I got an email the other day from a friend who I hadn’t talked to in years. I was open with her about my faith and sent her updates every once in a while about what was going on in my life, prayer requests and all. I had no idea where she was in her spiritual walk, but I just kept being real with her.
Well, I hadn’t communicated with her, except for my Christmas, and moving updates, etc. Then a year since I had last heard from her I got an email thanking me for my friendship and asking for prayer! I found this so encouraging, I had no idea if I had had any impact on her life, but apparently I had!
Keep being a light and being real with those around you, you do not know what kind of impact you might be having!
God is so amazing… this happened later that same day again! Someone who I had been praying for for a long time and hadn’t heard from in about a year sent me a message encouraging me to keep following Christ and that the words that I shared with them have helped and encouraged them a lot this last while.
I was having a really rough day when I got these emails… God has His timing and knows when we need encouragement!
Then the other day we were having a chapel at school where everyone was supposed to take time to encourage someone who is on their hearts. This is always a neat experience, it is so surprising who makes a point to encourage me. People that I think I have not connected with at all, or who I think I have just not been able to gel with at all end up walking up to me and thanking me, praying for me and encouraging me. I find this so interesting! People who I think I have not had an effect on at all end up thanking me for who I am and what I have done in their lives!God works in people, even when we don’t know it!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Pollution from the heart
I was reading my Bible the other day, I have decided to focus more on the Gospels, just to read the words and life of Jesus from the different perspectives is a pretty cool experience.
Well, I came across the following verses from Mark 7 and they really spoke to me:
The Source of Your Pollution
1-4 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans).
5The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?"
6-8Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn't in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don't mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God's command
and taking up the latest fads."
9-13He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this."
14-15Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution."
17When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language."
18-19Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."
There is so much packed into this chapter on so many levels, that now writing about it I don’t know where to start and stop. I think we often act very religious with how we act, we feel that is we dress the right way, say the right things, or are at the right places at the right times then we are religious and better than others. But, God cares about what is coming from our hearts, not from our vocal chords, or what others can see us do.
God cares about our hearts of worship to him, not what we look like.
I yearn to be more like Christ and to keep my heart pure in worship, not to care about doing things the way that is socially acceptable to those around me. I pray that God will keep me pure, so that I do not vomit filth, but instead have the aroma of Christ all over me!I don’t know if this made any sense to you, but it is what God has been telling me lately.
Well, I came across the following verses from Mark 7 and they really spoke to me:
The Source of Your Pollution
1-4 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans).
5The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?"
6-8Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn't in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don't mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God's command
and taking up the latest fads."
9-13He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this."
14-15Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution."
17When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language."
18-19Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."
There is so much packed into this chapter on so many levels, that now writing about it I don’t know where to start and stop. I think we often act very religious with how we act, we feel that is we dress the right way, say the right things, or are at the right places at the right times then we are religious and better than others. But, God cares about what is coming from our hearts, not from our vocal chords, or what others can see us do.
God cares about our hearts of worship to him, not what we look like.
I yearn to be more like Christ and to keep my heart pure in worship, not to care about doing things the way that is socially acceptable to those around me. I pray that God will keep me pure, so that I do not vomit filth, but instead have the aroma of Christ all over me!I don’t know if this made any sense to you, but it is what God has been telling me lately.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Testimonies are a gift from God!
This morning I was reading my Bible and thinking about life. I started thinking about heaven and the afterlife. Just wondering, what if I am wrong, then what would happen after this life is over! Life seems so surreal so much of the time… it almost feels like a dream. And the fact that I am so busy that I never even take time to relax and think doesn’t help it not feel like a dream! Days fly by so fast… that is another posting though, so I will get back to the topic at hand.
I started to wonder if my faith and choices were just because of my upbringing, kind of scary. But, then it dawned on me, as it does whenever someone asks me that question, I just need to look at my life and the lives of those around me to solidify my faith again! When doubts enter my mind I just need to think about my testimony. And look back on what God has done.
So, I was so encouraged, to keep the faith we just need to share with each other what God has done in our lives. I look back at the changes that have happened in so many of my friends from high school and it is incredible. One cannot argue a person's testimony! A person cannot argue what God has done in my friends’ lives. One does not change in the ways that they have without the supernatural being involved!
I think we need to share our testimonies with each other more often, they are so encouraging!
I think that is so incredible, simple, yet incredible!
God is so good to us,
Jadon OUT
PS. I don’t think of death all the time… just was thinking about where the backbone of my faith was situated!
