Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Helpful Things.

Yeah yeah, blah blah, haven't posted in a while -

Let's skip the apologies and get right to it.

Some helpful things this week -

1) Spending a little bit of time on Sunday talking with Norman and Deb J about the Bible. I realize that, in a very sad way, I do not spend a lot of my time talking with people about the Bible, and the difficulties, struggles, blessings, glories...This is a bad thing. We discussed how I didn't know how to read the Psalms (no joke. I don't know how else to explain it. Still struggling.) and Deb didn't know how to read the Gospel according to John. It was helpful, however, to hear their hearts and perspectives on both. Why don't I do this more? It was excellent!

2) I've read Psalm 27:4 about 50 times in the past five years. It became my favorite verse for a while, but it wasn't until yesterday that I got a little bit of the meaning more deeply.

In it, David is crying out, saying that he has one single desire - to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. The thing that never ever struck me until yesterday, though, was that it was in the midst of him being in turmoil, being pursued by enemies, that he most desired to see the face of God.

The implication being: we desire Christ's beauties the most when we are in the midst of our greatest struggles.

Maybe praying for suffering isn't such a dumb thing after all.

3) I want to add one more thing to this post, but I need to get back to work. I'll try to post it when I get home tonight!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Grace.

On Abraham's election -

"The absolutely free and unconditional nature of the choice of Abraham is emphasized, and thus the presence of the divine will as the power which shapes and directs all history is at this point made perfectly clear." - William J. Dumbrell.

"If grace is an obligation, a structure or an entitlement, it is no longer a gift, and no longer grace...God is never obligated to redeem." ~ Michael D. Williams.

Whose story is your life? Your's, or God's?

Monday, January 26, 2009

Oh jeez.

Yesterday, I taught two of the campus worship teams some broad, theological concepts of what is the definition of worship, in the way that we do.

I had two errors, one REALLY bad exegesis, and one rather loose one.

Darn.

Hopefully, God'll anoint me to get better at this...

I'm also learning that leading people on this level is totally different, and I have no real clue how to do it.

Hopefully, God'll anoint me to get better at that too...

Friday, January 23, 2009

Discipleship.

I had a scary realization today.

Do we seek discipleship for the sake of discipleship, or do we seek discipleship in our lives for the sake of following after Christ?

I think that there is a certain pressure in our church for discipleship, accountability. These are both excellent things. You should seek to confess your sins to one another (James 5:16), and we ought to meet to continue to exhort one another (Hebrews 10:25) .

But when was the last time we asked ourselves, "Why am I doing this?"

If, at the center of it, the pursuit of Christ is not first and foremost, then we can easily just become behavior modifiers, or a good-people factory.

Today, I realized that there was a lot of me that wanted to be sanctified for the sake of being sanctified, not for the sake of being more intimate with Jesus. And that broke me.

"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

My works are as empty as the Pharisees, my sacrifices just as horrendous and offensive as the Israelites. But, with Christ in the center, then...it's all in focus. It's all with reason. It then changes from a yoke of slavery, thinking that I need to be someone, thinking that I need to be that amount loving, that amount outreaching, that amount generous...into me admitting my brokenness, my weakness, my selfishness, my arrogance, my complacency, but still thanking God for the grace of His easy yoke and light burden.

When I look at Jesus, when I stare intently at His face, then do I learn how to deny myself and pick up my Cross, because His beauty is enough to make me pick up anything to get just a little bit closer. It's enough to make me drop anything just for the sake of being a little bit nearer (Hebrews 12:1-2).

I won't just walk blindly. I will follow.