tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70079633197392749402024-02-07T01:22:16.260-08:00Seeking the CityHebrews 13:14 - Here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-76969183410515014462016-11-04T00:12:00.000-07:002016-11-04T00:12:13.532-07:00Fearless<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Entry 5</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">11.03.2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is week 10. The end is within reach.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">One of the most important and difficult lessons I learned during my time in college was to overcome. It was fear, mainly, that I had to face. This was my largest obstacle, my kryptonite. Had you asked me when I was going into post-secondary education if I was afraid of anything, I most likely would have said something to the effect of, “There are things that intimidate me, but God is on my side, so I have no fear.” While this was true in its ultimate sense, my attitude towards others, myself, and my fears greatly changed over the course of the last four years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">God is always for us. He </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">must</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> be always for those who trust in Him. Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (ESV). If God is for us, nothing can stand against us (Romans 8:31). I have long known that. Conceptually, that was firm in my mind in 2012 at my last graduation. However, I think that my answer in large part was due to the fact that many of my flaws were unexposed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I never imagined the possibility of having so many difficulties in work and in life as have happened over time. My failures at certain jobs and even at school overtook me like a tidal wave. Even at the job I am now leaving after two years, so many things were uncovered that were humiliating in so many ways. When my inability to communicate or confront would stare me in the eye, I would shrink more often than not. For so long, I needed to take the leap and become an adult. In some ways, I am still growing out of my childhood.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It was in those moments of loneliness and feeling small that I most needed comfort. And I found it. Thank God, I found it. Over and over again, I saw the weakness, the misery, the pain, the despair drive me to Christ. All of my physical, mental, and spiritual inabilities pushed me down to the point where I could only be on my knees. And that was exactly where God wanted me to be. It is </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">still</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> where He wants me to be. I believe that He desires us to be in that place without the pain and the promptings; but we are undisciplined, so He loves us enough to correct us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">You cannot experience the power to rise until you have fallen – the power to awake unless you have slept, the power to be strong unless you have been weak, the power to fly unless you have been on the ground, the power to dream unless you have been stuck, the power to walk unless you have been idle, the power to rebound unless you have fallen back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The power to </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">live</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Unless you have died.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have died. My soul is kept firmly in heaven. And now all the promises of God find their “yes” and “amen” in Christ Jesus my Lord who is greater – than sin, than sickness, than pain, than anything that has stood or may stand against me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now the words come to life: “I’m not what I have done / I’m what I’ve overcome” (Fireflight).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">There truly is nothing now to fear. Those struggles may still present challenges and difficult times, but they do not own me. I am able to conquer through the Lover of my soul. I am able to stand in all things. I can hear His voice in my soul, feel His breath in my lungs, experience His life in my veins, and see His fire in my eyes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We're not waiting for permission</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We defy our inhibition</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like our middle name is "fearless"</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Unafraid</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">If we're gonna fly, we fly like eagles</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Arms out wide</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">If we're gonna fear, we fear no evil</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We will rise</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">By your power, we will go</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">By your spirit, we are bold</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">If we're gonna stand, we stand as giants</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">If we're gonna walk, we walk as lions</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We walk as lions</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">- Skillet</span></span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-67016791037546870922016-10-03T23:34:00.000-07:002016-10-03T23:34:27.558-07:00Work<i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Entry 4 from </span></i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Final Lap.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">10.03.2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I thought a great deal last week about the type of path I chose for college. Every now and then I would look around my peers, and – I must be honest here – I thought their lives were easy. I envied those students who had the chance to live on campus and have either no job or a small part-time job. They were able to devote themselves to school, friends, hobbies, trips, ministry opportunities – everything </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">but </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">work. This is one of those areas where I truly believe my college experience was far different than that of most students, especially young ones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Since I was 16, I have always had a knack for work. For some reason, there was something about having a chip on your shoulder and overcoming odds and outperforming your peers for pay that appealed to me. Even though I was never a responsible person at home, I found it in myself to push harder at my job because I looked to the more tangible benefits. I regret the person I was to my parents as a child and young teenager because I was lazy. There is no other way of saying it. Somehow, by a miracle of God, that did not totally translate to the jobs I had through college.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The passion and drive for hard work that I felt pushed me to success. Don’t buy into that kind of thing? Well, I did. And it got me three management positions and three promotions. Maybe the desire to work came from one of the deepest fears I had in high school – paying for school. Even the most affordable universities sounded extremely expensive to me (they still do). I hated the idea of loans from the beginning and made it my resolution to never take one out. It’s strange how things unfold. I never would have imagined being married by the end of school, but that is exactly what happened and it ended up being one of the many things that kept me from student debt.