a flawed expression of God's glory

In ten days everything changes

2010-01-06T17:26:00.002-07:00

The final countdown has begun. T minus 10 days. There is no bigger thing happening in my life than what will happen in 10 days. Darren Colwell will no longer be Darren Colwell. Darren Colwell will be Mr. and Mrs. Darren Colwell. I can hardly believe it. We got engaged almost six months ago. (Which, by the way, was on a beach in Mexico on a mission trip. God rocks.) The time has seemed to fly and be unbearably slow at the same time. God has brought us so far. I never knew the extent of my selfishness and pride until I had to grapple with the thought that I would be spending the rest of my life with the woman I love. Marriage (even the preparation for marriage) is an incredibly sanctifying agent. I can't wait to see what the next fifty years brings in my life. Praise the name of Jesus. I have waited 26 years to be married (well, maybe not 26 years, but at least 13) and in just ten days that desire becomes a reality. It's absolutely insane. God is crazy. Putting me with a girl like Kayla. The grace of God knows know measure. And if Kayla is this good, imagine how amazing God is. Oh God, come quickly and bring us to Christ. More to post later...

Death to all sabbath breakers

2009-03-19T18:25:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I'm reading through Numbers right now and I just sat down and started reading chapter 15. I don't get very far into it before I come across a very interesting passage. In this passage a man is caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath. The people arrest him and inquire of the Lord what ought to be done with him. God answers through Moses that he is to be put to death. Now I believe that every word is inspired and profitable and that God is infinitely holy and just and righteous. But I looked at this passage through the eyes of an unbeliever and someone of the world. At first glance it looks like God just went haywire and started going all crazy on people and killing them left and right. In fact, there are some chapters in this book that just start off with God launching a plague or fire or something within the camp and totally killing a few thousand people. What's going on with this. Especially this story. The dude was just trying to gather some sticks on a Saturday. What could possibly be wrong with that? I mean we don't go around killing people today because of that. I could see that person who looks at this passage totally blowing God and Christianity off as old and unprofitable and totally false. They wouldn't want to serve a God like that. We see this especially on all the tv shows that try to bring down Christianity by bringing up the (on the surface) crazy laws in the OT. So what's going on here? How can we answer this question?

I started thinking about it and at first the "easy" answer is that he broke one of the commandments of God and because of that he must be punished. And because God is infinitely holy and just, his sin required a punishment that was swift and brutal. We don't deserve mercy, we all deserve to die for even the smallest sins that we commit. This guy was just one that didn't get the mercy of God for his sin, but received a just retribution by the wrath of God.

That's all true, but I didn't find it completely satisfying. Don't get me wrong, this answer should be taught and it lays the groundwork for what I believe is the greater reason behind his death. In Hebrews it talks about the people of God receiving a rest (Heb. 3:7-4:13). In this section they reference the creation and how God rested from his works on the seventh day thereby establishing a sabbath rest that we all should follow. However, Hebrews doesn't stop at the physical requirements of taking a day off of work. It looks beyond that to see the spiritual meaning of our perfect and eternal rest with Christ. Hebrews 4:8-10 reads:

"For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." (emphasis mine)

The Sabbath rest that God instituted was to point us forward to the rest that comes in Christ both now (though not fully realized) and in heaven for eternity (fully realized). We are to rest from our works. We are to fully trust in God to provide for us the way of salvation. We are to find our joy and justification in Christ alone and that is to be our rest. When we come to true salvation we find rest for our souls from the endless and wearying toil of trying to make God happy through continual legalistic and religious ritual and rule. We must rest from our works. When we sin, we don't go though penance. Penance is a foul stench in God's nostril because it denies the Sabbath rest he promises us in Christ. We must rest from our works. The man in Numbers 15 didn't rest from his physical works and didn't trust in God to sustain him and protect him physically and therefore, because of that lack of trust in the mercy and grace of God, God put him to death. This is a great and terrible sign for us that if we don't trust fully and completely in the grace and mercy of Christ and rest from our works then we too will face the retribution and wrath of our just God. Praise God for his mercy and grace that we can find true rest for our souls. Seek the rest that comes from Christ and don't keep running to the chains of slavery to legalism and works. I need this most of all. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus for saving my soul and giving me rest.

A long fortnight

2009-03-09T17:34:00.003-06:00

I thought I would bust out some old english there and talk about my last couple of weeks. I was given the privelege by my pastor to preach the last two Sundays while he took a much needed break to focus on the vision and mission of our church. God led me to preach on the excellency of Christ. God prompted me to do this when I was looking out at an amazing sunset by Kayla's house and my mind went to a paper of Jonathan Edwards titled "The Excellency of Christ" where he talked about Jesus as the Lion and Lamb and the incredible beauty of Christ displayed in that amazing paradox. So I talked to Tom about him doing that series or something like that. A couple weeks later he asked me to preach a couple of sermons on that so he could take those weeks off. I readily agreed and was looking forward to it.

Needless to say, that subject is so far beyond me or my ability to preach on it. I found out quickly that I was biting off more than I could chew. That topic is beyond Edwards, let alone me. But, I trusted in the grace of God and pressed on with it and used my pitiful words to try to exalt our great God and Savior. I love the words of John Piper when he says that God loves to bless desperate pastors. I was desperate for His Spirit to take over and speak. He did. It was amazing. It wasn't of me. God spoke powerfully through me and gave me the grace to be a faithful servant. Last Sunday was especially powerful as I spoke on the humble and exalted nature of Christ from Phil. 2. I learned that it's not just about me. It's not just about that one man that stands and gives the message. It's about that one Man who came and died for our sins and rose victorious. And in order for that one Man to be exalted in our Sunday services it requires a great deal of men and women working together, building each other up in love, and serving our risen Lord to make it happen. I've known that intellectually and theologically, but never as experientially as last week. Worship was fantastic and Spirit-led and Christ-centered. That required the efforts of our worship leader and worship team (I was blessed to be on the team this week). During worship, one of the ladies in our congregation was especially moved by the Spirit to share some verses and ask us to repeat one of the songs so that we might enter into the joy of God and it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. Communion was powerful, as it usually is, and then I got up to speak. That doesn't even account for the numerous people that get there early to set up chairs, the stage, the sound, the greeters table, the coffee and food tables, and other ministries like nursery and children's church. So much happened that Sunday that led us to Christ in the power and grace of the Spirit so that we might see the Father. We were ONE body working toward ONE head in ONE Spirit with ONE mind. It was amazing. A couple weeks ago I thought I had been in one of the most powerful church services I could remember. This week topped that. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise His grace. Praise Him. Praise Him. Come Lord Jesus.

If you want to listen to those sermons, not that they're that great or important, you can download them at www.ccc-utah.com and click on the sermon tab.

I'm alive!!!

2009-01-16T18:45:00.002-07:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted here. I wonder if I even have readers left. I guess I'll find out soon enough. If you're still good enough to be checking my blog from time to time to see if I'm still kicking, then I thank you and the answer is "yes, I am still kicking." A lot has been going on in my life lately. Most of you are my facebook friends and were probably aware that I am in a relationship with Kayla again. After we broke up the first time, I was still interested in her and realizied that I had done a bunch of things wrong the first time around and hadn't really built our friendship while we were going out the first time. So I began to pursue a friendship with her over the next month or so while being open and honest with her about my feelings. She decided to give me a second chance :) and things have been going really well. In fact, today is our two-month anniversary. We just went shopping and tonight we are going to the olive garden (her favorite restuarant) and probably seeing a movie after that (we haven't decided which one). So that's been keeping me really busy lately.

The exciting news of the month is that Kayla and I are going to D.C. on Monday for the Inauguration of Barack Obama. We have some friends that live in Maryland and we'll be able to stay with them. I didn't vote for Obama and I don't agree with his politics and his view of government scares me, but it will be an historic day for our nation and I am glad that we elected an African-American to the office of President. So even though I didn't vote for Obama, I am for racial equality and I think that this is a step in the right direction even if it means that our country goes in the crapper economically and politically for the next four years or so ;).

Anyway, I'm going to keep this one brief, so thanks for hanging in there with me and I'll try to post more frequently in the future. May God bless you and cause his face to shine upon you and give you peace.

Hosea 4:12

2008-10-24T21:12:00.003-06:00

Some thoughts from my morning devotional:

My people inquire of a piece of wood,and their walking staff gives them oracles.For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,and they have left their God to play the whore. (Hosea 4:12)

God depicts the idolatry and adultery of Israel and their chasing after false gods as inquiring of a piece of wood and receiving oracles from a walking staff. We look at Israel and the people of this time and think "How stupid could they be?" But we are guilty of far more. We have the full counsel of God before us. We have the Old and New Testaments. And yet we inquire of psychologists, talk show hosts, horoscopes, and advice columns. We may not seek after pieces of wood, but we seek after that which is not God and we lend biblical authority to them to tell us right from wrong. To tell us how to act, what to say, and even what to think. And we do so because within us is a spirit of whoredom. We have turned from God and gone astray. Jeremiah 2:13 says that we have committed two evils. We have turned from the fountain of livng water (God) and hewn out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. And because we have forsaken our God - the only one who can satisfy us - we drink the sand and call it refreshing. We are the fools. We are the whores. Father, forgive us. Forgive our land. Forgive the people. Forgive me. I have turned from you so many times and sought for answers from that which cannot satisfy. Turn me again by whatever means necessary.

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." (Psalm 27:4)

Come, let us return to the Lord.

A new season began...

2008-10-21T14:36:00.002-06:00

...and then it ended just as quickly. If you're one of my facebook friends you might have noticed that my relationship status went from being in a relationship a little over a week ago to going back to being single yesterday. I thought I would use my blog to give a little insight (but not too much) into what happened over the last week or so. About 10 days ago I started dating a great Christian girl. We had been friends for a long time and I liked her and she liked me so we decided to try it out and see where God would take us. In my opinion anyway, we went about it maturely. I talked to her parents. We involved an older, godly couple to keep us accountable. And we went about it seriously, but not too seriously. But, after a week-and-a-half, it wasn't working like it should have. We both wanted to remain friends, but we realized that it wouldn't work out in a relationship at this time. So, we're still good friends, but I am no longer in a relationship. To be honest, it's a little weird for me. But God knows what He's doing and he has a plan for both of us and I know that this is the best. So anyway, I thought I would share with you a little of what has been going on in my life in regard to that.

