "in keeping the commandments." Thus, each having contributed his mite, feeling that a very decent creed had been made up, they all looked and listened for the preacher's approbation, but they had aroused his deepest pity. The carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self can work and become great, but the Lord's way is quite the reverse. Believing and being baptized are no matters of merit to be gloried in—they are so simple that boasting is excluded, and free grace bears the palm. It may be that the reader is unsaved—what is the reason? Do you think the way of salvation as laid down in the text to be dubious? How can that be when God has pledged his own word for its certainty? Do you think it too easy? Why, then, do you not attend to it? Its ease leaves those without excuse who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to depend, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit to the ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which the converted ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer yielded obedience the very night of his conversion. The outward sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are you still an unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if you will not enter by it you will perish in your sins.

Jesus

Jesus. Is that name beautiful to you? I know it is to me. Sometimes when I heard his name spoken in worship I almost want to cry because they are talking about the name of the beautiful savior to whom I owe everything to. The name Jesus in itself is a beautiful name and what makes it the most beautiful is the fact that it is the name of my God. I was listening to a worship cd the other day and they sang "we fall down" in swahili. The name of Jesus is Yesu in swahili and it sounds sweet to the ear. I've been trying to figure out what exactly I am going to be putting in this blog and I think it would be cool if I could just talk a lot about Jesus. I mean compared to Jesus, everything else seems so trivial and unimportant. Jesus is both the supreme God and King over everything that has been made but he is also the intimate lover of our souls. He is not only the powerful voice that demands obedience but he is also the one who helps us the obey. He is the one who brings judgement, death, and wrath but he is also the one who took that wrath upon himself and gave us eternal life. If you know this Jesus, please give his name the credit it deserves.

the room

This as a real dream Josh Harris had. It really makes you think.

so check it out:


In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features save for the one wall covered with small index-card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endlessly in either direction, had very different headings. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I Have Liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one.And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match.A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed."The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I Have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed At." Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger," "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped.I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived. Could it be possible that I had the time in my 20 years to write each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.When I pulled out the file marked "Songs I Have Listened To," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of music, but more by the vast amount of time I knew that file represented.When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded.An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind: "No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In an insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear itDefeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw it. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand.And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key.But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him. No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus.I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one?Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me.Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card."No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood.He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished."I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.

Welcome to my blog

I am Victor Ware and I am a brand new blogger here. You don't need to know that much about me other than that I am a sinner and that Jesus Christ is my savior. My goal in life is to seek this savior with everything I am. This blog is so I can put down things that i encounter in this journey toward knowing this savior. The title of this blog comes from the idea of having a reverence for God even though he is so mysterious and so above human understanding. I hope you will enjoy reading this blog.