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">One of the things I am most looking forward to is having a five-day weekends-off kind of job. That kind of thing has never happened. I am also greatly anticipating working 40 hours and having no homework. It has been about three years since I started full-time work. For a while I had a break, but there was also a time when I worked full-time for Express, part-time for Banana Republic, and had a full load of classes. That semester was the hardest to get through. Switching my major from management to accounting didn’t make my life easier either, so I’m glad to be done!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All of that said, if I were to go back there wouldn’t be much to change. Maybe I would have stayed at Domino’s a little bit longer, but I still don’t regret leaving in the least. Switching to accounting was probably some of the best advice my father-in-law Bruce has ever given me, and he has given me a lot of good advice. You see, aside from going to ASU or getting an internship, my time in college has given me advantages over almost every other person in my classes. Many of them are getting ready to take on a much larger workload; mine will likely be going down. Many of them have their shiny A’s and B’s; I have experience. Yes, they have burned the midnight oil – but have they acquainted themselves with that time of morning before the sun rises?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All of these things somehow made it worth it. There were countless parties and gatherings and events my wife had to attend alone only to hear people ask repeatedly, “Where is Jon?” Those who did ask that question got used to hearing the familiar theme, “Work.” And now that it has been so long, perhaps I have worked too much. Perhaps I need rhythm and more time to do what God made my one life to do. It is time to hang up the student-worker title and move on to all those things that I missed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">No one wants to come to the end of their lives saying, “Gosh, I didn’t really accomplish anything in life other than what I did in my job, but I was a great worker!” God placed me in a time and season where it was appropriate and necessary to work full-time and go to school. It came at a great price. And few people I know were willing to pay that price. Few know the difficulties and stresses that I have faced for these couple years. But finally it is time to move on to ministry because that is ultimately what I was made to do.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">For some, work is the focal point of life. They run to it. They think about it when they’re off the clock. For others, it is the burden of life. They run away from it. All they can think about while they are working is getting off. For me, it is somewhere in between. And as a matter of fact, I don’t know that I care that much as long as I can be the person that God created me to be – at work or at home, on earth or in heaven.</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-71769810547294422262016-09-20T00:18:00.001-07:002016-09-20T00:18:46.165-07:00Hunger and Thirst - What It Means to Be Somebody<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9fa4c4df-463e-d2e5-d7aa-409188c7b322" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>Entry 3 from my collection of essays titled </i>The Final Lap: Meditations of a Second-Semester College Senior.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">09.19.2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The clock continues to tick, and I have come to week 4.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tonight brings me to heavy meditation on the faithfulness of God – sometimes clouded, but often enhanced, by my failures. I should note that my journey through college was not primarily a time spent being educated and trained by books and lectures and professors and tests, although there was a lot of that. Above and beyond all these are the experiences and spiritual journeys I have traversed. At the end of my education, I will receive a piece of paper saying that I finished. But at the end of this series of spiritual journeys, I will be a different person.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My outlook has been heavily influenced by the drive for what many deem to be winning at life. The power of the invisible hand, the almighty dollar, return on equity, cost-benefit analysis, theorems, x- and y-axes, supply and demand, gross margin, market behavior, empowerment. Math, economics, management, accounting. Some combination of all of these things and more provide the essence of what many people live for. In the end, they use the combinations for money, and that is enough to wake people up in the morning.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As a believer, it is often hard to balance the aggressive nature of business administration with my primary identity as a believer in Christ. One instance specifically changed my entire perspective on the issue. From 2012 until now, I have had many spiritual and emotional battles trying to figure out the core of who I am and why I do what I do. It is not that I am confused about either, but rather it is the Romans 7 type of struggle that I feel in my body every day. Even with the word of God and the Spirit of God abiding in me, there is one struggle that remains. It is not the power and not the penalty but the </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">presence </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">of sin. Sin lives in my skin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I recall one evening when Megan and I were not yet married and we had a serious conversation. It is no doubt the weight of the school semester and my work load were weighing down on me, but the heaviest thing on my mind was my own despair over sin. So many times have I offered to God the prayer of David: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). This felt as a distant dream that day, and all I could do was throw my hands up in the air in frustration. I cried out, “I don’t want to be me anymore… I want to be someone else… I don’t know what to do.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My loving soon-to-be wife then asked me, “Well what would you say to someone who told you that?” It was in that moment that the words of Numbers 14:18 came to me: “The </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lord</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression….”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">This answer does not always take away all the pain. It does not remove the physical presence of sin. But what the truth of this verse </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">does </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">accomplish is the removal of the power and penalty of sin which would ultimately happen through the death and resurrection of the Savior. Often I still find myself stuck on, “O God, be merciful to me, the sinner” and unable to move to Christ’s words, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” But in the steadfast love of the LORD, I find my hope. His grace is the shelter that protects me; His love is the wings that carry me; His mercy is the song that I sing into eternity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">One song that has strongly shaped me in the latter portion of my time working towards my degree is called “Be Somebody” by Thousand Foot Krutch. Some of the words to that song read,</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">After all the lights go down, I’m just the words, you are the sound</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">A strange type of chemistry, how you’ve become a part of me</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And when I sit alone at night, your thoughts burn through me like a fire</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">You’re the only one who knows who I really am</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We all wanna be somebody</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We just need a taste of who we are</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We all wanna be somebody</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We’re willing to go but not that far</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Somehow in the end, God used all of this for at least one major transformation that I still see and hold onto today: He changed my hunger and thirst for success into a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Through His grace, I continue to see that righteousness in Him day by day.