Coming soon: I just got back from a mission trip to Washington D.C. with my youth group and I'll share some of what God is doing in my life through that.

LIfe comes at you fast...

2008-10-08T13:21:00.002-06:00

Sometimes a lot faster than I thought it would. Last Saturday one of my best friends, Jeremy, got married to a beautiful girl named Stacey. It was my privelege to be one of the groomsman. I can honestly say that it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen. I haven't seen many, mind you. But of the ones I have seen, I have yet to see a more Christ-centered wedding. It included testimonies of both of their faiths from their closest friends. The vows were perhaps the most beautiful I have ever heard (they were a variation on I Cor. 13 - simply beautiful and amazing). And then they followed those up with communion. While I stood there I couldn't help but be blown away by God. Jesus Christ is our groom and we are his beloved bride. In order to win his wife, Jesus partook of the cross and all its suffering and shame and he sacrificed himself in order to make us his own. Our weddings are but a pale shadow of the awesome love and sacrifice that Jesus has and made for us. We are his bride!!! He has won us and loves us with a love beyond all understanding and comprehension! He gave himself for us as the Lamb of God and he will fight for us as the Lion of Judah. I am my beloved's and he is mine! I have loved seeing Jeremy and Stacey's relationship and how Christ-centered they both are and how much their wedding showed that.

Beyond that, life continues to change for me. My role at Christ Community continues to change and develop. I don't know if I announced it here, but I have given up the Sunday morning duties of being a youth leader. I still teach on Wednesday nights and lead a small group of seventh grade boys, but the Sunday morning instruction has been passed from me to my friends Rex and Jessica Griffin. I'm actually really happy for this. Because of our Sunday format, we only have about half-an-hour for the youth and we are using for sermon application. Due to the fact that we combine youth groups with Wasatch church on Wednesday nights the Christ Community parents wanted to have seperate events from time to time with just the CCC youth. I wasn't the guy for that job, so, with the approval of my pastor and others, I have passed that to Rex and Jessica. So far, it has really turned out well. We are both enjoying and growing in our roles and can work with our particular giftedness and don't have to go outside that. However, that means more work for me in other areas of the church. I recently wrote a position paper for my pastor, Tom, supporting the vision he has for starting a charter school. If you guys are interested in my reasons for it I would be happy to e-mail it to you. Just leave a comment indicating that. And now, Tom's next assignment for me is to help him develop a Member's covenant for the church and work on a new member's class. I agreed to it (about an hour ago) and I'm starting to realize that this is going to be a lot of work, especially if we try to make it a relatively short course (like 4-6 weeks).

The other big change for me is something that I have to keep under wraps right now, but if it happens it will greatly impact how I go about planting a church. It's really exciting stuff, but unfortunately I will have to leave you with that. Nothing has been nailed down so I need to keep it pretty quiet. Hopefully I will be able to say more about it in the near future.

Anyway, with everything going on my heart and mind and energies have been going a million different directions at a hundred miles per hour and I'm still without a job. So I would appreciate all the prayer you can muster for me. I need humility, work, and a continued focus on Christ and his work on the cross. Apart from him, I have nothing, I am nothing, I do nothing. May God bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and give you peace.

Luke 8

2008-09-20T17:39:00.002-06:00

I have had an amazing day so far today. It's been filled with a lot of conviction, tears, worship, and love for my incredible Savior. I want to share my simple reflections on one of my readings this morning: Luke 8:42b-48

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (ESV)

I was incredibly struck by the woman and Jesus' response to her. The response she had to her healing and her nakedness before Jesus (in that she couldn't hide from his knowledge about his healing her) was simply to fall trembling before him, declaring her need for Jesus, and what Jesus had done for her. It is the response that we all should have. She was marked with impurity - a discharge of blood that lasted for 12 years. In that culture she was unclean. She was impure. She had spent all of her livelihood looking for a cure that couldn't be found, until she came to Jesus and he had the cure offered as a gift, needing no payment to be secured. Upon humbly seeking and touching Jesus in faith, she was made clean. We are impure in every way. We are dispicable, depraved, and deplorable sinners. We have no cleanliness in our being. We have gone out and sought every "cure" under the sun. We have tried to cleanse ourselves through moralism and leagalism. We have tried to cure it by denying our own uncleanliness and living sinful hedonistic lives. We have tried to drown it out with entertainment of the basest and finest forms. We have tried other religions that tell us how to be clean and lay heavy burdens on us and in the end all we have are empty promises that kill us more than they ever hoped to heal us. In the end, we come to Christ. In faith we reach out and touch him and cry out for him. In power, he applies his blood to our sin and makes us clean. In the words of C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces" we are made to be like Psyche - clean and beautiful and pleasing to God. Then, when all is stripped away and we are made to stand before God and the world we fall on our faces before our risen Christ and declare our sins and his power to heal us. We declare Christ to the world. We are naked and unashamed before Him and we show the world what it is to be clean before the all-knowing God. This is evangelism. This is the gospel. I was lost and now I'm found. I was blind but now I see. I was a wretch and now I'm clean. I am a sinner and now I'm saved. And we fall down at his feet and worship. We confess, we worship, and we proclaim. This is our God. What God is there like Him. All other gods load us up under burdens that can never be met, or they take away our inherent offense to God. Our God knows our sins and He knows our impurity and He gives us grace through the power of His cross and makes us clean so that we can be unashamed before Him knowing the burden of the law has been met by Him. This is our God.

Another quote

2008-09-14T14:52:00.002-06:00

Here's another great quote from the Of First Importance blog:

“It could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could.”
- Anselm of Canterbury, quoted by Richard D. Phillips in Hebrews: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2006), 79.

Praise you, Jesus!

Unity

2008-09-14T14:17:00.002-06:00

A few months ago I was reading through Ephesians and I was convicted by the verse that reads "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph. 4:3) The reason this verse struck me so powerfully is that I don't think I ever would have described myself as eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Don't get me wrong, I like unity and I think we should strive for it, but I was also willing to forgo unity in order to prove my theology. If there was a disagreement on some issue that I found important (not determining our salvation, but an important secondary issue) I would engage in the argument until I won, not until we were brought to union in the Spirit. My goal was to increase my glory and fame at the expense of our unity. So this verse really brought me low and showed the depth of my pride and my lack of fear of God. This morning God brought this section of verses to mind again. I realized that, generally, we the church view unity as not arguing over secondary issues or not splitting or being able to hang out. But that is not what the context says. If we take this as our goal, then we will end up being a useless church that doesn't edify one another and we won't be effective in carrying out Jesus' mission on earth. The verses after that read "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." The unity that we should be eager to maintain is related to the unity of our God, our faith, our baptism, the oneness of the body, the Spirit, and God, (the greek word for unity is taken from the word for "one") and his reign over all of earth (possibly making reference back to chapter one where Paul tells us that God's plan is to reconcile all of the world in Christ). Let's just look at a couple of these. First our union is to resemble the oneness of God. God is the Trinity. Within the Trinity there are three persons and yet they are one. Our unity is to resemble the Trinity. We see this in other books of the Bible. Every member of the body is given gifts to use for the building up of the body. There are a variety of gifts but they are all to be used for the sake of the one body. Just as there are three members of the Godhead but only one God, we must demonstrate our unity by the use of all of our gifts for the one body.

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves [4] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, [5] yet one body." (I cor. 12:12-20)

Our unity should also resemble the oneness of our faith and our baptism. As Christians we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and are brought into a single faith. There is no post-modern, relativistic, unitarian faith here. There are no other baptisms (at least that relate to our salvation, I don't think this refers to our denominational traditions symbolizing this spiritual baptism). We are brought into a single faith. As the body of Christ we must be eager to maintain this oneness. We are one, not in a panantheistic way, but one nevertheless. Do we act like it? Do we show the world that there is a oneness to us? Do we demonstrate the relationship of the Trinity in our own relationships with other believers? Do we show the world that even though we might disagree on the finer points we are still one body, with one faith and one baptism? At the end of the day I think we all have to agree that we've failed at this. We do not strive for the oneness that God has given and modeled for us.

So how do we it? The first two verses of Ephesians four tell us: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love." If our lives are not marked with humility and love, with gentleness and patience, then this unity will not be maintained. Being eager to maintain this unity means that we are going to have to love people that really annoy us. We are going to have to be patient with that couple's kids. I'm going to have to be gentle toward that arrogant theonazi that is always trying to pick a fight (that's right, you'll have to be gentle and patient toward even me :) ). We are going to have to be humble and put everyone else's desires for worship songs and styles ahead of ours. I have to admit that when it comes to this I'm usually the last to do it and worst at it. I think I'm right and I'm not going to give up my "rightness" for anything. In the end, all I do is make myself more important and bigger than the church and God and tear all of His work down (or at least as much as He'll allow before the holy 2x4 comes in). So as we finish up our Sundays and go about the rest of the week, may we be eager to maintain our unity by being gentle, patient, humble, and loving. Myself most of all. God bless.