I started to wonder if my faith and choices were just because of my upbringing, kind of scary. But, then it dawned on me, as it does whenever someone asks me that question, I just need to look at my life and the lives of those around me to solidify my faith again! When doubts enter my mind I just need to think about my testimony. And look back on what God has done.
So, I was so encouraged, to keep the faith we just need to share with each other what God has done in our lives. I look back at the changes that have happened in so many of my friends from high school and it is incredible. One cannot argue a person's testimony! A person cannot argue what God has done in my friends’ lives. One does not change in the ways that they have without the supernatural being involved!
I think we need to share our testimonies with each other more often, they are so encouraging!
I think that is so incredible, simple, yet incredible!
God is so good to us,
Jadon OUT
PS. I don’t think of death all the time… just was thinking about where the backbone of my faith was situated!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Definition of Worship
A definition of worship as an activity that we practice on a Sunday morning between 10.30 and 11.30, mainly through singing ‘worship’ songs, is inadequate. Of course, corporate public worship is an important part of our spiritual lives. However, the biblical view of worship is a seven-days-a-week lifestyle activity, rather than requiring but one hour on a Sunday morning. This point is made clearly in Romans 12:1: ‘Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.’
We are to worship God and represent Christ all the time in all things. That is, everything in life is to be an act of worship to God. It is a million miles from the religion of ‘keep Sunday holy and do what you like the rest of the week’. The Christian is to please God in everything, by doing it as if for God. That includes sport.
This thought is well encapsulated in the scene from the film Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddell’s thoughts as he runs are, ‘God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure.’ More and more Christians have come to see sport, played with the right attitude, as something that can bring pleasure to God.
Those twenty words from Chariots of Fire are very familiar but how many people know how the quotation continues? The full quotation is, ‘I believe God made me for a purpose —for China—but when I run I feel his pleasure and to give it up would be to hold him in contempt. To win is to honour him.’ In the second sentence, the idea is that not to use the talent he has been given would be to dishonour God.Thus the full picture of sport is as part of God’s creation, spoiled by sin, redeemed by Christ so that we can worship God in sport as in everything else.
We are to worship God and represent Christ all the time in all things. That is, everything in life is to be an act of worship to God. It is a million miles from the religion of ‘keep Sunday holy and do what you like the rest of the week’. The Christian is to please God in everything, by doing it as if for God. That includes sport.
This thought is well encapsulated in the scene from the film Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddell’s thoughts as he runs are, ‘God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure.’ More and more Christians have come to see sport, played with the right attitude, as something that can bring pleasure to God.
Those twenty words from Chariots of Fire are very familiar but how many people know how the quotation continues? The full quotation is, ‘I believe God made me for a purpose —for China—but when I run I feel his pleasure and to give it up would be to hold him in contempt. To win is to honour him.’ In the second sentence, the idea is that not to use the talent he has been given would be to dishonour God.Thus the full picture of sport is as part of God’s creation, spoiled by sin, redeemed by Christ so that we can worship God in sport as in everything else.
What is Worship
I wrote this in mid-September, and sent it to quite a few people, but figured I could post it, since it is still close to my heart... I want to be held accountable on this!
September 7th, 2007
God spoke to me today and then again this evening. I feel that I am supposed to share it with you while it is still fresh in my mind.
It isn't that profound or anything, but I would really appreciate prayer in this as well. I apologize for its length, or even for some of you, possibly its feeling of irrelevance, but this is on my heart.
I have found that I keep focusing on logistics and I have gotten really frustrated with work. It is amazing how I have maybe worked a total of 6 weeks at this job and I already lost focus. There have been several really big programmatic things that have arisen and I have found that I became really focused on trying to do the right thing and to please everyone around me as much as possible. I was doing it all on my own strength and kept running into walls.
It is funny, because as I was doing all of this I was talking to everyone about how sport can be used to glorify and worship God, but at the same time I wasn't doing that. I found that everything was head knowledge but I wasn't applying it. Well, today we had a meeting to discuss a few of the topics in a faculty meeting and God just worked in my heart. Throughout my life I have seen how so many people think of sport as a secondary activity, and sluff off the idea of it having any real significance beside being a fun activity to get exercise. That music, drama and the arts are a worthy form of worship. I am not saying that anyone was saying this specifically, but it was something that got in my head and woke me up. I know how sport is such a universal language and how amazing it can be to use it to worship God and I kept saying this to people for the last two months, but getting frustrated finally woke me up!