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-87239763722773780922016-09-13T22:40:00.000-07:002016-09-13T22:40:04.524-07:00My Plans, His Plans<i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As I am in the final semester of my undergraduate degree, I have decided to compose a series of essays called </span></i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Final Lap: Honest Meditations of a Second-Semester College Senior. </span><i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The following is one of the entries...</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Entry 2</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">09.13.2016</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Week 2 has ended, and I am now 14 weeks away from a long-pursued goal. As I run the final lap of my race, I reflect on the many things that have brought me to this time in my life. I can still remember how my sister Melissa during her high school graduation – almost in tears – said, “I want to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point.” The final lap has that effect. And so I remember.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">None of this happened like I was planning it. It all started with a 16-year-old high school kid who was just going to a community college in Southwestern Indiana in 2011. The plan was to spend a couple semesters there, get some prerequisites under my belt, figure out a school, and figure out a major. Ivy Tech was an option only for two years, but I was looking seriously at the University of Southern Indiana (USI). Writing was my passion, but I was hesitant to pursue a degree in English because I wanted job openings but not a teaching position; and I definitely didn’t want to spend six or seven years in school for a master’s.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is peculiar how things unfold. God mysteriously moves in all things, and I could have conceived none of it. USI never happened, nor did I continue on at Ivy Tech. Instead I tried working my way through a cost-effective accelerated program called CollegePlus which had students take CLEP exams and then transfer to an online university for one semester. From the outset, I knew that learning college-level material only at home with no professor would be a challenge. After a few tests – and failing one or two – I knew that getting through was not realistic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">By that time my family had moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area. Phoenix is home to an excellent district of partnered community colleges with easily-transferring credits. My previous community college credits and most of my test scores transferred over. I began pursuing a degree in Business Management because of its appeal to me. It was a general degree that I perceived as presenting job openings with a wide variety of career options. Eventually I would switch to a more demanding degree – Accounting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The rest unfolded from there. I didn’t end up finishing very much at Ivy Tech, never made it to USI, never finished CollegePlus, didn’t stick with management, and never made it to Arizona State University. It will be a pure miracle if I even end up with a bachelor’s degree in anything even remotely related to business! If this isn’t a testament to God’s plans prevailing over man’s, I don’t know what is. I never </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">planned</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Arizona. I did not plan on meeting my future wife and getting married while I was still in school. The beauty of God’s design is that sometimes He wrecks our plans so that He can enact better ones – His own. Had I not made it out of Indiana, I may have never finished school, and I wouldn’t have met my beautiful wife Megan.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Where I am is not where I once thought I would be; it is much better. And that leads me to believe also that where I am going is not where I think I will go. It will be much better. There is a life that I have not been able to live, friends I have not been able to see, and needs I have not been able to meet because until now I have been completing the step to the next step. As that finishes, God will take me to be His light in new places to new people while doing new things. I can imagine no higher honor than to be used in any way by the King of this universe, so with great joy I lay down my life to be used by Him to do His will wherever His providence will take me.</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-21853717480388772032015-08-13T01:04:00.005-07:002015-08-13T01:04:58.818-07:00How God Wants You to Pray<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Why We Don't Pray</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have told many people on more than one occasion that I find prayer to be the most difficult spiritual discipline. Perhaps it is because we often fail to realize how holy and powerful our great God is that we neglect to pray, and other times we just don't know what to say. The good news is, God has an answer for us in His word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>What God Provides</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Christ teaches us how to pray (Mat. 6:9-13) and the Holy Spirit expresses our prayers (Rom. 8:26-27). The solution to our difficulties is following Christ's example and resting on the Spirit's power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>How to Pray (Mat. 6:9-13)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Pray to <u>God's name</u>. He is our Father and He is holy. It is healthy in prayer to come to God first recognizing His holiness before expressing anything else.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Pray for <u>God's kingdom</u>. God's name is the sum of His holiness; His kingdom is the spread of His holiness. Pray that others would come to see the greatness of Christ and the glory of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3. Pray for <u>God's will</u>. Pray that He would accomplish on earth what is already complete in Heaven. Pray that the church - you and I - would walk in His purposes and seek His counsel above our own. Pray for the government. Pray for your neighbors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4. Pray that God will <u>give us</u> - food, clothing, and physical needs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5. Pray that God will <u>forgive us</u> - for all of our sins, and in your confession know that He is gracious and compassionate and quick to forgive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6. Pray that God will <u>deliver us</u> - from future sin and from temptations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All our prayer should reflect the sufficiency of God and the helplessness of man. As we pray, we must come hungry and thirsty, realizing that our great God, Yahweh, is the only One who can fill us, for His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-81156380385601088212015-07-31T08:37:00.001-07:002015-07-31T08:37:21.790-07:00From the Pit<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>O Lord,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>You have brought me from the pit of sin</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>To the low of frustration</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And from the darkness of frustration into Your light.