Some more random thoughts

So I realized that I forgot to mention something in my last post. I went to my outlaw's wedding Saturday (my brother-in-law's brother). What made this wedding significant is that the ceremony was held in one of the most beautiful places you could imagine - Needles Lodge at Snowbasin. It was an outdoor wedding on a beautiful day with a spectacular view in an unbelievably expensive lodge. Both of them work at Snowbasin (along with Eric) and they got a great deal on the lodge and the catering (they have great food, by the way). We got to ride up the gondola to the lodge which is about a 15 minute ride. The scenery was amazing. If I had a camara I would have taken some pictures and posted them. As it is, you can only imagine what a gondola ride up a mountain with an amazing view of a beautiful valley would be like. Combine that with the fact that there was still snow on the top of the mountain and Earl Holding's millions of dollars of indugence in his lodges and you might get the picture. The only thing that I wasn't overly ecstatic about was the fact that in his message, the pastor didn't point out that marriage on earth is a glimpse of our spiritual marriage to Christ. I also realized that there are a couple of lines in traditional vows that I would change. Now, keep in mind I'm not bashing the vows the couple took or the sentiment in which they were taken. But, if it were me, I wouldn't say that I would place my wife's good above mine. Rather, I would say that my wife's good is my good. And the pursuit of my wife's good will be of immeasurable happiness, pleasure, and reward to me. Again, I understand the sentiment and meaning behind the original line and I think that it is very sweet.

Now that I have dug myself a sufficiently deep grave and have probably turned all the women who might read this against me, I might as well change subjects. Sunburns hurt. I'm not a big fan of them. I got a sunburn yesterday and my arms still hurt. I know, I'm a wimp. So not only do all the women now hate me, they also no longer respect me. All in all, a productive blog to this point. I think maybe next Sunday, I'll put on some suntan lotion.

I finally paid off my guitar! :) I sent in the last payment today. It is now completely mine, which I'm sure means that I am approximately 2.3 days away from doing irrepable damage to it.

Pretty soon I'm going to post a couple of quotes from a really good book I'm reading right now - Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World by David Wells. Basically the book attacks the postmodern mindset that the Western world espouses and then later (although I'm not yet there) demonstrates how the American church has espoused postmodernism. Right now I'm about 20-25% of the way through it and it is really good.

How do you sign off of a blog? Do you just stop typing and click on publish?

A Really Good Day

As you can tell by the title, today was really good. Especially church. The music went well and it seemed like the congregation was worshiping to it. It made me really appreciate the gift that God has given Kellen as the worship leader. It's even cooler that he's related to me. The song selection was great and his prayers were very God-entranced and totally focused on His glory. I'm blessed to just be a part of the worship music ministry. The sermon was also very good. Tom talked about humility and looked at three texts: James 4:6-10, Eph. 4:26-27 and I Peter 5:5-9. In short, he demonstrated that pride is the sin that satan commited and that the only way to resist his deceptions is to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that without Him we can't do anything. He also pointed out that one of the surest signs of dependence on God is the amount of time spent in prayer. This is really convicting for me because there are so many times that I don't think I need God's help and don't pray when I should. Sunday school was also really good. Because we are in between studies (we just finished The Blazing Center dvd series by Piper and are moving on to "Don't Waste Your Lives") we spent some time getting to know each other and spent the last 15-20 minutes talking about the state of the church in America and how weak we are. We are to the point that other nations (usually third-world) are sending missionaries to us. We are drowning in our own affluence and comfort, and if we even seek knowledge, we seek it as an end in itself when it really should serve as a driving factor to love God more and therefore demonstrate that love in good works. It was really uplifting for me because, as it turns out, it was the same topic that I had been praying about on my way to church that morning.

So, all-in-all, church went really well, which was ironic because I woke up late and was late to church so I couldn't help set up the stage for worship. I was really upset with myself for forgetting to set my alarm clock and was basically allowing a lot of little things to come between me and God. And then church came together so well and I heard such a timely message about dependence on God. It really helped me escape from the tiny, insignificant solar system known as Darren and allowed me to see the amazing universe that is God in all its beauty and glory. Plus my good friends the Ramos' visited and I was really encouraged by seeing the whole family and enjoying their fellowship today.

Then that was all followed up by a great round of ultimate frisbee. A group of us have been playing almost every Sunday after church and this time a record amount of people showed up to play. We had 13-14 people I think, maybe a couple more. This meant that we really extended the field from what we normally played on, which meant a whole lot more running in 95-100 degree heat and relatively high humidity for Utah. So, combined with a sunburn, I'm pretty tired and sore right now and hoping that I won't oversleep my alarm clock tomorrow morning (don't worry, I already set it. Now I just need to wake up).