Unemployed

2008-09-09T18:36:00.002-06:00

For the first time in my life since I started working I am about to be unemployed. I have three weeks before I lose my job. As you may know I work for a government contractor. Apparently, the contract we are on is a year-by-year renewable contract. Yesterday we were told that the IRS offered to re-up my company for the upcoming year, but my company had been losing money over the last two years due to the IRS failing to meet some financial obligations. IAP (my company) told the IRS that they would re-up with them if they would make money this year doing that. The IRS told them that if that was the case they would just take the contract back. So, effective October 1st, I will no longer be an employee of IAP worldwide services. And the way the IRS hires employees, I'm not guaranteed my old position. In fact, I'm almost guaranteed that I won't get my position, but I might be able to get a lower position, which will require a significant pay cut. Life gets a little crazier from here on out. I've already applied for a couple of jobs, and I'll be applying for a lot of jobs over the next few weeks. I would really appreciate your prayers over this whole situation. But more than a new job, pray for my witness at work during this time. There is a lot of stress as you can imagine what would happen with 180 people losing their jobs. I've only worked two days this week, but it feels like four. God has blessed me with a great deal of peace over the situation and I'm not really worried about what will happen with me, but I want to show my co-workers how real my faith is and point them to the only true hope there is - Jesus Christ. So pray for my witness and pray for my patience as it can be very trying dealing with people who are stressed and others who are spreading baseless rumors about future opportunities with the IRS. There were a couple of times I really felt like yelling at people today and I know I'm not the only one. I am definitely learning how weak I am and how dependant I am on God's grace. His grace is sufficient for me and his power is made perfect in my weakness. Lord willing, He'll shine through me over the next three weeks. The irony of this whole situation and how I see the sovereignty of God in all of this is that last week I was really convicted of my idolization of money and how much I trust in and worship it as the provider of all of my need and my security. I've been asking God to reveal how I need to think of, treat, and use my money for his glory and his purposes. I guess this is part of the answer to that prayer. I won't have much of an income pretty soon and I'm going to have to rely totally and completely on God. He doesn't promise me another great-paying job, or even that I'll find any kind of decent job soon. But He does promise that He'll be there with me through it all and this will only serve to make me more into the image of His Son, and therefore it is for my good. Praise God for His grace. Praise God for the trials that help us lean on it. And praise Jesus that we are more than conquerors through Jesus. It won't always go easy, but it will always go best for us and for God. I'm struggling to hold on to this and believe it fully. I definitely am no super-saint. God bless you all.

Church planting, youth group, and Bible studies

2008-09-07T15:52:00.002-06:00

Church planting...It's been on my mind a lot lately. Actually a lot of things have been on my mind lately. The summer's over and there is work ready to be done. I'm beginning to teach the junior highers for Wednesday night youth group for the second straight year and I also have a small group of 7th grade boys. If the Lord wills, I'll be starting a Friday night young adult Bible study. And, I'm auditing a class on church planting at Salt Lake Theological Seminary. The class is being taught by the pastor of my church's mother church who is also (I believe) the regional director of church planting for the EFCA (my denomination). So there are a lot of things going on right now. A lot of things to pray for if they happen to come to your mind during the week. I think that leaves Tuesday night free and the occasional Thursday night.

For Wednesday night, I'm doing a character study through the book of Genesis. I'm really looking forward to it. Obviously, I'm starting with God. I think I'll do the first three or four lessons on God and different things that are revealed about Him in the first chapter or two. That will be followed up with Adam through Joseph. I'm hoping to show how the gospel is revealed in the lives of all these characters, as well as grounding us in the foundations of who God is and what that means for our lives. I'm hoping this will humble me and the kids. The first lesson is that God is not all about us - God is all about God. He is the principal character through all of the Bible and He does everything for His own glory. Follow that up with the holiness of God, God's sovereignty and authority over and in creation, and the Trinity. Should be interesting.

The genesis of the Friday night study actually came from the end of my Sunday morning youth duties (potentially). Over the summer we cancelled sunday school and just had the main service. The elders decided to keep that format for the foreseeable future, which means that I won't be teaching a youth sunday school class. This frees up some time to really focus on adult ministry. In God's infinite wisdom and impeccable timing, the sunday that this was all announced I started talking to one of my friends about getting together friday nights for some discipleship/accountability and he really wanted to make it a young adult study which has been on my heart for some time. So, in the matter of about 15 minutes, one door of ministry closed and another one opened up. And the one that opened up seems more in keeping with my calling toward the Ogden area. So in the past month I've moved to Ogden and I'm about to start a Bible study (again, Lord willing) in Ogden. We'll see if this ends up becoming a church plant or if it will be another way for God to mold and shape me into who he wants me to be.

And finally, the church planting class kind of happened out of nowhere. I got an e-mail a couple weeks ago from Ross Anderson (the pastor of Wasatch EV Free) saying that he was going to be teaching that class and that he had been talking to my pastor about my desire to church plant and thought that I would be interested. I got the e-mail on a Thursday, read it Saturday, and signed up to audit the class the Monday it started. The books I'll be reading for it look really interesting. I really enjoy Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer. We'll see what God has for me in this class. At the very least I'll be learning a lot of practical stuff about planting churches.

Anyway, that's about all the new stuff in my life so far. God bless and have a great Sunday.

Who is God and how do we please Him?

2008-08-19T19:26:00.005-06:00

Hey everybody, check out my friend Jeremy's blog: Who is God and how do we please Him? It's really good stuff.

Moved!...and other miscellany

2008-08-19T18:18:00.005-06:00

Alright, so I have just recently moved. I moved from a four bedroom house in Clinton where I've lived for the past 15 months with three or four other guys (depending on the month) to a two bedroom condo on the east bench of Ogden with my good friend Micah Krishnan. The view is amazing. We have an unfettered view of the mountains right out our sliding glass door. And we're only separated from those mountains by a park and a golf course. It also located at the head of a bunch of trails, including a three-mile exercise trail that goes up the mountain a little ways and circles the golf course (I got a great picture of the sunset on my phone from there Saturday). However, there is a drawback - I don't have internet access at my house. Right now I'm at the coffee shop down the street paying two much for a drink I wasn't exactly in the mood for in order to get internet access. But I think this will actually be a very good thing for me. It's kind of a forced internet fast, and I definitely needed it. I used to get home and check the internet first thing and waste a bunch of time doing absolutely nothing and checking to see if anybody sent me e-mail, which doesn't happen :) So, overall, I think this is going to be really good for me. It will definitely free up more time for naps :) I took a two hour one earlier today. I guess I was tired.

I'm sorry I haven't written for so long. I don't like to go to long without an update because then I forget what's happened and I don't have anything to write about. However, today is not that day. I do have something to write about. Seeing that the summer is about over I'm going to give my summer a report card.

Fun: B
So far I've had a pretty fun summer. I got to go to a conference with my youth group, I've seen some decent movies, Kellen and Jen came down for a week, during the first month I picked up paintball and played some basketball, and I moved to a pretty cool place and have already had people over and I really enjoy my roommate.

Friends: A
I have reestablished my friendship with Jeremy Bair over the last few months. He has been one of my best friends over the last five or six years, but over the last couple we kind of drifted apart thanks mainly to different circumstances. But he hurt his knee and hasn't been able to work for the last few months, which has enabled us to hang out a lot. He is a great friend and really loves the Lord. I have grown so much over just the last few months because of his influence. We love going to Denny's on Saturday mornings and just hanging out there for a couple of hours just talking. I'm also going to be one of his groomsmen come October :) I also got to see my friend Matthew Emadi, whom I've known for about 12 years, while he was back from seminary for a week. I also got to meet his fiance, which was cool. I probably won't make their wedding :( since it will be in Kentucky.

Personal Growth: A-
I gave this an A- instead of an A or A+ simply because I have so much further to grow and there will be more times of growth like this (Lord willing Heb. 6:3). But, in recent memory I have never experienced a time of growth quite like this summer. God has been humbling me in a way that I so desperately needed. It started about half-way through June. I was having my monthly meeting/get-together with my friend Nino and he really challenged me on some things that were lacking in my life. One of the things that God has put on my heart that I don't think I've announced on this blog is the need for a church in downtown Ogden and I believe that God may be calling me to plant or at least help plant a church there. My plan was to really begin getting ready for that this summer. In my mind that meant getting my theology down and really growing and reading there, as well as developing a mission and vision statement, and then trying to get a core-group started and really intentionally plan to plant. God had the same basic plan of preparing me for that (or whatever it is that God really has planned for me) but it has looked so dramatically different than what I expected. It began with Nino. He challenged me on some areas of my life that were lacking and missing in my life. There was a "humble boldness" that lacked in my life. I needed a humility that resulted in an absolute abandoment to God's plan and purpose. I need to follow God wherever and whenever he calls. I need to say and do whatever God wants me to. I need to be a Jeremiah who is not dismayed by the people who don't listen to God's word but knows that God is for me and there is no one who can be against me. Nino let me borrow his copy of "The Pursuit of God" by Tozer and God granted me a lot of humility to hear Nino's and Tozer's words and begin to really see the pursuit of God as ultimately costing less than not pursuing him. If I had to describe my growth this summer in one phrase it would be: The cost of not pursuing God is far higher then the cost of not following him. On the one hand, I may not experience the loss of my life or any other kind of suffering. I won't have to take up my cross and die to myself. But, on the other hand, I would lose Christ and that loss is everything. My life is nothing if it is not spent completely on Jesus. There is not just a cost of following Jesus. There is an opposite cost of not following him. When we read "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." (Mark 8:34b-35 ESV) we see a dual cost. I had only really seen (or at least taken notice of) the cost of discipleship. Following Christ is a hard road and it will require loss. But I had never focused on the opposite cost. God has been smacking me upside the head with that reality this summer.

What I didn't know is that in order for me to be ready to plant a church I need to pursue Christ first at all costs. I learned this summer that I had made ministry my god. It is a good thing, but I believed it would satisfy me and give me purpose to be in the ministry that I believe God is calling me toward. Just like with a wife, to follow God's calling is a good thing, but if it takes the place of God, then it turns into a very bad thing in my depraved hands and I've perverted its purpose. God's calling isn't the summum bonum of my life. God is. And when calling takes that place, I'm an idolater. I've spent most of the last year being an idolater and it's time that stops, by the grace of God. I have by no means arrived there and I don't know if I ever will. There have been so many things that have caused much growth in me this summer and there have been a number of challenges along the way. Recently I've been convicted with my areas of lukewarmness and I've had to fight for my assurance along the way. It's a long road up a steep mountain to crucify yourself, but each day is just about carrying the cross and learning, by God's grace, to deny yourself and keep moving. One day, we will see fully the hope to which he has called us and we will rejoice in his glory like we never have before. This body of sin will be removed and we will be given a new body of glory. The corruptible will put on incorruptible and mortal will put on immortality. In that day we will never lose sight of Christ and our long hard journey will be complete. And our current troubles will be as nothing in the realization of our glory in Christ. And this life and these troubles and trials will be worth it. It is worth it. It is worth everything. Praying and walking with you through these trials. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is our hope. We have no other hope but Jesus. False hopes will disappoint, but Christ will always satisfy and fulfill. Come Lord Jesus, come. We hope in you.