In chapel today we had a sharing time and one of our athletes said that Romans 12:1-2 had really spoken to him about how worship is not just music. This stirred my heart again and kind of sat there until this evening. I want to offer my body and life as a sacrifice to God in worship, every part of me!
I saw the gym open tonight, and decided to just dribble the ball around the gym. It was such an amazing time of worship and just talking to God and listening to His voice, no music, just me, the ball and God! It felt so, so good to just release all my thoughts to Him and give Him control again!
He really spoke to me about my heart and focus. There is nothing wrong with me wanting to do the right thing or trying to get the logistics right, but there were some foundational, simple things that I was missing, and that is to take the real time to worship Him and use the opportunities that He has given me!
All these things that I worry and work at must be worked at, but I need to still have my eyes focused on Him!
Even in my preparation to do a session with the athletes on the Audience of One Principle, I was focusing on every audience but this One important Audience of CHRIST!
I have such awesome opportunities here, and I have neglected them so much! I want to take the time to pray with each coach this week and with each athletic team, and just cast the vision that I think God has for this Bible College through our prayer time together!
I also have the privilege of being an athletic director in a league with four other Bible Colleges, why don't we take this privilege to pray together!
Anyway, that is my sermon today, I am never short winded. I would just like your prayer in this and I pray that maybe it might have encouraged a few of you as well! I want to do the right things and help the students on this campus worship Christ with every area of their lives, including through sport! I want to be a living example of that. I pray that Christ will give me confidence with students, coaches, staff etc, to share what He has put on my heart!
Thank you,
Jadon
September 7th, 2007
God spoke to me today and then again this evening. I feel that I am supposed to share it with you while it is still fresh in my mind.
It isn't that profound or anything, but I would really appreciate prayer in this as well. I apologize for its length, or even for some of you, possibly its feeling of irrelevance, but this is on my heart.
I have found that I keep focusing on logistics and I have gotten really frustrated with work. It is amazing how I have maybe worked a total of 6 weeks at this job and I already lost focus. There have been several really big programmatic things that have arisen and I have found that I became really focused on trying to do the right thing and to please everyone around me as much as possible. I was doing it all on my own strength and kept running into walls.
It is funny, because as I was doing all of this I was talking to everyone about how sport can be used to glorify and worship God, but at the same time I wasn't doing that. I found that everything was head knowledge but I wasn't applying it. Well, today we had a meeting to discuss a few of the topics in a faculty meeting and God just worked in my heart. Throughout my life I have seen how so many people think of sport as a secondary activity, and sluff off the idea of it having any real significance beside being a fun activity to get exercise. That music, drama and the arts are a worthy form of worship. I am not saying that anyone was saying this specifically, but it was something that got in my head and woke me up. I know how sport is such a universal language and how amazing it can be to use it to worship God and I kept saying this to people for the last two months, but getting frustrated finally woke me up!
In chapel today we had a sharing time and one of our athletes said that Romans 12:1-2 had really spoken to him about how worship is not just music. This stirred my heart again and kind of sat there until this evening. I want to offer my body and life as a sacrifice to God in worship, every part of me!
I saw the gym open tonight, and decided to just dribble the ball around the gym. It was such an amazing time of worship and just talking to God and listening to His voice, no music, just me, the ball and God! It felt so, so good to just release all my thoughts to Him and give Him control again!
He really spoke to me about my heart and focus. There is nothing wrong with me wanting to do the right thing or trying to get the logistics right, but there were some foundational, simple things that I was missing, and that is to take the real time to worship Him and use the opportunities that He has given me!
All these things that I worry and work at must be worked at, but I need to still have my eyes focused on Him!
Even in my preparation to do a session with the athletes on the Audience of One Principle, I was focusing on every audience but this One important Audience of CHRIST!
I have such awesome opportunities here, and I have neglected them so much! I want to take the time to pray with each coach this week and with each athletic team, and just cast the vision that I think God has for this Bible College through our prayer time together!
I also have the privilege of being an athletic director in a league with four other Bible Colleges, why don't we take this privilege to pray together!
Anyway, that is my sermon today, I am never short winded. I would just like your prayer in this and I pray that maybe it might have encouraged a few of you as well! I want to do the right things and help the students on this campus worship Christ with every area of their lives, including through sport! I want to be a living example of that. I pray that Christ will give me confidence with students, coaches, staff etc, to share what He has put on my heart!