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I recently bought the new Underoath cd and it is a great cd. I think I've listened to it about a dozen times since Tuesday. If you like their style, then I highly recommend it. They also support desiringgod.org, which I think is awesome.

Christ's Suffering and Our Privelege

I was just studying John 8 for a Bible study I've been doing and I was really struck by verse 29. I'll just post my notes that I took on this portion:

God is always with Christ and never leaves Him. But this is because of something: For Christ always does what is pleasing to God. This tells us two things:
1. God will never leave us if we always do what is pleasing. This has two aspects:
a. We have been covered in Christ's righteousness (II Cor. 5:21) so we are always pleasing to God in a way and can never lose our salvation
b. We can lose fellowship for a time but we can draw near to Him by humbling ourselves (James 4:6-10), which is pleasing to God.
So we can never lose our salvation but we must still act in a manner pleasing to God in order to maintain our fellowship with Him.

2. This demonstrates the awfulness of Christ's death. Because He bore our sins God for sook Him, breaking that nearness. This would have been the worst part of His death. It meant that Christ was no longer pleasing to God in that moment because of our sin. That is the price Jesus bore to bring us to God and to behold and magnify His glory. Never forget this. How horrible this must have been. We cannot fathom it.

Never forget the sacrifice of Christ and the privelege that He bought for us.
"Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.... But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He wil prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, my Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12)

Nacho Libre Rocks!!

I just got back from watching Nacho Libre with Keri and Eric. It was so funny. You can't beat Jack Black in "stretchy pants" getting kicked around by a couple of midgets in lion costumes. Plus, the songs are really funny (think the "technology song" from Napoleon Dynamite but with Jack Black). It was interesting watching a movie written by mormons about catholic monks. There were a couple of "heavenly Father"s in there.

Church was good today also. Especially having the opportunity to play on the worship team. It's really humbling to think that God gave me my musical talents for the purpose of glorifying Him through them and this morning was just another opportunity. It was also awesome to play with Jeremy on the drums. Dude, you rock. God has really given you a gift.

To change the topic again, I'm watching the Mavs-Heat game right now and the Mavs better win. If only so I don't have to hear it from my manager. But really, I just can't stand to see Shaq win another ring apart from the Lakers. I know that there might not be anybody reading this that agrees with me (about the Lakers part, anyway), but that's only because the truth is often hard to take :)

Anyway, I don't really have much more to say. I will be posting about something a bit more serious some time soon. Man, Wade is killing me. I like him but I can't root for him because Shaq is on his team. God bless all of you.

Finished!

To both my delight and dismay I finished Pride and Prejudice five minutes ago. I hadn't been reading it very regularly prior to the last week or two, but, of late, I've been reading it intensely, even reading it during my breaks at work. This was culminated today when I read over 150 pages! I don't think I have ever read that much in a single day. Or if I have, I don't remember it. I can honestly say that it is one of the best fiction books that I have ever read. It joins the ranks of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I liked it so much that I barely watched the third game of the NBA Finals as I finished it (go Mavs). Now I need to again watch the six-hour miniseries and the two-hour movie. It was such a good book that I don't know if I should pick up another fiction book for fear of it being far inferior. If anyone has a suggestion to me that won't disappoint, I will gladly hear it. But, until then, I guess I will have to content myself with delving more deeply into the theology and pleasures of God and to applying myself in learning Biblical Greek. I must thank Pride and Prejudice (and Jane Austen) for helping me to rediscover the joy I take in reading that I had lost while going to school (reading textbooks can get pretty tedious). In short, it is a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. God bless you all.

Quick Quiz

Name the book in which this quote appears:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

The first one to get it right wins a prize.

Darren: The Supposed Song-Writer

As promised, I'll post the lyrics to the song I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Since then I also put music to some lyrics I wrote a couple of weeks ago, so I'll post that as well. Keep in mind that they might still get modified a little bit.

[Disclaimer: I am not a poet]

From Night to Dawn (tentative title)

I wrote this one one night when I was about to go to bed. I decided to pull out my guitar and just mess around a little bit but ended up writing the words and music to it that night, which adds a little personality to the title.

Verse 1
Lord, how long must I wait
This trial is so hard to endure
But I know that with You I will survive
Because You will revive
This journey's long, but the end is sweet, so sweet
To know You, to see Your face, Your Glory

Chorus
Your love is steadfast, Your mercy endures forever
Weeping may tarry for the night
But joy comes with the dawn, with You

Verse 2
You have torn me, bruised me, broken me
To revive me to live before You, to know You
How sweet it is to be broken by Christ
for that He will not despise
A broken heart and a spirit that's contrite

Bridge
Lord I want You more than these temptations
I will seek you above these vain pleasures
You satisfy, You satisfy, O Lord
You satisfy, You satisfy, O God, I'm Yours


Praise Him and Behold Your God

The first verse and chorus just came to me out of the blue one night while I was taking a shower and I had to write them down. I ended up writing a couple more verses and just recently put some music to them.