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>It is in Your light I see light,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>O Power of my power,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Strength of my strength.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>You have forgiven every wrong and transgression,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And You cover my doubts with Your mercy,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My fears with Your comfort,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My helplessness with Your love,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My wanderings with Your compassion,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My emptiness with Your fullness,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My appetite with Your sufficiency,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My sorrows with Your grace.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Let me be as Your Son -</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Despised and rejected in this world,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Rich and satisfied in the next.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And now, Father, let me turn to my brothers</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>And comfort them with the comfort by which You have comforted me.</i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-5915673724018021072015-05-14T00:39:00.003-07:002015-05-14T00:39:54.047-07:00Blood and Water<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>5.14.15</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Two thousand years ago a beloved Son sweat and bled for my transgressions. He died, in the anguish of His soul, an orphan. In his darkest hour, He lifted His face to His Father, crying out the name of His God. There was no answer. Not this day. He, the Son of Heaven, was now the sin of the world. Blood and water flowed from His side, and from His very wounds He washes clean all who call upon His name. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Written on a night last year I cannot remember:</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My Master,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">O God, You see the stroke of every letter - only You know every word. When I am not moving, even then - You are. Your greatness depends not on my devotion. Your sovereignty rests not on my obedience. Your faithfulness yields not to my emotion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My Lord, You behold the aching, the void of my heart. You are my true love. When my cares are many, You hold my burden; in my greatest temptation, You become my deepest remedy. Your love pierces my heart like a blade, and with Your beauty You draw me into Your presence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fill the void, my God. Mend me. Amend the evil that I have so long committed, and replace it with thoughts of You. O Father, forgive my sins. My Lord, make me pure and holy within - You alone can rescue. You alone will do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So often am I distracted by the cares and the toys of this world. I give up my heavenly gold for what is only dirt. Behold, my greatest water lies before me and I wander aimlessly through barren deserts. My mind is consumed with "I am not" when you are calling out to me, "I AM."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Take me in to the fellowship of Christ. Remove the loneliness in my single soul, and replace it with the oneness in Jesus I have with my brothers and sisters. Dissolve the poison of my pride. Eradicate the sin. Satisfy me in the sanctifying rain of You. Only You can fill me. Baptize me in Your Scriptures.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Be my love.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-61181813172047716892015-01-23T08:54:00.002-08:002015-01-23T08:54:21.355-08:00Don't Spend Your Life Chasing Trash<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Oftentimes I find myself completely oblivious to the world around me. It's easy to see life as a bunch of X's and O's, a time sheet, an agenda: be here at 1:00, do this, watch that. Rarely do human beings take on the burden of looking through the eyes of their brother. I discovered recently that I'm no exception to this rule, but when I really do take the time to look into the lives of other people, I am grieved - because of what I see in them, and then because I realize it is true of myself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Most people live looking for the next thrill - next high, next phone, next trend, next paycheck, next trip, next year - with no lasting sense of fulfillment. Oh sure, people find fulfillment. They live with it their whole lives. But typically the fulfillment they find is from a temporary delight so that the whole of their lives are overshadowed by a desperation to keep themselves satisfied before this great thing right now becomes a boring thing of the past (hence the pursuit of the next thrill).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This shadow gives people a great amount of discomfort, so what we humans do is we create a long-term plan that we think will give us some source of emotional sustenance. This manifests itself in things like careers, relationships, long-term assets, and other things of the like. When we combine the short-term pleasures with their long-term plans, we think we're all set. And so, this is the way we live life: a layer of transient pursuits supported by futuristic goals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When we consider critically the effect this has on humanity, it is easy to be downtrodden. Why? Allow me to summarize what this way of living means. It means that many people choose video games over anything else. It means people waste their money drinking and smoking and doing whatever to get highs, while the next day they are met by lows of equal measure. It means people continuously pour themselves into gadgets that will be trash in five years so that they spend their whole lives essentially pursuing trash. Practically, it means that most people would prefer a dead relative as a benefactor to a living relative who is a beneficiary. It means that many people spend the first one-third of their lives pursuing three letters to follow their name and the next two-thirds pursuing digits to follow their bank account, so that by the end of their lives they have lived for letters and numbers without having accomplished anything of real value.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Take a moment to consider. This happens to "good people" too. And it happens with good things. It is when we allow those good things to become a hindrance and not a help to our relationship with God that we find ourselves in deep, deep trouble. We are so easily consumed by the possessions and cares of this world so that they eventually become more important to us than the one true Treasure. Don't spend your life chasing toys or trash because there are pleasures at God's right hand that are far better and last far longer. When we spend ourselves for and on Him, we will never find ourselves empty, we will never feel any need for anything else, and we will never come up short.