Thank you,
Jadon
Friday, November 16, 2007
Bracketology Faith by Ben Humphries from the Magazine "Relevant"
Thought it was a really good read, so wanted to share it with you all.
I cannot remember a world without bracketology. The word first emerged in college basketball circles some years ago to describe the annual, addictive process of selecting the 65 teams for the season-ending, championship tournament. Everything before that time in my life exists as darkness and chaos.
In the early days, I used to read this word as tongue-in-cheek, a cute exaggeration of one of life's trivialities. But bracketology is no longer a flippant matter.
The word is everywhere. Once solely the possession of ESPN, other networks have seized upon it, because we viewers cannot grasp the magnitude of March without it. If ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has a business card, the title under his name would be "Bracketologist," and it would not be a joke. A new book has even hit the shelves entitled The Enlightened Bracketologist which utilizes tournament-style brackets to determine what we really love and hate in various categories ranging from “fruit” to “inventions” to “Tell me again why they're famous.” (In case you were curious, peach edged apple for the Fruit Championship, sliced bread won easily over paper in the Invention competition, and favorite Nicole Ritchie beat out cinderella Jeffrey Dahmer for the Tell Me Again Why They're Famous title.)
This book describes the science known as "Bracketology" in its introduction:
What is enlightenment? Better question: What is bracketology?
Bracketology is a way of seeing the world so that we can become more enlightened—about what we like, favor, prefer, abhor or abjure. (Bracketology can even help us determine if we prefer the word “abhor” to “abjure.”) It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world.
Bracketology—the practice of parsing people, places and things into discrete, one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable—works because it is simple. What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?
The book is incorrect about the simplicity of Bracketology concerning field selection for basketball's NCAA tournament. Bracketology has become standard linguistic fare these days, because choosing the 65-team field has become a science. A group of people, known dauntingly as “The Committee,” compiles mounds of evidence about every team and uses these heaps to whittle the 300+ college basketball teams down to 65. The statistics are mind-boggling—conference record, RPI rating (which, like the NFL's quarterback rating, no one understands), strength of schedule, balance of the conference schedule, record against tournament teams, conference tournament performance, "good" wins, "bad" losses, total team height, average shoe size, grade point average, number of pizzas eaten during the year … the list goes on. The Committee supposedly uses all of these statistics to determine the best 65 teams. Then, onward we march.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, a Spartan commentator amidst mere Persians (by 300's historical interpretation at least), commented during one segment of ESPN's daily 25-hour coverage that he just wished the chairman of The Committee had defended the selections, not with bracketological stats, but with the simple statement that they thought these were the best 65 teams in the country. Bilas's point: with all of this "bracketology" science, one tends to miss the forest for the trees.
As usual, Bilas's point was as solid as a Greg Oden blocked shot. Statistical arguments about the worthiness of teams are futile. With such an array of data available, anyone can make a case for any team. Except, of course, for the Clemson Tigers.
Bilas's comment convicted me of the "bracketology faith" to which I often subscribe. I spend so much time trying to understand theological RPI ratings, attempting to figure out God by looking at a variety of details. How does God want me to feel about the death penalty? Is the Calvinistic worldview more correct than the Armenian one or can a dizzying combination of the two exist? Should I volunteer at the church nursery or spend that time in Sunday school?
Now, do not get me wrong, I believe these are valid and important questions. After all, the average margin of victory does provide information about a basketball team just as coming to grips with certain questions helps to better understand God's character. However, a tendency exists in my life to lean legalistic, often times placing too much emphasis and too much stress on these questions at the expense of something greater. This is why the book of Galatians and its statement that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (2:16 NASB) is so easy for me to read yet so hard for me to live.
God is not a science. He is not bracketology (though I bet He understands the RPI rating). When I focus solely on logical and empirical evidence, when I use Him to try to make the right 65 decisions, when I refuse to pull my eyes away from one tertiary detail, I miss the majesty and beauty of the Almighty Sovereign.
God is big.
Jesus died on a cross for me and rose from the dead so that I do not have to die.
The Holy Spirit lives in me.
To cop a phrase from University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, Team Trinity is pretty doggone good.
Theology has great utility; divine questions deserve much attention; the search for God's desires demands real sacrifice. But these things will never satisfy. The person of Jesus Christ is the living water for which I thirst, not any logic or any ministry or any political opinion or any works of the law. These will never be enough.