Religious Affections

2008-07-25T20:51:00.003-06:00

On a couple of occasions, I've taken advantage of the online reading club (I don't know what else to call it) that takes place on Challies blog. I read through "The Mortification of Sin" by Owens and this time they're reading through "Religious Affections" by Edwards. I thought this was an opportunity to be held accountable to reading through this great work and I jumped at the chance. So far I have read through the first section of the second part. It is shaping up to be a great read - perhaps one of the best books I have ever read. The basic premise of the book, if you aren't already aware, is to determine from Scripture what affections, or earnest longings of the will, mind, emotions, and inclinations, are evidences of a heart that has been genuinely converted and transformed. Already, in the introduction alone, I have been convicted of the weakness of my own affections and I look forward to future conviction and, Lord willing, a closer and deeper walk with God by reading this book and applying it's Biblical truths to my heart. I can't guarantee any future insights to be posted to this blog. Those who have read me for a while know that I tend to not finish what I start. (What a horrible reputation. By God's grace this must be remedied.) But hopefully, if I don't post about the book directly, you will see the gracious hand of God at work in the other posts that come. If you haven't yet read "Religious Affections," then I highly recommend that you do. If you have, perhaps consider reading it again. I have yet to dive into the meat, and already I am highly anticipating the rest of this book. Praise be to God for the wonderful gifts he has given us in the works of his devoted saints. May we continue to be drawn closer to Christ through their works and each other. Until the next post - God Bless.

Summer is the time for love

2008-07-16T15:07:00.002-06:00

Or so it would seem. Over the last three weeks, two of my good friends got engaged. Both are getting married this year. That means, that by the end of this year, I will be officially the only single guy in Utah. I jest, there are at least five of us. And I think the other four might be my only single friends. Anyway, I'm really happy for both of them and I can't wait to see them get married. It will be awesome. I'm going to get to be in one of them (this will be the only wedding I've been in since my sisters were married in a double ceremony almost three years ago). As for the other one, I'm not sure, I just found out about his engagement today through a facebook message. Other then that, I'm thinking about moving cross-city to my friends condo. Less congestion (I live in a house with four other guys), and a much better view (it's nestled up right next to the mountains...and yes, I just used the word "nestled"). I'll let you know how that develops later on this summer. Sorry for the lack of posts, I guess I just haven't been too inspired to right recently. Hopefully I'll bounce back though and you'll see a bit more of me. Until then, God bless.

Challenge '08 part 1

2008-07-04T11:52:00.002-06:00

Hopefully this will be the first of a few blogs on the subject. I just got back from taking my youth group and the youth group of our parent church to Challenge '08. Challenge is the EFCA's (Evangelical Free denomination) youth conference that they hold every two years. This year it was in Salt Lake City, so the youth pastor for Wasatch Church (our parent church) decided to take our youth groups to it. Although it has only been one day since the conference ended, I can honestly say that this even may very well have been the most life-changing experience I have ever had. The last time I had an experience like this was at One Day '03 when I heard John Piper speak. Before that event God had been working on my friends and I about needing to be centered on God's glory and then everything just came crashing into place at that event. This time, about a week before the conference, my friend, Nino, confronted me on some areas of my life that I had set up a functional god and wasn't seeking God for God himself. I sought ministry as my satisfaction and end, rather then seeking it as a means to the true and ultimate end and joy of God himself. So last week, I spent a lot of time praying and seeking God on this, and Sunday night - the first night of the conference - the roof got blown off of my false temple. It started with an amazing time of worship led by Starfield (if you haven't checked them out, you should, they're amazing) that really got us ready for what we were about to hear. Then Francis Chan spoke. His goal was to set the tone for the conference by giving us an accurate picture of God. He did this by going through about four passages of people seeing God and how they described him. He ended on Rev. 4 and the image of the throne and Jesus sitting upon it. Needless to say, he totally blew away the image of God that I think most people in that room (about 5-6,000 of us) had of him. After that message and a couple of well-chosen (perhaps even Spirit-inspired) songs, I sat down and started weeping like I never have before. The only thing I could think about was that image of heaven with millions of angels gather around the throne with the 24 elders shouting out "Holy, Holy, Holy" and my heart burst out "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Never before have I been so enthralled with the worship of God. Never before have I loved the fact that God is Holy and is worshiped so completely both now and forevermore. Never before have I sensed such an awesome magnificence in God and the incredible blessing that I get to join in the song the heavens sing. I have been brought so much lower by that sight that I don't think I can ever be the same. And every session after that served to chisel away a little bit more of my false gods and temples that I have set up in the throne room of my heart. Over the next week or so I'll post some more thoughts and notes from the other sessions. But I ask that, if God leads, that you would pray for me and the youth we took down. Pray that what happened to us at the conference would not stop now that we are home, but that it would continue in our daily devotional time and in our daily worship of God in our service for and through him. We can't let this stop. We can't afford to go back to our puny, self-absorbed lives. We must go forth and be continually changed by God so that we can change our world for him. I love all of you and hope that what happened to me happens in even greater measure to all of you. God bless.

All is of God

2008-06-25T15:25:00.003-06:00

I just read this quote on the Of First Importance blog. I don't even know who William Temple is, but the quote is amazing.

“All is of God; the only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.”
- William Temple

Today

2008-06-22T14:11:00.002-06:00

I had a pretty powerful experience at church today. I know, I know. The word experience is taboo in our conservative, evangelical, anti-seeker-sensitive theology, but I'm going to redeem it. As Christians we are to experience God as much as we are to know him and meditate on him. My worship leader has been on vacation and so I've been blessed to be able to lead worship the past two sundays and next sunday. Today, was an awesome sunday leading worship. We did a welcome song and then, after praying, we did a responsive reading of Psalm 136 which I think really set the tone for the rest of the meeting. Then we did a few more songs leading up to communion (which we celebrate every week). During communion we did "Rock of Ages" by Sandra McCracken which turned out great. But that's not why the meeting was amazing. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but God inhabited the praises of his people this morning. I had a power behind my voice that I didn't have during practice or warm-up. The music all came together really well. No one really messed up. And we all blended together, music and voices, almost seamlessly. And all of this, combined with the scripture and prayer, served to usher God's people into his presence this morning. As I look back over the past few weeks when the set came together in my mind and selecting songs and thinking about what I was going to say and pray about, I can see God working in all of it. A few weeks ago, we sang the song "Forever" by Chris Tomlin which is based off of Ps. 136. It was at that time that I decided to do the responsive reading and that song this week. Last week, I introduced the song "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong and I did it again this week to get the congregation familiar with it, which worked perfectly as a follow-up to "Forever." Throughout this week I had been trying to think of another song to do in between "Mighty to Save" and "One Thing" by Charlie Hall, but God restrained me and led me to keep the song list shorter than normal, which I think served to keep our minds more focused on God, rather than on the music. Then, yesterday I read something in "Vintage Jesus" that served as a perfect transition between "Mighty to Save" and "One Thing" and God brought it to mind to use in prayer in that transition.

All that to say that this sunday was totally not about me. It wasn't put together by me, it wasn't orchestrated by me, and it didn't come from the power of Darren and it didn't usher us into the presence of Darren, but it was from God, through God, and to God, and God got all the glory from today. I was truly blessed to be his instrument today. And from the responses I got after church it appears that God did truly bless his people through my pitiful leading. And that's what it was. I didn't lead today. God led. He led us to his throne on which sits the king of glory, Jesus Christ and we saw God today, reflected in the face of Christ. I guess that's all I can hope for as a worship leader and all I pray for for next week. I hope all of you had an equally blessed, if not more, Sunday.

Slacker

2008-06-17T22:26:00.003-06:00

That would be me. Sorry for the long delay, and today probably won't bring you any satisfaction from my blog. But then again, if this is where you're finding satisfaction, it's always going to disappoint you. But anyway, the summer is going pretty good so far out here in Utah. This week has been our first week of 90+ degree weather, thanks to the huge amount of snow we got this past winter. So hopefully it won't get too hot out here this year. However, that didn't change the fact that my house was almost unbearably hot for the past couple weeks. I would guess that my room was about 85 degrees a couple nights ago. But, praise God, yesterday, my roommate fixed our evaporative cooler (known in Utah as a swamp cooler) and our house is now livable. Lots of things going on in my life right now, but I don't have the time to go over them seeing as how I just told my pastor that I would follow his advice and go to bed and get some much needed rest. So, this is all for now. Hopefully I'll post much more in the coming days (and yes I do mean days and not weeks, Lord willing). God Bless.

P.S. The Lakers just got their butts handed to them on a silver platter in game 6 of the Finals. I can admit that the better team won but it still doesn't feel much better. I'm really going to get it at work tomorrow :) But, oh well, my hope's not in them anyway. Christ in me, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

Psalm 145

2008-06-17T17:00:00.002-06:00

I was really impacted by this a fresh, so I thought I would share it with you and since I don't know how to put youtube videos on my blog I'm just going to give you the link. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI1V2uaBRZA&feature=related

2008-05-29T22:58:00.002-06:00

Again, I have been reading the Desiring God blog and I just read this post by Piper. It consists of part of a letter from Adoniram Judson to prospective missionaries. Like Piper, I think it has tremendous value for us ordinary missionaries here at home. Here is the letter:

Fourthly. It may be profitable to bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps...