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-84377564995447734672014-10-17T13:21:00.002-07:002016-05-13T13:29:32.880-07:00(My) Battle Against Pornongraphy<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">My life's biggest secret is my struggle with porn. There it is. It's out now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So why now? We live in an age, the digital age, where more men (and women) than ever are addicted to pornography. As of the writing of this post, 1.77 million marks the number of searches for pornography <i>since the beginning of the year </i>(source: <a href="http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/">Covenant Eyes</a>)<i>.</i> Porn is a huge money-maker and a seemingly natural part of life for the modern person. Alarmingly, 50% of professing Christian males admit addiction to pornography and a surprising 20% of all Christian females. This is unacceptable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These are just some numbers on a page, but sexual sin strikes close to home in the real world. I know because I've experienced it. It is not harmless; it is not disconnected from other areas of life. Porn serves as a promoter of violence, physical aggression, and physical and verbal abuse. It portrays something that should never be portrayed, and it lies to its viewers (addicts) with an inaccurate depiction of reality. More importantly, it is sin against our own souls, our families, our coworkers, our friends, our neighbors, our churches - and our Maker who is holy and pure. God hates pornography.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is for this very reason that we should too. I know for a fact that I have many close friends who have, in the past, struggled against pornography or even struggle with it still. I do too. The struggle is okay. Turning our backs on God is not. He has created us to be holy before Him in His own image through Christ (Eph. 1:4; 2 Cor. 4:6). He has redeemed His church to be zealous for good works (Eph. 2:10; Tit. 2:11-14).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am not saying that we won't ever fail or that we can't be forgiven. We can. We are never beyond the reach of our loving Father. But the grace He gives us for forgiveness is the grace He gives us for freedom. We are no longer dead in our sin; we are alive by, for, and to the righteousness of God (Eph. 2:1; 2 Cor. 5:21). We walk by faith in the newness of life that He has given us (2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 6:1-6). This doesn't happen on January 1. It happens on January 1, 2, 3, days, nights, weeks, weekends, and in every hour. Every day, we wake up fighting and free - fighting for righteousness, free from our sin.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-31092050733087004802014-09-22T10:13:00.000-07:002014-09-22T10:13:04.499-07:00What My Life is Spent Seeking<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Psalm 143:6</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I stretch out my hands to You;</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>My soul longs for You, as a parched land. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">People who grow up in church often have a harder time growing spiritually than those who come to Christ at an older age. We tend to have a basic idea of how to study the Bible; most of us have read the New Testament and (some of) the Old Testament. We know a lot of Bible verses. Don't tell us the story of David and Goliath - that's getting kind of old for us. We know pretty much all of the major doctrines and a good deal of lesser ones. We are fluent in Christianese; we can name ten different catchphrases our churches use. Anything that is remotely spiritual and "Christian" we have heard of - been there, done that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When you grow up hearing for the thousandth time what visitors may be hearing for the first time, it is easy to lose the initial shock and wonder of Christianity. And it is because of this that I am realizing that my life cannot be built on church activity. Church activity as a foundation is sand. My only hope, my only rock is Jesus. No matter how many times I go over the character and person of God, the sinfulness of my soul, and the grace of Christ, the story is amazing. The gospel is a timeless treasure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Because of it, I want to spend my life living a new way. Days don't have to be mundane because I hear the same truth. They should be filled with joy because of that truth. "Jesus loves me, this I know," and because of it I love Him deeply. I seek the satisfaction that only He can give. I want to want Him. I desire to seek Him. He is the water in my desert, the light in my darkness, the hope in my fear. He is my longing.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-78235812418754877762014-09-15T13:43:00.001-07:002014-09-15T13:46:52.225-07:00God's Love > My Life<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Psalm 63:3</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Because your steadfast love is better than life,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">my lips will praise you.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This week I was brought back once again to the realization of what this verse means. So often we forget the "breadth and length and depth" of God's love and what it implies for us (Eph. 3:18). It bids us forsake all the world - even deny our own lives - to follow Christ (Ps. 63:3; Luke 14:33; Matt. 16:24). Why? Because having Jesus and nothing else is better than having everything else but not Jesus. "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">God's love is better than my life. Lately it has been increasingly difficult to live in light of this truth, but by God's power I have come to a new resolve. I will fight all my sin to believe this and to experience the satisfaction that His grace alone can bring. And not only will my mind believe it - my life will show it to a world who needs it. God is the only-wise, all-satisfying treasure no possession, pride, or pleasure in this life can give us. I will lay down everything to have Christ (Php. 3:7).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">God's love is better than my life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-15865495688027223742014-09-13T09:59:00.000-07:002014-09-13T09:59:44.413-07:00I Want to Live<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To show that You are great -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To show the world all of my love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And show sin all my hate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And worship You the most -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To count my own life as my shame</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And Jesus as my boast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To show that Christ is all -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To tell the lowly You are great</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And show that I am small.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Counting all as loss -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To die every day to myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Boasting in the cross.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And taste You as my good -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To hold sin as my void and lack</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And Your word as my food.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With all I have to give.