the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Lately I have been contemplating what it means to keep changing. The stress is in the word 'keep'. Realizing that God calls us to a radically different life then what we see in the world, a one and done event is never enough, God wants to keep molding us into a beautiful creation, allowing for us not to stay the same. If spiritual maturity has been reached in some fashion, then of course that is a wonderful praise filled change in our life. If we only take it as something that happened once however, we are subject to great difficulties later down the road. This happens because we feel, rightly so, that God has changed us for the better, yet we don't know what to do when new circumstances occur because we were changed under older ones, past ones. What I'm leading to is that although we may have come to God and He has pressed upon us a new way of life, this is the wonderful creative God who says I can be more than I think I am because He will give me the ability to b...

When God wants to work on you, He will use anything and take however long it takes to do so. What has surprised me lately is the amount of self awareness He has placed upon me. Prior to this self awareness, I think I was just going through the motions for a while. During a time even prior to that, not to confuse the time line, I had been learning a lot on my own by experiencing life and community in a very different manner than I have previously. So as I write, God has rescued me from a lull that for better or worse happened. It was just a time where you go to school, do work, wake up at a certain time, go to youth group Saturday night, sleep in Sunday morning, have an adventure here and there, and pause a moment and say 'didn't I just do this yesterday, not last week?!' And during this time I was being stripped of things I assumed both of myself and the world I live in. Now I'm being clothed by what God wants me to wear and how to show it off to the world. Wha...

God is always the rescuer and I am the one in need of rescuing. It is wonderful to know that God will be the one to seek me when things are rough, especially if I sin against Him. The times when I distance myself from Him out of shame is terrible because He is the one that is always pursuing, always chasing after me if I have even sinned against Him. I know no one else like that at all. To hit someone in the face and have them chase after you to get to know you and not strike back is something you do not see amongst people. As I continue to experience great transitions in my life I need to be aware that career, education, even friend transitions all mean nothing if I don't continue transitioning towards Jesus. He cannot be placed to the side while I figure out what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Psalm 5 :1-7 ( NASB ) says: Give ear to my words, O L ORD , Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O L...

Recently I have been stunned by a lot of things going on in my life, and the lives of others around me. What is going on in my life is the awakening that I better stop speaking so much about myself and more about Jesus. He needs to be the reason behind everything I go after, everything that I participate in, in short, everything. Period. Where I am finding that He is absent is in my present situational vocabulary. Out of the abundance of the heart come my words. And attributing events to Jesus just does not come out often. What I am getting at is there is a failure to verbalize the greatest person in my life, which in fairness He's no easy person to verbalize! I am not looking for empty sayings to stuff into my conversations. It should be a natural overflow of the heart, that I am not simply talking about Jesus to talk about Him, but because He is really right there in all situations. Seriously, however, the words that come from my mouth, that are absent, should be the last ...

Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Psalm 86:4-5 ( ESV ) I don't get into the Psalms enough at all. If I would, I would find calls out from the heart like this one from King David. This is such a wonderful passage because to me I have been trying to understand the true motivation through life. Is it suppose to be somber, pious, joyous, glad, or all? The key is that of course there is a time for every emotion, but I am talking about the motivation behind the emotion. Even more direct, what is my motivation to be a faithful believer in Christ and not a drugged out Law practicer ? I like what the verses above have to say. God has a steadfast love to those who call upon Him. And he gladdens the soul that belongs to Him. That I sift through passages like Galatians attempting to try and figure out how we are instructed to stay away ...

So my room mate Kyle wished for me to write a new blog entry. So, here it is. A better one should follow. Procrastination will end. Productivity will increase.

It has taken a month, but finally I have felt what has happened. I moved. Physically to a new location, and overall. I moved through a year of freedom. And it all became overwhelming. A year went by that included so much change and excitement that I can barely digest it all right now. A year off of school, with degree in hand, and with many deepened relationships. I have been looking back already, but today I got hit in the stomach. And the tear ducts turned on. It all came rushing through my head; the road trips, the bible studies, the new friendships, the job experience, the growth in my character and skills (and discovering of skills), the walks with God, the struggles with God, the fight with future plans, the redefining of my purpose in life, the polished world views, the enlightening. Now I find myself in a basement apartment not too far from where I grew up and hindsight is kicking in. Alternate realities with different choices made, chances to deepen the already deep rela...