Here's to resting in the reality of the living God, to being still and knowing God, to adhering to Bilas's encouragement to say that God is best and refusing to stress over the static reasons why I know this to be true.
Thought it was a really good read, so wanted to share it with you all.
I cannot remember a world without bracketology. The word first emerged in college basketball circles some years ago to describe the annual, addictive process of selecting the 65 teams for the season-ending, championship tournament. Everything before that time in my life exists as darkness and chaos.
In the early days, I used to read this word as tongue-in-cheek, a cute exaggeration of one of life's trivialities. But bracketology is no longer a flippant matter.
The word is everywhere. Once solely the possession of ESPN, other networks have seized upon it, because we viewers cannot grasp the magnitude of March without it. If ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has a business card, the title under his name would be "Bracketologist," and it would not be a joke. A new book has even hit the shelves entitled The Enlightened Bracketologist which utilizes tournament-style brackets to determine what we really love and hate in various categories ranging from “fruit” to “inventions” to “Tell me again why they're famous.” (In case you were curious, peach edged apple for the Fruit Championship, sliced bread won easily over paper in the Invention competition, and favorite Nicole Ritchie beat out cinderella Jeffrey Dahmer for the Tell Me Again Why They're Famous title.)
This book describes the science known as "Bracketology" in its introduction:
What is enlightenment? Better question: What is bracketology?
Bracketology is a way of seeing the world so that we can become more enlightened—about what we like, favor, prefer, abhor or abjure. (Bracketology can even help us determine if we prefer the word “abhor” to “abjure.”) It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world.
Bracketology—the practice of parsing people, places and things into discrete, one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable—works because it is simple. What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?
The book is incorrect about the simplicity of Bracketology concerning field selection for basketball's NCAA tournament. Bracketology has become standard linguistic fare these days, because choosing the 65-team field has become a science. A group of people, known dauntingly as “The Committee,” compiles mounds of evidence about every team and uses these heaps to whittle the 300+ college basketball teams down to 65. The statistics are mind-boggling—conference record, RPI rating (which, like the NFL's quarterback rating, no one understands), strength of schedule, balance of the conference schedule, record against tournament teams, conference tournament performance, "good" wins, "bad" losses, total team height, average shoe size, grade point average, number of pizzas eaten during the year … the list goes on. The Committee supposedly uses all of these statistics to determine the best 65 teams. Then, onward we march.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, a Spartan commentator amidst mere Persians (by 300's historical interpretation at least), commented during one segment of ESPN's daily 25-hour coverage that he just wished the chairman of The Committee had defended the selections, not with bracketological stats, but with the simple statement that they thought these were the best 65 teams in the country. Bilas's point: with all of this "bracketology" science, one tends to miss the forest for the trees.
As usual, Bilas's point was as solid as a Greg Oden blocked shot. Statistical arguments about the worthiness of teams are futile. With such an array of data available, anyone can make a case for any team. Except, of course, for the Clemson Tigers.
Bilas's comment convicted me of the "bracketology faith" to which I often subscribe. I spend so much time trying to understand theological RPI ratings, attempting to figure out God by looking at a variety of details. How does God want me to feel about the death penalty? Is the Calvinistic worldview more correct than the Armenian one or can a dizzying combination of the two exist? Should I volunteer at the church nursery or spend that time in Sunday school?
Now, do not get me wrong, I believe these are valid and important questions. After all, the average margin of victory does provide information about a basketball team just as coming to grips with certain questions helps to better understand God's character. However, a tendency exists in my life to lean legalistic, often times placing too much emphasis and too much stress on these questions at the expense of something greater. This is why the book of Galatians and its statement that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus” (2:16 NASB) is so easy for me to read yet so hard for me to live.
God is not a science. He is not bracketology (though I bet He understands the RPI rating). When I focus solely on logical and empirical evidence, when I use Him to try to make the right 65 decisions, when I refuse to pull my eyes away from one tertiary detail, I miss the majesty and beauty of the Almighty Sovereign.
God is big.
Jesus died on a cross for me and rose from the dead so that I do not have to die.
The Holy Spirit lives in me.
To cop a phrase from University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, Team Trinity is pretty doggone good.
Theology has great utility; divine questions deserve much attention; the search for God's desires demands real sacrifice. But these things will never satisfy. The person of Jesus Christ is the living water for which I thirst, not any logic or any ministry or any political opinion or any works of the law. These will never be enough.