Sixthly. Beware of the greater reaction which will take place after you have acquired the language, and become fatigued and worn out with preaching the gospel to a disobedient and gainsaying people. You will sometimes long for a quiet retreat, where you can find a respite from the tug of toiling at native work—the incessant, intolerable friction of the missionary grindstone. And Satan will sympathize with you in this matter; and he will present some chapel of ease, in which to officiate in your native tongue, some government situation, some professorship or editorship, some literary or scientific pursuit, some supernumerary translation, or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, that will help you, without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work. Such a temptation will form the crisis of your disease. If your spiritual constitution can sustain it, you recover; if not, you die...

Eighthly. Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.

Ninthly. Beware of that indolence which leads to a neglect of bodily exercise. The poor health and premature death of most Europeans in the East must be eminently ascribed to the most wanton neglect of bodily exercise.

Tenthly. Beware of genteel living. Maintain as little intercourse as possible with fashionable European society. The mode of living adopted by many missionaries in the East is quite inconsistent with that familiar intercourse with the natives which is essential to a missionary.
....................................................................................

I think I need to hear each and every one of those. May we all take these into account as we go about being missionaries to our friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers. May God grant us grace.

Piper on the cyclone

2008-05-06T16:50:00.004-06:00

This is a really good post about how we should react to the tragic events taking place in Southeast Asia.

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1215_6_ways_to_react_to_the_cyclone/

I really like #6 because it wasn't what I was thinking at all. I think it's a great way to show how much we truly care.

Myspace, Facebook, Blogs, et al.

2008-05-01T22:29:00.002-06:00

I had a thought tonight about myspace, facebook, blogs, and all the other things out there that people do to create a social network and display their thoughts, pictures, videos, etc. I realized that the reason they are so popular is that they allow people to create their own little world in which they are the center. If I create a myspace, facebook, or blog (and ironically I have all three) I am enabling myself to put people or thoughts or anything else that all revolves around me. What music do I like? What movies to I go to see or want to see? What books am I reading? What happened to me today? What are my thoughts on a given subject? Everything revolves around me. These websites allow us to put ourselves in God's position with a freedom and to a degree that formerly wasn't possible. And then, after we set ourselves up as God of our own little world and universe, we invite other people to worship us in our world, and, if they do, we'll go and worship them in their world. "I'll make you a god in your own eyes if you'll make me a god in mine." So is this the last post I'll ever have? In light of this thought, will I swear off blogging? No. This is just another aspect of humanity that needs to be redeemed and brought under the headship of Christ in order to glorify him. In fact, I would argue that not only can myspace, etc. be brought to glorify God, as Christians we should seek to go out into these avenues and redeem them. We should see them as an aspect of our mission field and seek to save the lost souls seeking for satisfaction in their own glorification. Far too often, I have failed at this. This blog has far too often been about me and centered on me, as has my facebook and myspace. However, I also know that God has used this blog and the others as a means to glorify him more and show his awesome wonder to others, if in only a small way. So, fellow bloggers, let us take this opportunity to make a covenant with God and seek his glory in our blogging and social networking. This doesn't mean that everything has to be post on systematic theology, but let us seek to always keep God at the center of what we are doing. And I welcome any corrective criticism when I go astray.

Until the next time, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Quick thought on redemption man's way

2008-04-26T23:41:00.002-06:00

I just finished watching the Kite Runner with my sister and brother-in-law (while eating some amazing chili I might add - thanks again Keri). I thought the movie was fairly interesting. If you're looking for a decent movie I would recommend it unless you're in the need for cheering up. This movie definitely won't help you with that. Anyway, this movie spurred some thoughts on redemption. Don't worry, if you haven't seen it I'm not going to give anything away. Basically, the plot line is you're simple redemption story. Things happen in the character's past that need to be corrected and healed so that all can be made right in his life. This is flatly stated at one point early on in the movie when the main character is told that he can be good again. So the story is told and the man sets out in search of redemption. Ultimately, you could say that redemption is found for him. But what struck me is that at the end of the movie you don't feel like the main character is in a better situation than if what had transpired earlier had never taken place. In fact, you find yourself wishing (or at least I did) that things had turned out very differently. What I learned from this is that when man tries redemption, even if it appears to have succeeded, it ultimately fails because the end result wasn't better than the beginning. However, when God works redemption, the end is always far more glorious than the beginning. Our redemption will spell a much better story, so to speak, at the end then it did at the beginning. God will be more glorified by all that has taken place then he would have if nothing that has transpired took place. The end is better than the beginning. When man tries redemption, he fails. When God accomplishes redemption all is transformed into something glorious and full of purpose.

Church as counter-culture

2008-04-25T23:46:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking a bit about the church and it's role in regards to the surrounding culture. I think the first thing that should mark the church is that it is a counter-culture. Everything in the Bible tells us that when we were saved we were changed not just dramatically, but diametrically. We went from children of Satan to children of God (I John 3). We went from being in the domain of darkness to being in the kingdom of God (Col. 1). We went from slaves to sin to slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6). We who were once far off have been brought near. We have been completely and totally changed and are no longer a part of the world that we used to live in. Furthermore, because of our inner change the world that we used to be a part of no longer recognizes us and, in fact, hates us as it hated Jesus. And the church, being made up of these individuals, must reflect this. When we try to assimilate into the world, we lose the distinction that our very salvation gives us. We shouldn't try to hide who we are and what we are. We are completely and totally different from those around us. We must not be proud about this. After all, we did not save ourselves, but it was only by the grace of God. This should create in us a profound sense of humility. But, nonetheless, we must recognize and embrace the fact that we are changed and are no longer like that which is around us. The fact that we are now identified with Jesus and not the world is the basis for our counter-culture.

The problem comes when we look at other counter-cultures. The Amish are the perfect example of a counter-culture. They have done everything they can to demonstrate their seperation from the world around them. They go completely opposite of the culture they live in. If that's not the definition of a counter-culture, I don't know what is. The irony, though, of this counter-culture is that it rarely spreads. The inhabitants of this culture are so intent on being different that they have lost the ability to influence the culture around them. In short, the fact that they are a counter-culture inhibits the spread of the counter-culture. This is true of many, if not most or all counter-cultures. The inhabitants of these cultures see themselves and pride themselves on being the minority and having the majority and it's weaknesses figured out. They don't want to become the majority because then they lose their designation of being a counter-culture. They would, at that point, become just the prevailing culture. So the very nature of being a counter-culture is one of distance from the prevailing culture and a lack of interaction with the prevailing culture. Or at least, a lack of interaction that seeks to transform the prevailing culture.

Where does the church come in? The church is a counter-culture. As a body of saints, we go in an opposite direction from the rest of the world. But here's the difference between the church's counter-culture and the world's version of counter-culture: We attempt to engage the prevailing culture in an attempt to transform the culture into our counter-culture. Furthermore, we do so by becoming all things to all men. We begin to look and act like them in a righteous manner in order to remove any possible stumbling blocks to the message of our culture. Our counter-culture wants desperately to become the culture. We desire to see the hearts and minds and lives of the individuals around us transformed so that they can be like our Savior.

So what is the bottom line? The church needs to embrace the fact that it is a counter-culture and then embrace those who aren't a part of it in an effort to see them transformed. So, in a way, we are a counter-counter-culture. We are different from not only the prevailing culture, but also its sub-counter-cultures. We should act differently because we are different. We should seek the transformation of others, because we have been transformed. I like how Josh Harris puts it: We don't go and tell others the truth because we're right. We do it because we're rescued. Be a counter-culture, but don't act like one. Be in the world, but not of it. And only through the grace of God, through the cross of Christ - the only thing that can truly transform - can this be achieved. Work through us Lord Jesus and bring many to exalt the only Name worthy.

A thought on sports

2008-04-24T21:51:00.004-06:00

Alright, I've been pretty good so far this year and haven't brought up the greatest sports team in the history of all sports. That's right, everybody. I'm talking about the Lakers. The only team that can really come close is USC's football team, but that's for another day. Anyway, my Lakers are dominating the Nuggets thus far in the postseason and I'm hoping for a championship this June. I even stayed up past 11 last night to watch the game. This meant that I got less than five hours of sleep last night, but it was worth it. My condolences go out to Lauren and Micah at this time. Lauren, I'm sorry your Mavs probably won't make it out of the first round this year, but, on the bright side, at least they're being taken out by your (I'm assuming) favorite player, Chris Paul (who will lose out to Kobe for the MVP). And Micah, I'm sorry that you can't enjoy the greatest sport that has ever been invented ;)

And that leads me to the purpose for this post. At work today, I was thinking about why God allowed/ordained that sports would exist. Why did God put it in the heart of man to put forth physical exertion in competition against other men? This isn't a full answer, but I have two thoughts. Sports has a sinful purpose and a sanctified purpose. The sinful purpose of sports is the same as when the Israelites asked for a king in II Sam. 8 (I believe). This regards more the watching and idolization of sports more than the actual playing of them. I believe we watch and idolize sports and athletes because we are looking for a hero that looks like us rather than worshiping the true Hero who is not like us, but transcends us and condescended to be with us and like us. The heros we watch on Sunday afternoon are but a poor shadow and symbol of the Hero of the ages who bore every sin and carried our every infirmity and took them to the grave only to conquer the greatest enemy mankind has ever faced in Satan, sin and death (I Cor. 15) by rising from that grave and living in glory for all eternity. There is no greater hero. Sports can be either a sinful escape from the reality of Christ, or it can be sanctified by acknowledging it for what it is - a symbol of Christ and a display of God's handiwork. And this is the sanctified reason why I believe sports exists.

I believe God put sports into the hearts of men to serve first as a symbol of Christ, and second to display the greatness of God's creation. Psalm 139:14 says "I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well." God created man to display the greatness of his works. When we see how amazing the human body functions our thoughts should not terminate there on the sin of self-esteem, but rather our voices ought to resound with the praises of God for how amazing his workmanship is. Sports is one of the ways that we get to see the display of that workmanship. The human body is an amazing thing. The way muscles, ligaments, bones, nerves, sinews, etc. work together to acheive what the mind of the athlete desires is incredible. To see men jump over three feet in the air, or receivers run at a full sprint only to plant one foot and change their entire direction is absolutely incredible. The only words that we have to describe it are words that are generally used in religious contexts. And so it should be, because that display of athleticism is only a small aspect of how great and awesome our God is. His works are wonderful. He is the one who should be praised. God put it in the heart of man to play sports in order that we would look at the display of athleticism and not end there, but praise the display of God's wonderful works.

