o, brother where art thou?

overcast days and contentment

2005-04-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

I am tired, so I don’t think as well when I am tired. I also have a tendency to become more depressed when I am tired—the overcast days really don’t help with that. I am sure that it will soon start raining, which normally I don’t mind however today I do because I am sleepy enough as it is and feel like wasting the rest of the day sleeping.

So often on these type of days I become self-absorbed and think about all the things that are not happening the way I want them too. I think about her a lot and my heart starts to hurt some because things are not were I want them to be. I think about how there is still so much for me to do and accomplish before I will think that I have arrived. But that is such a proud sentiment. Life is not about me, It is and will always be about HIM. And that is how it should be for it is when I got my eyes off of myself that I finally can see. I was created and gifted that I might help others see Him. It is not myself but him i am to proclaim and myself as the servant of all for His sake. I think about how there are so many others in this world in such grave situations. They spend all their days just rounding up enough food and water for themselves just to get by—just to survive to the next day. The amount of what they get is so meager I would not even consider it worthy of a small snack yet it is there daily sustenance. They sleep on dirt floors yet are thankful for what God has given them. Yet too often I go through my days forgetting all the graces I have been given. I become so self absorbed and thinking about what I don’t have and all that I want that I push from my mind all that I have been given. I want to be more thankful. I want to learn to be content no matter what situation I find that God has put me in. yet its hard to be content and thankful in certain situations when you are not getting what you want fully out of it—especially when what you want is a good thing. Yet God is good and knows all ends, he knows my heart and hers.

Sermon-The Power of the Resurrection is a Changed Life to the Glory of God

2005-03-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hey folks. In case you don’t know I am a pastoral intern at my church and so from time to time (which is about once a month) I get the opportunity to preach which is what I love to do, it is what I long to do. My hearts desire is to preach Gods word and proclaim his greatness and glory. The following is a copy of the manuscript from the sermon I preached on easter-which would be today. It was only an 8-10 minute sermon as we had 3 other speakers today as well.

The Power of the Resurrection is a Changed Life to the Glory of God

1 Timothy 1:12-17

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judge me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

We turn on the television at night and we flip to the evening news, where we hear story after story from the current news cycle and as we watch it seems that all they tell us is bad news anymore. It really is quite a depressing thing to watch the news.

We hear stories of tsunamis where thousands die instantly, and of hurricanes that beat the Florida coast—one after another, and of earthquakes destroying whole cities in places like Iran.

Then there is last week where we hear story of a young 16 year old boy named Jeff Weise from Red lake, Minnesota who took a gun and killed his grandfather, the mans girlfriend then drove down to his high school killing a security guard, a teacher, and 5 fellow students before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

Then we hear stories of wars in far off countries—where mothers lose their sons, and children become orphans. We hear of terrorist attacks in places like Iraq and Israel where these types of things are a daily occurrence. Then there is Russia where little children are caught in the middle and become victims of political violence.

We also hear of stories much closer to home as well, where planes fly in into towers—and a whole country is shaken.

But as horrible as these are, this is not the worst of it.

The worst news in the entire world is this:

Romans 3:23

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

Every single one of us have done this, we have all sinned, we have all fallen short of the heights of Gods majestic holiness—no one is righteous, no not one—the sweetest old man and the cutest little child have all failed, we all have—

Romans 1:25

“Exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

And thereby have sinned and fallen short.

And with this overwhelming truth that all have sinned—another stands over us, like a lion over its prey, and it is this

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death”

Every single one of us has committed high treason against the king of ages and the only sovereign. We have rebelled against his rule and reign and spurned his love and kindness and because of this we have fallen under his wrath and the result is death and judgment in hell for all eternity, where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die—a place where the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night. This is the worst news in the entire world—that we have sinned and apart from Christ have incurred the wrath of God—and it is indeed horrible

But over against this worst of all news stands the greatest of all news—and it is this that—Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners—this is the gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God—and it is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, yes Jesus Christ came into the world to save such sinners as you and I.

Though we have rebelled Jesus offers us pardon and amnesty. And willingly cancels the debt of our sin—because he endured the wrath of God for us, on our behalf we need not suffer it, he endured the suffering that you and I deserved—the righteous for the unrighteous that he might brings us to God. Scripture says that apart from Christ we are all dead in our trespasses and sins. But just like Jesus God can raise us to newness of life. He can save us, change us, and renew us.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, this is the greatest news in all the world—and the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus accomplish this great work of God on our behalf, and it could be ours if we would but just but place our trust in him.

We need not be the same people anymore—we need not be dead men walking.

The man—Paul who wrote these words in 1 Timothy used to be known as Saul. Saul of Tarsus was not a good man. He was a sinner like you and I. He was a blasphemous, violent hater of Jesus. Who persecuted the church and sought to kill all he followed the Lord. But God took that dead man Saul, and like Lazarus he said to him “come forth” and raised him to life on that Damascus road in Acts 9 and that man of death became Paul the greatest apostle, preacher and theologian other than Jesus himself this world has ever known. God took a violent hater of the church and turned him into a passionate lover of Jesus. Jesus brought life from death because he truly is the resurrection and the life. And Jesus did this for the glory of his name and to give all of us hope. God took the chief of sinners—the very worst of man and displayed in him his perfect patience so that he would be glorified and be an example to all of us. What God did for Paul he is willing to do for you.

