No mercy

"He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other ceases living, does but half his work."

John Owen - The Mortification of Sin (pg. 51 as cited in Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

We are appointed to this task. This is our job on this earth. God has given us an enemy, a means, and a motivation (be killing sin or it will be killing you). If we fail to completely accomplish this task then we have completely failed. Sin must be crushed. This reminds me of sports. In sports, a championship team is characterized by what is called "smelling the blood in the water." When they knock a team down they put their foot on the neck and go for the kill. They show absolutely no mercy toward their opponent. They leave no doubt. So it is for us. We must leave no doubt. No mercy for sin. Kill it and kill it now. I love how Piper characterizes this battle. He says that we as Christians need to have a "mean streak." This isn't a pleasant affair. It is bloody and dirty and we must have a mean streak. In the case of sin we must have a bloodlust and seek its absolute destruction. There is no room for anything but violence. May God give us the grace to be steadfast in this battle and give us the strength to persevere. Praise God that he has already claimed the ultimate victory over this enemy and has given us all we need to see the battle through to its glorious end.

Glorious Dawn

Glorious Dawn

Give me ears to hear and eyes to see.
Wake me up to see your beauty.
Oh that glorious dawn, that glorious dawn,
As into your presence I am drawn.

And we cry holy, holy, holy
Holy is the Ancient One.
We give glory, glory, glory
Glory to the Risen Son.

Frail and sin-filled man that I am,
I put my trust in the slain Lamb.
My God, by grace, passed over faithlessness,
For glory, to demonstrate his righteousness.

And we cry holy, holy, holy
Holy is the Ancient One.
We give glory, glory, glory
Glory to the Risen Son.

Perfect glory and depraved man
Combine, for glory, grace to land.
To impart the vision of the risen Son
At glorious dawn, we are transformed into one.

New York: Day One

This is actually the only day of the trip that I took pictures. We took a red-eye flight out of Utah at 9 pm MDT and arrived in Denver at 10. Then we had a two-hour layover and flew out at midnight and arrived in New York at 6 am EDT. It was still dark when we flew in and we got a really good view of the skyline from the air. It was really amazing to see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor and then to see the Empire State building and the Chrysler Building and a big empty space in between them where the World Trade Center stood. After we landed we took a van service to the church in Brooklyn where we would be staying and then we slept. Sweet sleep. We woke up around noon and we decided to do some sight-seeing in Manhattan. We didn't have to be back at the church until 6 pm so we had a few hours. All of my pictures are from this short period of time. I also only have building and scenery shots, nothing really of our group. However, a bunch of other people took photos throughout so hopefully I'll get some of those and post them accordingly. Anyway, here are my pictures.

This was my first view of Manhattan after getting off the Subway. Really cool architecture



I took this one from the shore of Battery Park.

This one was also from Battery Park.

This is Wall Street.

This is the bull at the beginning of Wall Street. If you've seen Hitch, then you're familiar with the other end of the bull. There were about 50-75 tourists standing around taking pictures of the bull so this is the best one I could get.

This is ground zero. It was amazing how massive the hole really was. Off to the left there is a subway running through it and that cement hole in the middle was probably part of the parking garage underneath the towers. It was really sobering to see the aftermath of 9/11.

Anyway, those are the highlights of my first day. If I get any more pictures from the others, I'll post those, but for now you'll have to settle for my descriptions of what we did. God Bless.