A Thought on Pain

2008-04-13T08:45:00.000-06:00

Pain is our body’s way of telling us that there is something wrong. Something isn’t working right inside. Something has been damaged. Something needs recuperation or healing. Pain lets us know that there is something that needs to change. If we cut our hand, pain tells us that our hand needs to change from its present state of being cut and be brought back into its correct state of being whole and without damage. Pain tells us when we need to stop doing something and start the process of rest and healing. Psychological pain has different manifestations but tells us the same thing. Depression, for example, tells us that something needs to change either chemically or emotionally. Sorrow tells us that we are not in the state of joy and happiness that we should be in. And the degree of pain that we experience tells us how much needs to be fixed. If we cut our hand the degree of pain that we experience is much less than if we were to break our leg. When we break our leg, our bodies cry out that there is something desperately wrong with our physiological condition and it needs immediate attention. We know that something terrible has happened.

However, we do not make that some conclusion when it comes to our spiritual state. The physical and mental pain that we endure is a physical reminder that this world, including (especially) us, is broken and desperately needs to be restored to its perfect state. We are spiritually broken and our sin tells us over and over again that we need to be fixed. We recognize the problem but we refuse to seek the true cure. We know that we are in pain and are not who we should be but we go through a variety of mental exercises and spiritual evasions to avoid the true cure. It is as though we see our broken leg, but we refuse to see the doctor and either try to set it ourselves and treat it (having no medical knowledge whatsoever) or we try to lie to ourselves and tell us that it really isn’t as bad as it looks (even though it’s a compound fracture). Spiritually we try the same things. We either look at our sin and try to fix it ourselves through religion and self-made laws that try to reform the flesh, or we tell ourselves that we really aren’t as bad off as it seems, or we look around at everyone else and see the degree of their sin (compound fracture) and decide that our sin (leg) isn’t as bad as theirs.

Romans 8:22-23 “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

For those who have been saved, we recognize our pain and we groan for and eagerly await the day when the doctor heals our broken limbs and restores us to the soundness and perfect health that we were designed to enjoy. Praise be to God, that through Jesus our pain is not utter futility, but rather is hopeful futility that will be brought to an end. Redeem us, O Lord. Do not tarry.

II Samuel 24:1

2008-04-10T22:55:00.002-06:00

I just got home from hanging out with some friends and watching the Office after getting our butts handed to us in our volleyball tournament. I'm actually kind of glad we were totally humbled (read: I was totally humbled) because I've really been struggling with my pride lately and I needed to be brought low. Praise God he works so faithfully with unfaithful people like me. Anyway, I wanted to post something because I've been slacking off lately, so here's some thoughts I had on II Samuel 24:1. They're pretty unpolished and need to be cleaned up and a lot more work needs to be done on them (work that I'll probably procrastinate unfortunately), but here's my thoughts:

II Samuel 24:1
“Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

I think this is one of the most provocative statements in Scripture that deals with the will of God and the will of man and how God goes about accomplishing his purposes. This verse begins a narrative wherein David goes out and does what God wanted him to do and then is struck by the sinfulness of what he did. God then judges the nation (apparently) for the sin of David. This raises some difficult questions. Did God cause David to sin? In other words, was God ultimately responsible for the sin of David? How is it that David sinned when all he did was what God told him to do? In other words, did God give David a sinful command?

If the answer to the first question is “yes” then we have a problem with God being the author of sin and sin being attributable to God, thereby destroying all that the Bible tells us of his nature (e.g. God is light and in him there is no darkness [I Jn. 1:5], etc.). If the answer to the second question is “yes” then how can we trust God? Can we trust James when he tells us that God never tempts us to sin?

If we believe the clear teachings of the Bible, then we must believe that God is holy. He does not sin, nor is he the author of sin. Sin does not emanate from his nature. Furthermore, if we base this verse in its context we must agree that what David did was sinful and, based on James 1, we must believe that God did not tempt David to sin, but that David’s sin came from within him.

First, I don’t believe that God caused David to sin or that God gave David a sinful command. This will lead us to examine the means that God uses to bring about his ultimate will and desire. Therefore, David was responsible for the sin he committed. But the question that ultimately must be answered is how could God find fault in David, when it was the will of God that David would do what he did? This presupposes some information about God. This presupposes that God is omniscient and sovereign and omnipotent. Before looking into the deeper meanings of these verses, we must start with a right view of God and his character and attributes. Obviously that would take a multitude of books. But we can know that God is omniscient (Psalm 139 for example), that he is sovereign and he uses his omnipotence to bring about his heart’s desires. For the purposes of this meditation we will assume that these things are true. The proof of them is for another time and many other men have done a far greater job then I could hope to do. Therefore, if God omnisciently knew that David would follow his enticements and number the people of Israel and God actually did entice David to this action, then how could God find fault and bring down justice on the people of Israel? Doesn’t this turn the justice of God into capriciousness?

Short answer: No. God is just in that his justice against and toward the nation of Israel was based upon sin that caused David to act in pride and sin in the nation of Israel that deserved judgment. I think the key to understanding this dilemma rests in verse 10 and in II Kings 22:20-23 and II Chronicles 18:18-22.

In verse 10 we learn that “David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.’” David’s heart struck him. I believe that in order for God to accomplish his purposes he hardened David’s heart for a brief period of time in order that David’s pride might be unrestrained. We see this happening to Pharaoh when God hardened his heart in order that his pride would restrain him from following common sense and letting Israel go. In like manner God hardened David’s heart. David was a man after God’s own heart and possessed a measure of humility only by the grace of God. It is only by the grace of God that we can do anything to please him. David did not earn his humility or favor from God. Rather, God bestowed it upon him as a gift. And as a constant gift, God has the right at any time to withhold that gift and show forth his justice toward sin. In this case, David listened to the enticements of God (we will deal with how God enticed him shortly) because they acted upon his pride and God did not bestow the gift of humility and grace that God had provided in the past. Therefore, God could justly punish the actions of David because his actions stemmed from a heart of pride. God is not required to bestow grace upon us (which is the very definition of grace) but God is required to administer justice upon sin. He will by no means acquit the guilty. He is a just God and his justice required punishment for these actions.

But, you might ask, didn’t God incite David to these actions? Is God just punishing David for something he made David do? Now we must look into how God went about inciting David to sin. The parallel to this story is found in I Chronicles 21. In 21:1 we learn that it was Satan that incited David to sin. So how is it that both God and Satan could incite David to sin? Does this mean that God and Satan were working together to accomplish the same purpose? No. Rather, what it does mean is that God used Satan to accomplish his purposes. Satan may have thought that he won a great victory by causing David to sin, but God was indeed the one who won because Satan was just a pawn to bring about the justice and mercy of God and to glorify his name above all others. In II Kings 22:20-23 and II Chronicles 18:18-22 we read a story of Ahab and Jehoshaphat allying together and seeking the counsel of the prophet Micaiah, who was a true prophet of God. When Micaiah prophesies to Ahab and Jehoshaphat, God pulls back the curtain and shows us what God did to bring about his purposes. “And Micaiah said, ‘Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, “Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?” And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying “I will entice him.” And the LORD said to him, “By what means?” And he said, “I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” And he said, “You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.” Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The LORD has declared disaster concerning you.’”

God uses Satan to entice people to sin in order that God’s purposes might come to pass. God used Satan to test Job in order that God could reveal his glory. God used Satan to incite David to sin in order that God might bring his justice upon Israel for an undisclosed sin they had committed. God is just in punishing people because it is their sinful nature and desires that drives their wills to choose sin. And God is holy because he doesn’t sin in the process but uses sinful creatures like Satan to give rise to sinful desires while withholding his grace to ensure that those evil desires are chosen. Who can know the mind of God and who can discern his ways? May we all bow before him and worship the glory of our God.

I'M GOING TO BE AN UNCLE!!!

2008-03-31T22:50:00.002-06:00

My sister Jen is pregnant. Praise God! It's really exciting. I can't wait to be an uncle. It's going to be awesome. They just found out last week so I'm assuming I won't be an uncle until the end of the year, but I'm really looking forward to it. Anyway, please keep her and my brother-in-law in prayer. Pray for a healthy baby and that nothing goes wrong during the pregnancy and that God would prepare them for having a child. See what the Lord has wrought! May God truly bless them and the child.

I'm going to be an uncle!!!

We Won!

2008-03-27T21:46:00.002-06:00

My church volleyball team just won our first volleyball match...that is our first legitimate win. Our first win was against an undermanned team with a 10-year old and a guy with a crippled hand. In that match I served us to a 21-0 lead in the first game. It was pretty harsh. But tonight, in our last match of the season, we won a nail biter to pull out our first legitimate victory. Now on to the tounament!

A brief overview of Judges and Ruth

2008-03-27T21:20:00.003-06:00

While I was in California I finished reading through Judges and Ruth and wrote this short overview of the two books in an effort to think through them in light of the redemptive work of Christ throughout all of human history.

In Judges we see the nation of Israel constantly fall into sin, come under the oppressive rule of their enemies, cry out to God for salvation, and God provide a savior for the nation in the form of warrior judges. In Judges we find warning for us about the danger of falling away, allowing sin to remain in our lives, the danger of pride and the need for humility, our own propensity to falling away, and our desperate need for a Savior. We cannot save ourselves from our sins. We need a Savior to free us. In Judges we see a variety of saviors. We see God calling many from unexpected places or backgrounds (e.g. Gideon) and all are flawed (perhaps none shown to be more vividly than Samson). In these men we see the foreshadowing of Christ and also the imperfection of human salvation and the inability of men to bring about total, complete, and perfect salvation. These men only brought, at most, 40 years of peace. These imperfections and inabilities point and direct our hope toward the perfect and holy Savior, Jesus Christ. This is why I don't believe Judges is meant to be read apart from Ruth.