I like Paul am the chief of sinners. I was formerly a blasphemer, a god hater, a wicked, violent, angry, lustful, lazy, proud, ignorant man. I thought the world revolved around me, and that everything should be easy for me. Even though I did not believe in God, every time something would go wrong I would clinch my fist towards heaven and spit in Gods face. I was a wicked vile man. But God showed me mercy, not because of anything I had done. NO!!! I did not deserve or earn his goodness. But God showed me mercy and gave me grace that his perfect patience and great glory would be manifest in my life and that his name would be magnified and that all would know that there is hope for sinners like us.

The power of the resurrection is primarily found in Gods ability and willingness to raise the spiritually dead—which is to save and change a life for the glory of God. Apart from Christ it is our natural desire to let everything in life revolve around us, we worship ourselves. We become the center and focus of our lives, but when Christ saves and changes a person he does so that the son (sun) of God becomes the center of our universe and He causes all the planets of our life to orbit around his greatness.

I want to let you know that there is hope for all of us today—though we have sinned and deserve death God in his mercy nevertheless holds out life to us.

No matter what you have done or how grievous it is—God holds out life to you.

No matter how great your sin is—the grace and mercy of God is greater still. There is hope today. Place your trust in Christ. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon his name today and know life eternal, I plead with you all to call upon his name and so be saved.

Is 55:1-2

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy”

Come and buy, without money and without price, for life has been purchased for you by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

1 Timothy 1:15-17

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

May the grace of God rest upon you this day and always—and may mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. In Christ’s name. Amen.

weddings and dancing like an idiot

2005-03-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

well i just got home from my friends wedding this afternoon--overall it was a good time. she (joy-friend and bride) was beautiful and i am very happy for her. the ceremony was not very long but it was nice and quite funny at times lightening the mood for the couple

afterwards was the reception; with great food, a couple hot chics and dancing. let me just preface this by saying i CANNOT dance but there i am on the dance floor moving about like an idiot acting like i have rhythm or something. it was fun though. our dj was really good and was quite a good dancer as well, he made me want to be able to dance--in fact i am thinking about doing something to remedy that situation. any ideas? do i just go to a dance studio or something. hmmm. but the best part was getting there. another one of my friends (who i adore) picked me up at my apartment and we rode together. as we were driving however she was late because the alaska way viaduct was closed which she didnt know about (though i did--i forgot to tell her)so she had to turn around causing her to be late. then she took a wrong turn towards my house making her even a little more late (that too was my fault) so she get to my house at about 1:15pm...the wedding is at 1:30 and we are at least 25 minutes away. one more problem, its POURING DOWN RAIN so that puts a damper (pun intended) on us going very fast. when all was said and done we walked in at 1:40 to the sound of "joy of mans desiring" which is the processional just barely beating joy walking down the aisle *phew*

oh yea we also got lost *almost* on the way home, luckily we just took the right turns somehow making it into federal way and thus being able to make it safely home.

feminine qualites, weddings, and getting dressed!!

2005-03-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

a friend of mine is getting married today, joy (yes that is her name) and i will blog more about it when i get home but i wanted to say this beforehand. one of my others friends is picking me up (kristin) and we will be riding there together--well kristin said to me the other day that i had feminine qualities or some such crap i cant remember really i kinda tuned out after that--well not really it was pretty darn funny and i wasnt offended a bit. i did however think she was crazy because i am so not feminine or so i thought until i went shopping for a couple things for the wedding. i needed a new white dress shirt and i wanted to get another tie. so i purchased my shirt and this neat greenish tie (it is way snazzy) but i get home and try on the shirt and it doesnt fit the way i wanted it to and the green tie i thought i bought turns out to be more silver than green. looking at it now i dont know how i ever thought it was "green" to begin with--oh well. so here i am in the bathroom trying all this on and freakin out because nothing is turning out the way i want it to be. then it hit me, i am acting like a GIRL!! WHAT THE CRAP!! so yea i guess she was right. weird huh?

going forward by looking back

2005-03-24T17:41:00.000-08:00

i want to know truth. i love Gods word, and my greatest passion is to preach it, and to see people by changed by it. i long to honor God by proclaiming his glory and by serving his people. about 18 months or so ago i started looking into the reformed faith and slowly over a few weeks submitted to what i thought and still think is true. however i see the truth about Gods sovereignty and that christ is central is not really looked too highly upon in the modern church. it seems the church today is stuck on himself--thinking he is the central focus to all that God is doing.

enter the calvinist/arminian debate--i wonder what the early church thought. i want to know how they conducted themselves, what they believed about things like this and other things. i wonder what they thought about the lords return, about the nature and purpose of the church, the sabbath, baptism and the Lords supper. i want to go back to the roots of my faith. of course everything is to be interpreted through scripture, but i am curious as to how they *the early church* read scripture and how they did "worship"

i think so much of what we believe about God and his word is viewed through hundreds of years of histroy, i just want to strip away that histroy and see what is underneath.

trees so strong

2005-03-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

i am sitting here in my living room watching the wind blow the trees outside. the trees here in seattle are so beautiful, so green, so alive--and stable because their roots are deep. i want to be like that. i want to stand strong in the midst of the winds that come into my life. the truth is i fear i will not be, i fear i will be blown to and fro, i fear because i see who i am--the person most people don't see. i fear i will make shipwreck of my faith and will perish. i know so much truth, have been exposed to so much light--yet spurn it so often, trading my first love for lovers so less wild. instead of loving the light i fall again and again in love with my own darkness. i love the sin i am shackled to. but yet i hate it! i want to hate it. i want to be new, to be different. i want to be lush and alive, i want to be beautiful because of christ, i want to be like the trees so strong.