Here's to resting in the reality of the living God, to being still and knowing God, to adhering to Bilas's encouragement to say that God is best and refusing to stress over the static reasons why I know this to be true.
Angels And Airwaves - The Adventure - Final
I was talking to a friend today and he asked me how I am serving God. He then continued that in everything that he and I do, we can and should be serving God! I thought this was a good way to look at it!
I can find God in everything, and He can speak to me in amazing and powerful wasy in everything, even in obscure music. Which leads me to this song. I don't know what Angels and Airwaves were thinking with this song, maybe just a love song. But, on so many different levels it inspires me! It talks about being renewed and I take this as being renewed in Christ each and everyday. Life is hard and I often wonder how I can continue on, but with Him carrying me I know that I can do it!
He has made me new through dying for me!
I especially like the lyric near the end:
"I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]"
That lyric inspires me so much, as those are my sentiments each and everyday, and I ask Christ to make this my prayer each and everyday, that He will be working, and molding and using me! More of Him and less of me.
"The Adventure Final" by Angels and Airwaves
I wanna have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I'm alive
Just as the four walls close me within
My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight
I'm the first to know
My dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that's dead shall be regrown
And your viscious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine
Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin
Any type of love it will be shown
Like every single tree reach for the sky
If your gonna fall I'll let you know
That I will pick you up like you for I
I thought this thing life can't replace
Where everyone was working for this goal
Where all the children left without a trace
Only to come back as pure as gold
To recite this all
Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin tonight [3x]
I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]
Hello, here I am (You do this with me)
And here we go (Do this with me)
Life's waiting to begin [2x]
Life's waiting to begin
I can find God in everything, and He can speak to me in amazing and powerful wasy in everything, even in obscure music. Which leads me to this song. I don't know what Angels and Airwaves were thinking with this song, maybe just a love song. But, on so many different levels it inspires me! It talks about being renewed and I take this as being renewed in Christ each and everyday. Life is hard and I often wonder how I can continue on, but with Him carrying me I know that I can do it!
He has made me new through dying for me!
I especially like the lyric near the end:
"I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]"
That lyric inspires me so much, as those are my sentiments each and everyday, and I ask Christ to make this my prayer each and everyday, that He will be working, and molding and using me! More of Him and less of me.
"The Adventure Final" by Angels and Airwaves
I wanna have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I'm alive
Just as the four walls close me within
My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight
I'm the first to know
My dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that's dead shall be regrown
And your viscious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine
Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin
Any type of love it will be shown
Like every single tree reach for the sky
If your gonna fall I'll let you know
That I will pick you up like you for I
I thought this thing life can't replace
Where everyone was working for this goal
Where all the children left without a trace
Only to come back as pure as gold
To recite this all
Hello, here I am
And here we go
Life's waiting to begin tonight [3x]
I cannot live
I can't breath
Unless you do this with me [6x]
Hello, here I am (You do this with me)
And here we go (Do this with me)
Life's waiting to begin [2x]
Life's waiting to begin
Ugly Words
OK,
I have neglected to write blogs for quite sometime... so, I figured once a year would be OK! haha. I will try to write here half often now... I will start with a few things I have worked on over the last year!
I seem to have conversations with people about gross words and brought a few examples out, well I figured that I should make a master list of what I can think of, feel free to add to it as you see fit, I did not add all that I could think of... some are a bit too innapropriate:
crevice
gyrate
lubrication
lubriderm
firm
lobes
viscious
loin
nuzzle
protrude
swollen
salivatory gland
legume
naples
suckle
cess pool
penetrate
chortle
hork
yokefellow
mucated
bogie
exfoliant
cuss
moist
supple
shweaty
urge
custard
gurd
chotch
prong
swab
lush
lollygagging
scum
scrum
I have neglected to write blogs for quite sometime... so, I figured once a year would be OK! haha. I will try to write here half often now... I will start with a few things I have worked on over the last year!
I seem to have conversations with people about gross words and brought a few examples out, well I figured that I should make a master list of what I can think of, feel free to add to it as you see fit, I did not add all that I could think of... some are a bit too innapropriate:
crevice
gyrate
lubrication
lubriderm
firm
lobes
viscious
loin
nuzzle
protrude
swollen
salivatory gland
legume
naples
suckle
cess pool
penetrate
chortle
hork
yokefellow
mucated
bogie
exfoliant
cuss
moist
supple
shweaty
urge
custard
gurd
chotch
prong
swab
lush
lollygagging
scum
scrum
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