In Ruth, we see the provision of our perfect Savior. In this book Ruth is a picture of the church (saved from a totally sinful background to live a life of purity and worship to the true God) and Boaz is a picture of Christ (our humble Redeemer who takes our salvation on his own shoulders and accomplishes all our hopes). From this humble background came the lineage of Christ. It is a very humble story. Christ comes not from a family of greatness or means, but from a Moabite woman of pagan background - not even an Isrealite by birth - and a humble, older, land-owner - not a warrior - from a tiny town that just came out of a devestating famine. The story of redemption does not come from where man would anticipate it but finds its roots in a humble beginning - much like the story of the incarnation, life, and death of Jesus. Jesus is constantly a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are being saved the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of salvation.

Some free time

2008-03-20T21:12:00.002-06:00

I actually got home before nine tonight and have some spare time. Can you believe it? I know I can't. I pretty much don't know what to do with myself, so I figured I'd try my hand at a little blogging tonight. Not too much of interest is going on so it will probably be a short one. While I was in California a couple weeks ago, I was actually able to go to a Christian bookstore. For those out of state, that might not seem like an even worth noting, but when there hasn't been a Christian bookstore around here for over a year and Barnes & Noble has the best Christian selection around, the opportunity to visit a real, live Christian bookstore is pretty cool. We went to the Calvary Chapel school store because my brother-in-law needed to get some stuff from there and talk to the people in the office and get some transcript stuff taken care of. While there, I picked up Derek Webb's cd "One Zero" which has a bunch of acoustic stuff on it. Suffice to say, it is a really good cd. I think his song "Wedding Dress" is one of my all-time favorites. It's amazing. I love the lyrics and the music. It's all really good. I even know how to play it to a degree, so I'm really loving it.

Starting last week, I'm teaching the junior-highers on Wednesday night. For those who don't know, our church is a church plant and we join our youth groups on Wednesdays. Up until now, I had been helping out with the high-schoolers, but now I'm teaching the junior-highers. I decided (on Kellen's suggestion) to go through Titus. So far it's been a blessing and I hope the kids are getting a lot out of it (I can never really tell if they're completely listening). But I'm really excited to go through that. So this is my weekly schedule for anybody interested:

Sunday - I get to the church by 8 to set up for worship, and I teach youth Sunday school (we're going through I John - it's awesome)
Monday - House church at 6:30 (what my church calls small groups)
Tuesday - Bible Study with Nino. I get to his house between 5:30 and 6
Wednesday - Youth Group. I get to the church by 4, lead worship and teach junior-highers
Thursday - Worship practice at 7 or volleyball around 6:30
Friday - A free night!!! (except not this Friday because I'm helping the youth with a worship night)
Saturday - My Sabbath!! I usually hang out with friends, try to do some reading, and go over my lesson for Sunday

Combined with a 40 hour work week, I'm pretty tired. But it's really good. God's really teaching me discipline and how to redeem the time I have. However, that being said, I'm seriously contemplating cutting out some of those responsibilities. I'm really starting to feel like I spend all of my time doing Christianity and not nearly enough time being a Christian. I feel like I'm becoming shallower in my walk and not communing with God nearly enough. If you wouldn't mind, I could really use some prayer about this. I don't want to cut anything out, but this might be one of those holy ambition things (John Piper on Romans 15:18-24 - great sermon) where I have to stop doing something I like doing in order to really devote myself to what God has called me. Add on top of that, I'm looking at renting a place with one of the college guys at my church and if that happens I would like to start a Bible study/fellowship time for whoever would want to come. I think I might be on the verge of foolishness with how thinly I'm spreading myself. I'm hoping that the feeling of becoming shallower as a Christian is more of a desire to go even deeper with Christ than an actual lessening of the depth of my relationship with him. But I fear that may only be a wish than reality. I think I'm in one of those states where I'm running so fast I never take the time to slow down and marvel at who God is and what he's done. Either way, I could use some prayer. The next few months don't look like they're slowing down anytime soon. But at least summer looks like it might be a bit more laid back.

To the only wise God be glory and honor

My Grandma Prissy - at home in glory

2008-03-17T22:03:00.003-06:00

I know this is a long time in coming. I've been thinking about writing something on her for a while and I don't have much time tonight, but I want to post the things I said about her at her funeral and a few extra thoughts. She died March 1, at about 2:20 in the morning with almost all of her family surrounding her as she drew her last breath. She died of liver cancer which I'm sure was exacerbated by a very large stroke she suffered about a week prior to her passing.

"One of the things I remember most about Grandma is visiting at Christmas singing hymns, performing little skits based around Biblical themes, and reading Bible verses at Christmas time when we came to visit. We used to have to read and memorize a section of verses she picked out for each grandchild and be able to recite them back to her by the end of the evening. If we could do it perfectly she would give us a dollar. Needless to say, we were all very motivated to memorize our verses. The hymn I remember singing most was “Go Tell it on the Mountain.” Growing up I used to think that was her favorite hymn because we would sing it every year. Looking back on it now, I think that hymn really summarized a great deal of who Grandma was. She was a constant evangelist who sought to share her joy in the Lord with everyone around her. She would always be telling it on the mountain and proclaiming the life and death of Jesus to all who were around her. She was very involved in missions and loved to here about the spread of the gospel. I remember talking to her on the phone when I became head of my church’s missions committee. She was so excited that I was involved in something like that. It really was the beat of her heart. She longed to see people come to Jesus.

Most of all, I remember how much she loved God’s word. Even up to last Christmas, when we received a Christmas letter, it always contained the verses she was memorizing and praying over for the coming year. When we talked if there was something going on in our lives she had a verse ready for it and could usually provide the reference. I remember eating breakfast with her and reading verses during the meal. This was a daily routine with her and she loved seeing God in the word. I think more than anyone else in my life, she demonstrated how to redeem the time (Eph. 5). I know she was very driven to not waste her life and the best way she knew how to do that was to spend as much time in the word as she could and spread that word to everyone she knew. Her life was not wasted and I pray that I too could have the same drive and passion to serve and love our Lord Jesus Christ. I can’t wait until I see you again with our new bodies and a perfect ability to see and love and worship Jesus for all eternity."

I praise God that we were able to get down to California before she died and were able to say our last goodbyes. There were so many images from that last week that I hope stay burned in my mind. I remember one of her pastors coming by to see her. She had just had a stroke and her responses were very limited. She couldn't really say anything, and if she opened her eyes she didn't really see you. It was as though she was looking past you. But he opened his Bible and read Psalm 61 to her and she physically leaned closer to him as though she were straining to hear every last syllable of the verses. She loved the Bible and she especially loved the Psalms. She made a habit of reading five Psalms everyday and almost every Psalm had something marked in it or underlined.

I also remember watching my grandpa during her last moments in her earthly tent. He spoke so tenderly to her and was so very gentle and patient. I know his heart was breaking, but he tried not to show it. I think of all the things that break my heart, and it's thinking of my grandpa and his pain and lonliness that make me cry the most. They never showed much affection in front of us, so I never knew, experientially, how much they loved each other until her last week.

But I think the most vivid picture burned in my mind is the light above her bed. It was a long, rectangular light and it diffused and shielded the light of three bulbs inside of it. I didn't really think much of the light until her last day, when a nurse flipped open the front cover and exposed the lights so that she could have enough light to see by. It was at that moment that I realized that light was just like my grandma. On the outside, she definitely emanated a lot of light and everybody knew how much she loved God. But the light she displayed was nothing compared to the true intensity of the light that was eagerly waiting for the moment when it would be unbound and show forth it's true glory for all eternity. The true light was Jesus inside of her and we only saw the portion that was diffused by all this flesh and sin. It still shines, but not like it will once we are freed. Right now that light is shining forth with all the glory that belongs to God Himself. Right now she is shining in a way that could never be imagine on this earth. Throughout that week, my thoughts kept coming back to one verse I think that light really illustrated to me - the end of Colossians 1:27: "Christ in me, the hope of glory." Your hope has been realized Grandma. Run with Him with all the joy imaginable. I'll see you soon.

Sorrowful yet rejoicing

2008-03-04T13:28:00.003-07:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted. As of right now I'm sitting in a coffee shop in California. I've been down here for the past eight days (in California, not the coffee shop). I'm here right now because a little more than a week ago, my family got a call saying my grandma had had a stroke and was unresponsive and wouldn't last long. So we all jumped in a couple of cars Sunday afternoon and made it down here by Monday afternoon. By the grace of God, my grandma hung on until last Saturday when she went home to be with the Lord at 2:22 am Saturday morning. She was surrounded by most of her family and she died peacefully. She was a strong Christian woman and I look forward to the day when we will meet again as we perfectly worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There has been a lot of good time reflecting, rejoicing, and grieving with family down here and I'll probably post some reflections when we get home to Utah. The funeral is tomorrow and we'll be driving home Thursday if the Lord wills. Pray that God would be glorified tomorrow as we remember the life of my grandma. She influenced a great number of people and definitely leaves a legacy of an unwasted life seeking the face of God as revealed in his word and constantly offering up prayers for her family, friends, and missions endeavors. Until the next time, sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Abortion and Down Syndrome

2008-02-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just read this post on Desiring God's website:

Bombing, Abortion, & Down SyndromeFebruary 2, 2008 By: John Piper Category: Commentary
Al Qaida has moved another step toward western standards of abortion barbarity in using Down Syndrome women to blow boys and girls to pieces. The news is that this was not suicide bombing, but the detonation of retarded girls at a distance.
The disgust one feels for the kind of heart that does this could reveal to England and America how we should feel when we screen for Down Syndrome babies and then kill them. Compare the stories:

Story One: al Qaida
At Breitbart.com (and most news sources), it is reported that yesterday al Qaida used two women with Down Syndrome to bear the explosives under their clothes and then were detonated remotely killing over 70 people.
Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down's Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.
The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.
Other officials said the women were apparently unaware of what they were doing in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert toughened security measures.