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I want to live my life for You -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">O God, I want to live!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-38474370886111105212014-09-05T01:39:00.002-07:002014-09-05T01:39:19.224-07:00Gray Day Mayday<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I was informed today by a faithful follower that the posts have been far and few between. Part of me wants to say that that is because of little writing content. Sometimes I feel like there are words that need to be said (written); others, not so much. Perhaps this is one of those not-so-much seasons. On the other hand, working, attending interviews, leading ministries, and taking 16 credit hours doesn't leave me a world of time. But here's something I've been sitting on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Some days we can tell exactly what bothers us. Things go wrong down the line, the tiredness and stress of busyness kick in, and a person says a thing here or there that hits us the wrong way. Sometimes we blow it. There is a person we offend, a situation we don't handle correctly, a test we fail, a game we lose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While it is true that things like these are typically the cause of the everyday downs, some days are different. Some days are not every day. Some days cannot be traced back to one pattern. What I am trying to say is this: some days are bad for no evident reason at all. There are days when things aren't as black and white as we'd like. Sometimes there is a gray area that cannot be decoded.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On days like these, cliches and inspirational statements typically don't do much for me. The older I grow in Christ, the more I realize that my perseverance in Him must be rooted not in empty words or catchphrases but in the living and abiding truth of God. If I live by shallow sayings, I have a shallow faith - nothing more than a seed straining from a stone. But when God's promises are the fuel for my faith, there is power to press on through one more day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And sometimes, just pressing on through one more day has to be good enough.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-21479923890086769782014-07-16T14:20:00.001-07:002014-07-16T14:20:56.885-07:00Shadow<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shadows are a strange concept. Mainly they are thought of as something that looms in the darkness. That is true. But in order for shadows to exist, there must first be light. Another strange thing about shadows - by their appearance, they are not darker in different light; they are more defined in broad daylight, but the actual brightness does truly appear to be different.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shadows are the place where all the monsters are. Shadows haunt men. In the shadows of the night, my inmost being hates anything I can think about. The planet is defined by objects on it, but the only backdrop is shadow. We see the sun, the sun sees everything, everything sees shadow. It is the starkness between light and dark, warm and cold, good and evil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shadows exist. Shadows creep. Shadows plague.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And for as long as I am here, my canvas will contain - in some places, in some way -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>shadow</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-42854883664889982202014-07-01T10:14:00.000-07:002014-07-01T10:14:03.176-07:00Learning Summer Lessons Again<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">July has come. It is a sunny day in Phoenix; high, 112. As the summer rolls on, I continue to think on all the lessons learned in Indiana in June. It has been only a week and a half since I boarded my return flight to the Valley of the Sun. But my venture to Arizona this time has been much different than last year's. Someone was waiting. The house in which I live has now been held by my family for over a year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The distraction of it all is diminished. As I feel the affections that so defined me, and think the thoughts that were my identity </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">last summer</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, God reminds me that His kingdom is to come first. It is not simply a duty - it is a delight, my everything. As these things keep rolling through my mind, I pray that God will make me fruitful for His service and work. May my life realize and reflect His power and grace as He draws me to my knees in His fellowship.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-46394351704394026692014-06-20T20:17:00.002-07:002014-06-20T20:17:58.888-07:00Thanksgivings and Requests from CYIA<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You, Father, for the days we shared at CYIA.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You, God, for those You placed into my care.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You for making me strong enough for this trip and seeing me through to the very last day.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You that I was never alone.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You so much for the time we had together.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You for the people who blessed me here and for those who are a blessing all year long.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You for renewing my heart for ministry.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You for kindling my desire for Your kingdom, Your power, and Your glory.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Keep me from the temptations of this world, and continue to drive me into the light of Your glorious presence, O God. Protect me from the deception of my own heart and the schemes of the devil. Never allow me to forget the joy and the deep longings for You I experienced here. By Your Holy Spirit, allow me to pour into others the same power and grace You have poured into me.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>O God, let my ways be intimately acquainted with Yours as You are with mine. My soul thirsts for You.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Thank You for all that happened here.</i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-21351311611777406822014-06-13T07:56:00.002-07:002014-06-13T07:56:23.541-07:00Learning and Loving; Serving and Seeking<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is hard to believe that I have not yet been in Indiana for even one week. The flight seemed like it was such a long time ago. This week has served as a reminder to me just how long CYIA really is. But I am also re-learning several things that I forget every year. Through the examples and fellowship of others, my heart has been encouraged and driven to prayer and worship.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So often in the monotony and the mundane I forget that God desires me to love Him with everything I am inside and all I hold on the outside. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, so that I would live for Him forever. He desires my heart, not just the outside of my cup. When we as believers are surrounded by others who speak God's word to us and pray with us and encourage us in Christ and serve us, we grow closer to our Savior. As we seek the Lord in His word, we grow in the knowledge of our great Savior (2 Pet. 3:18).