Verse 1
Praise Him you created beings
Praise Him all peoples of the earth
Raise Your voices, lift up your hands
To the One who dwells in glory
The most beautiful God

Chorus
By His Word we are created
He sustains us and gives us breath
By His blood He bore our sins
In three days He destroyed the grave
And by His drawing He now abides in us

Verse 2
Praise Him all children of God
Praise Him you broken-hearted
Mourn and sing for joy
To the One who died to show us Himself

Verse 3
Praise Him you pure in heart
Praise Him for your eyes have beheld Him
We gaze upon His beauty
And know Him intimately

Tag
Praise Him and Behold Your God
Praise Him and Behold Your God

Sunsets and Mosquitos

I was just outside watching an amazing sunset and my thoughts turned to the awesomeness of God's creation. Specifically, I started thinking about mosquitos. (Totally natural, right? :-) Thankfully, we haven't had too many of those yet. But what I thought about was how they stick their noses into us and we don't even feel it as they suck our blood (great topic). As they stick us, they put a poison/anisthetic (that probably isn't spelled right) into us, which is what makes us itch afterward. Then I thought about how an evolutionist would respond to this and the response that seems to be typical (at least what I have heard) is something like "How amazing it is that they evolved that way so that we wouldn't feel it and, therefore, we wouldn't kill them while they fed!! What an amazing self-defense technique!" If evolution were true, then would it really be amazing that mosquitos could do that? After all, wouldn't it all be easily explained by science and not really amazing? Rather, what is amazing is that God created every single, minute, atomically sized part of that insect, He sustains that insect, and He does so in order that He might be glorified through it! So the language that should be used to describe the greatness of the glory of God is used to express amazement at a false belief that denies God that really shouldn't be all that amazing according to that belief anyway. The depth of our blindness and depravity and the greatness of the cross that allows us to experience the grace and mercy of God, which frees us from from that depravity. Hope this finds all of you well.

The rambling thoughts of a tired man

It's been a while since I've posted. (Thank you master of the obvious.) Wednesday I didn't have anything to say, Thursday I had worship practice, and Friday I had a late softball game to play. And right now I'm chilling out to some Norah Jones while I write this. It's been a long day. As many who read this know, Ed's dad, Dave, died and the funeral was today. Before I talk about myself more, I just want to praise God that he's now home. It was so encouraging to see that the family was grieving with joy knowing that even though they had lost a great husband, father, grandfather, and friend, they knew that he was in a much better place and was surely much happier than he had ever been on this world. In fact, Ed even said that this day was one of the best days of his life. It's so awesome to see a family that loves God in both word AND deed. So as we mourn with those who mourn, the words of Paul come to mind "sorrowful yet always rejoicing." May the peace and joy of God reign in the hearts and minds of the Ramoses and the Petits over the coming weeks. My heart and prayers are with you during this time.

Now to a few things that really don't matter too much. In order to get to the funeral I took my first road trip in my new (read: new to me) car. I drove Tim Kibbey and Eric Christensen from Ogden to Pocatello, which translates into 140 miles one-way. It was a really good trip and the car lived up to my expectation of it being a great car for road-trips, but the 4 hours of driving combined with the emotion of the afternoon has proven to be a little tiring. Man, I love Norah Jones' first cd. I think I need to marry someone with a voice like hers ;-) At least I can listen to both of my sisters sing and that is far more than enough. (If you're reading, I love you. I don't say it enough.) While we were in Pocatello we ate at Jack-in-the-box. I hadn't eaten there since we moved from California. I didn't even know we had one as close as 140 miles away. It was really good. We need to get one in Ogden or Layton or somewhere just as close. If I'm totally clueless and someone knows of one close by, let me know. It sure beats McDonalds, Burger King, and even Carl's Jr. (I know, CJ might be disgusting to some, but for some reason I like it.) And since I'm on the subject, we really need an In-and-Out Burger in Utah. It is simply the best ever. Ever. I don't eat fast-food often, but if I do I want it to be quality and nothing beats In-and-Out.

Since I'm talking about random things at random times... I just wrote another song. For some reason it's coming easier to me lately. That's not to say that it's any good. It's just easier now to write mediocre songs. Maybe I'll share it in a post soon. Anyway, I'm tired, I need a shower, and I have to get up relatively early tomorrow so I'll stop my random ramblings (how's that for alliteration).

May each of you experience the love, joy, peace, mercy and grace of our great Lord as we worship corporately at our respective fellowships. To Him be the glory.