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The worst thing I can imagine for any life is a profession of faith and actions that deny it. I want my life to be totally abandoned to the work and service of Jesus Christ. My desire is to seek His will in everything and share His name with everyone. Wherever I am, I want to read His word and speak His truth into others' lives. Everywhere I go, I want to serve Him and others with all my heart -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>because I love Him.</i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-7429259988267909902014-06-09T07:55:00.002-07:002014-06-09T07:55:55.261-07:00Two Weeks in Indiana<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>10:55 AM Indianapolis time</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This week and next I have the opportunity to serve in Indiana at CYIA. On Saturday I flew from Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport to Indianapolis where I was picked up by a friend. This morning I will be travelling from Carmel, IN to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion where the training will be held - pray for wisdom and guidance at this time as I will be serving many missionaries. Also, pray that God will be glorified in the time there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Throughout my stay in Indiana I hope to write and send a few updates.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-7200520684041628042014-05-28T17:13:00.003-07:002014-05-28T17:13:49.083-07:00Albuquerque Pictures<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the chance to take a trip with Megan and her family to Albuquerque. Enjoy some photos of the scenery:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This Catholic church in Old Town Albuquerque, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">San Felipe de Neri,</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">over 300 years old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A view of Albuquerque from 10,000 feet high. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">were </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">transported by the world's longest </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">off-ground tram.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6pfp7bEN5oX4loNlu7kTIwA3Xs3UJ8-Hwml7Jb-74bWpSu1gzr4hp27DsiTVASEZiMCtVYrfkx1k_pfP_k0RlwKSBSVbH_aKtI8ebVE_2NGo2wF9i0FRmexkgryUiWMd8iym_A6R5rak/s1600/140527_012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6pfp7bEN5oX4loNlu7kTIwA3Xs3UJ8-Hwml7Jb-74bWpSu1gzr4hp27DsiTVASEZiMCtVYrfkx1k_pfP_k0RlwKSBSVbH_aKtI8ebVE_2NGo2wF9i0FRmexkgryUiWMd8iym_A6R5rak/s1600/140527_012.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-92222876249445677182014-04-29T22:34:00.001-07:002014-04-29T22:34:32.069-07:00Majesty<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Turn the pages of the timeless masterpiece. The wind blows left and right until the right one slowly descends to reveal a college student - young and capricious: one life but hardly a sentence in the scope of the magnitude of existence. A line. A breath. A thought in the wind of God. One soul bound to the vessel of dust into which God has blown the breath of life.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is, on this particular page, a walk through the neighborhood. This is a rare occurrence in the book. The grandeur is too marvelous to resist. Something is different about today. Or is there? The sky is cloudless - typical for a Phoenix early afternoon. The sun blasts its white hot rays onto everything beneath it. But the highlighted words - the flowers, the sky itself, the wind, the palm trees, the cacti - these are the difference.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, they are there telling their story daily. The difference is in the man, for today he is listening. A strange metamorphosis has taken place, and the insensitive character early in the story has flown as dust in the wind and given way to a new man. The grass, the water, the hummingbirds, and the fragrance of it all. <i>Majesty!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And if this is but one small scope of a minuscule sphere in one galaxy among billions, what must be in the heavens? What lies beyond Arizona? What lies abroad the universe to our small home? How the angels must stand and fall in wonder of the rotation of the radiant stars, the magnificent eclipses, the faithful seasons. And who is there to worship but the God behind it all?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We are but one breath. We live for a moment in the pages, then we fly away. We are gone. Most are not remembered, and even those who are have but a minimum impact. No one will remember your name in 200 years. No one will even know you existed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No, it is not about us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is Him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Psalm 8:3-5</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What is man that You take thought of him,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And the son of man that You care for him?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet You have made him a little lower than God,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And You crown him with glory and majesty!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Job 42:5</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But now my eye sees You.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-86675375106739848692014-04-21T15:36:00.000-07:002014-04-21T15:36:36.989-07:00Worship is the Answer<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Job 1:21</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And naked I shall return there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Blessed be the name of the Lord.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes life isn't just what we make of it. Even though a positive attitude can help our perspective, good thinking doesn't take away problems. In Arizona, I have been learning that there are things beyond my control. No matter how hard I pray or how many good thoughts I think or how hard I try, trouble still comes. It is the reason I have spent two months of almost ten here unemployed. It's the reason that it's still hard to go to work some days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Job was an example of this far beyond my sphere or scope. He wasn't a man who lost a job - he lost everything. The above words are his response. But until today there was something I failed to notice or realize about the proper response to worship. In the preceding verse in Job 1 after Job has received the tragic news of his losses of possessions and family members, something crucial takes place that reveals the heart of this still imperfect but godly man: "Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped" (Job 1:20).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">God will always hear His children when they call to Him for help. He will always give us the grace we need to live here on the earth. But along with our prayers for His glory and our deliverance, He wants one thing from us: He wants our <i>worship</i>. I truly believe that it is His design and our satisfaction. We were made to honor Him, and even in hardship He is still the Sovereign God deserving of our love and praise.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-39567802664163460602014-04-18T14:25:00.000-07:002014-04-18T14:25:05.233-07:00A Good Friday Meditation<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Ever Mine</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>11/12/2012</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Was it for my guilty hands</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That Yours were pierced by nails?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it for my dying love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yours for me never fails?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Was it for my darkened heart</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That Your blood was shed?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And was it for my wretched mind</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Those thorns were on Your head?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Love of Jesus, love so free,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Love of God divine -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Because Your blood was shed for me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Your love is ever mine.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-37851424311725762522014-04-15T12:40:00.003-07:002014-04-15T12:40:52.880-07:00Getting Serious About Sin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have far too light a view of sin. You and I do not realize what sin is or what consequences come with it. We fail to see it because we have it - sin prevents us from seeing God for who He is, and a failure to see God for who He is is a failure to see sin for what it is. Even as I type these words, the concept that even one of my hundreds and thousands of daily sinful deeds is deserving of an eternity separated from the love of God is as foreign to me as Mandarin. It is a concept I cannot grasp.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">God did not save us so that we would live passively - He saved us to be holy. This is our ultimately and impossible task because God's holiness by definition means that we are<i> not</i> like Him; we can't be. That is why our holiness is completely dependent on His grace.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Lately I have come - again - to the realization that I cannot resist sin and live in holiness without His Spirit and His word. The more I dig into the Bible, the more I see my need for it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And the more I see my need for it, the more I love Him.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-12390966955657134712014-04-11T14:50:00.000-07:002014-04-11T14:50:46.801-07:00What is the Value of This Book?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.downloadbible.us/hires/The-King-James-Bible.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.downloadbible.us/hires/The-King-James-Bible.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">How much do you value this book? Recently in a sermon the same question was directed to me, and lately several other things have come in to play that have shown me how little I value God's word. The question each of us must answer in our lifetimes about this book is - do you believe it's just another book, or is it truly words from the mouth of God as it says it is?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Do you believe that the words on the pages of the Bible are sweeter than honey? Are they sharper than swords? Do you believe that the Bible is able to make you wise unto salvation? Can it change your life? Can it change your day today? Can it change your marriage, your family, your workplace? Do you believe that the words of Scripture give life? Is this a history book? A science book? A book of good stories? A book of myths? A book of God?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And if you do indeed believe that this is a book of God, there is one more question -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Does your life show it?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7007963319739274940.post-43720193914923317262014-03-18T13:50:00.002-07:002014-03-18T13:50:50.393-07:00A Whole Heart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://rlv.zcache.com/broken_heart_right_piece_find_the_other_half_photosculpture-r0f4c2b0f7d99449ab9f4732048a00a3f_x7sai_8byvr_512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://rlv.zcache.com/broken_heart_right_piece_find_the_other_half_photosculpture-r0f4c2b0f7d99449ab9f4732048a00a3f_x7sai_8byvr_512.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Psalm 86:11-12</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Teach me your way, O Lord,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> that I may walk in your truth;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> unite my heart to fear your name.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> and I will glorify your name forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A few days ago as I skimmed through my Bible trying to find some source of hope, my eyes found this passage. The past several months have held a great deal of difficulty for me spiritually as I try to balance school, work, study, and seeking God. It's one of the hardest tasks I have been given. And for the most part, I have failed. It had been so long since I experienced the spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness Jesus preached about in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:6).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There used to be days I could say with David, "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you" (Ps. 63:1). But lately those experiences have been mere memory:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="text Ps-42-4" id="en-ESV-14560" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">These things I remember,</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-42-4" style="position: relative;">as I <span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14560A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>pour out my soul:</span></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span class="text Ps-42-4" style="background-color: white; position: relative;"><span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14560B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>how I would go <span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14560C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>with the throng</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-42-4" style="position: relative;">and lead them in procession to the house of God</span></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span class="text Ps-42-4" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">with glad shouts and songs of praise,</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-42-4" style="position: relative;"><span class="crossreference" style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14560D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></span>a multitude keeping festival (Ps. 42:4).</span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Needless to say, I have no desire for memories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But I am finally seeing what I have been missing all this time. In an act of grace last week, God revealed it to me through His word. He does not desire external actions or dead religion (Joel 2:12-13; Rm. 2:29). He wants my <i>heart</i>. And not just a portion of it or most of it - He wants <i>all</i> of it. So often my efforts to please Him are only half-hearted. I will open His word and skim a few pages or go to church and take good notes, but the hunger and thirst are not fully there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Only He can restore me to that hunger and thirst for righteousness I find so easy to go without. May we (believers) never settle for mediocrity in our fellowship with one another or with Christ. May we never rest on the mundane or be content to simply walk through life as a set of rules and rituals. Rather, let us hunger and thirst for our Savior, Jesus Christ - our Treasure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And let us give thanks to Him with a whole heart.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08187905986791004665noreply@blogger.com0