Story Two: Abortion
Medical News Today:
Although no national data are available, the abortion rate of fetuses with the condition [of Down Syndrome] was found to be 59% in one California study and 92% in an English study.

Steve Calvin at Physicians for Life:
I believe that we are at a tipping point. The counterweight to societal support for people and families with Down Syndrome is the expanding availability and promotion of prenatal DS screening tests. When DS is confirmed, abortion is offered. Increasingly, it is chosen. In England and some major U.S. cities, more than 90 percent of DS fetuses are aborted.”

New York Times, with reference to Detroit, MI:
Until this year, only pregnant women 35 and older were routinely tested to see if their fetuses had the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome. As a result many couples were given the diagnosis only at birth. But under a new recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, doctors have begun to offer a new, safer screening procedure to all pregnant women, regardless of age. About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.

The Beard

2008-01-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

In the words of the great B.B. King: The beard is gone. The beard is gone away. Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it goes, but my beard is gone. I am now "Babyface" Darren. I'm back to my clean-shaven ways. I had that beard for over three years. I hadn't seen my entire face for that long. I looked in the mirror after I shaved and I didn't even recognize myself. The events that demanded the shave was that my youth group and the one we combine with do fundraising by working at the concession stands at Utah Jazz games, and it is Energy Solutions Arena policy that all workers there must be clean-shaven. So I manned-up, bought a Schick Quattro and some Edge Pro shaving gel and discovered the hidden Darren. Most of the people at my church and work had never seen me clean-shaven before so it was a pretty big shock for them. Overall, I think it looks pretty good (at least from the comments I've been getting). It seems that women like the clean-shaven look and men wonder why I would ever shave off a beard like that. My plan for now is to keep it clean-shaven through the summer and revisit growing the beard back when fall and winter hit. Hopefully I'll post a picture of myself beardless soon. Until then, God bless.

Matt Chandler

2008-01-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for some laundry to finish drying so I guess I have a little time to do some blogging. Recently I've been listening to Matt Chandler's podcasted sermons. He's the pastor of The Villiage Church. His sermons are absolutely amazing. I've been listening to his Luke series and almost every one has torn right through me and brought me close to tears. God has truly gifted him. If you have time to listen to sermons throughout the week (praise God for a job that lets me) I highly recommend listening to him. I don't think it will be a waste of your time.

Now for some other stuff:
Last night at my church's college ministry I won a hotdog eating contest by downing five hotdogs with buns in 4:58. The next closest competitor finished in about 6 minutes. I don't recommend trying it. While the taste of victory is definitely sweet, the feeling of five hotdogs with their buns in my stomach was definitely bitter. I made it through the night, but there were some repercussions. I'll save you the details :)

On a much more serious and joyous note - God has really been convicting me of pride in my life and used Deut. 8 for a lot of that. If you haven't read the chapter in a while, I recommend reading it again. I love how it says that it is God that brings us to a point of hunger in order to humble us, and then in verse 16 God tells us that it is for our good. I'm slowly learning to love the different hungers that God brings into my life that bring me to a greater dependence on Him. I'm learning that the pleasures of Egypt don't compare to the manna from heaven. And Jesus is that manna from heaven. For every hunger, we need Jesus. We need to live by the word that proceeds from his mouth. I love the Jeremy Camp song that simply says "give me Jesus." In the morning when I rise, when I am alone, and when I come to die, give me Jesus. He is enough for me.

God bless you.

Almost one month later...

2008-01-22T16:14:00.001-07:00

I finally post again. Sorry for the lack of posting. Life has been pretty hectic lately. Youth ministry has kept me very busy both in time spent with them and time preparing to spend time with them. Time grew scarce and something had to go so regular posting has pretty much gone out the window for the past month. I keep telling myself to post more and I never get around to it. So here is a quick update. Christmas was really good, although it was the first one without my older sister there. That was sad :( But we had a good time with my younger sister and her husband Eric. I got a few books, which is always good. I then pulled an overnighter with the youth for New Years eve eve. I had my first experience couch sledding a couple weeks later. That was a unique experience. Imagine a full-size couch with long two-by-fours behind it on skis flying down a snow-covered hill. It was a total blast. I highly recommend it. That was followed by winter camp the next weekend. Winter camp was awesome. We had a few times of worship and teaching and the kids worshipped like I had never heard them before. It was a truly special time. We managed to throw some sledding down a massive hill in there as well. I went down once and came out looking like the abominable snowman. We had a really good and blessed time. Back at home I got to lead worship on Sunday for my church because our worship leader was taking a weekend off to go to St. George. It seemed to go really well by my account, and, by all reports, it did :) I also started a series on I John for the youth on Sunday mornings so, if you remember, I would appreciate your prayers for that. Anyway, life is crazy with little time for much of anything. In other words, I'm loving it! It gets really tiring and stressful at times, but overall I love the pace. What better way to spend my singleness? Anyway, I better get going. Need to start preparing for next Sunday :) Thank you for all of your prayers. May God keep you and bless you and cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace for His name and His glory's sake.

The Pulley

2007-12-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

I just read this poem on DesiringGod's website. It's by George Herbert. I love it. I hope it will bless you.

The Pulley
When God at first made man,
Having a glasse of blessings standing by;
Let us (said he) poure on him all we can:
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beautie flow’d, then wisdome, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlesnesse:
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

A little snow

2007-12-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

The national weather service says that the Ogden area is supposed to get about 1-3 inches total this afternoon. In the last hour we got about 3 inches. It's really starting to come down. I was just driving in it and you couldn't start from a complete stop without sliding. I saw some cars making left hand turns slide and drive over the curb, and a bunch of people that were trying to go way to fast. Driving in weather like this isn't too bad. It's driving in weather like this with other people who don't drive too well that makes it bad :) Even four wheel drive trucks were sliding. Anyway, I'm also supposed to go to my parent's church for their Christmas Eve service (mine isn't having one this year) and then up to their house where I'll spend the night and tomorrow. Lord willing, we'll all survive the drives. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and take the opportunity to really reflect on the birth of our Lord. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14, ESV) The Word became flesh. We can't even fathom the depth of this truth. It is too wonderful for us, too lofty for us to attain. Jesus Christ, the image of the Father, emptied himself and took on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to take on our sin and give us his righteousness and has now ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the throne of God. There is no greater act accomplished for the love of his people and the demonstration and sake of his glory than what Jesus Christ did for us and for God and for himself. The Word became flesh. The image of God, the transcendant Word through whom the universe exists and through whom we live and move and have our being, came into time and tabernacled with us. We have seen his glory. He has revealed himself in order to show us the Father in order to transform us into the images of his glory. We beheld the fullness of grace and truth. All grace was demonstrated in him and there is no truth apart from him. He is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the great "I AM." Praise be to God and to him alone.

Winter

2007-12-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Winter is officially upon us here in Utah. It's been freezing the past couple of weeks with nighttime temperatures getting as low as 11 degrees. However, we haven't really had a good snow fall. We've had a couple of inches here and there, but they usually melt away within a few days. However, we're getting some good storms going through the area right now and the snow's really falling. We're getting thunder and snow at the same time. I've never really experienced it like this. Usually when that happens it's rain mixed with snow. But this is pretty good snow. It is wetter then we usually get here, but it's full-bodied snow. The skiers are going to be really happy. This also means that we will almost undoubtedly have a white Christmas. I know I will because I'm going up to my parents house and they live over the mountains where there is a great deal more snow. All-in-all, it's getting a lot colder and a lot whiter here. If I didn't have to drive in it, I would love it. At least we have a good snowplow system here. I just got a call from my worship leader and, due to the snow, we're cancelling worship practice. Anyway, if you like snow and mountains, Utah is the place to be right now :) The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmaments declare his handiwork.

A little mormonism

2007-12-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

This is a good post on some information concerning Mormonism. It responds to a Fox News 21 question interview with someone from the Mormon church and the answers given there. If you want to see the interview itself, you can find it on Justin Taylor's blog. While I was reading this, I thought about Catholocism and the comfort that comes from having a set doctrine from the church that is set down and historically proven and Catholics hold to it. You can easily point to the areas of disagreement and continue from there. The Mormon church is really slippery. Part of this, I think, is because they don't base all of their belief on head knowledge. They don't go around spouting off doctrine. They promote and "evangelize" by talking about their experience, or the "burning in the bosom," or by talking up how great the family life is in Mormonism. If you've ever seen commercials for the Mormon church, the family is the center of everything they believe in. They don't go into anything about their beliefs. In fact, the only reason you know it comes from a religious group is that it's from the LDS church. What this means for witnessing is that when we try to address the doctrine of the church and hold it next to the Bible, they turn quickly to their personal testimony and how awesome their culture is to defend their beliefs and will cease to engage with you. This isn't always the case, but it can often be. My fear and concern is that the Mormon church is starting to look more and more mainstream and Christian. Mitt Romney can give a speech about how he believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world and all of a sudden, his beliefs are looking more and more Christian to the outside world. Perhaps this isn't entirely due to the Mormon church covering up their "strange" doctrines and obvious inconsistencies, although I believe much of it is. I think some of the problem is that the Christian church is no longer looking as Christian as it should. We don't stand for doctrine. We begin to spout our own personal testimonies and family life and traditions. We shouldn't neglect to talk about how Biblical Christianity does impact our lives, but those must be evidences for the truth, not the foundation for it. We have reverted to experience instead of truth and doctrine in our witnessing and apologetics. We must return to our historical roots and fight for the doctrines and truths that separate us from the rest of the world. If Christians would stand up for the sovereignty of God and his all-suffeciency, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, salvation through grace alone, the inerrance of the Bible alone, the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, etc. then perhaps the world wouldn't confuse Christianity with Mormonism and Catholocism and Mormonism and Catholocism would stop wanting to be associated with us. We need to take a stand on the firm foundation of Scripture alone and seek to show God as glorious and not our mega churches and our institutions (marriage, family, life). If we boast in our mega churches it should be because of the change produced by God through that instrument in the lives of people and the community. If we boast in our institutions like marriage and family and our pro-life causes, then it should be because they flow from a God-centered theology. We have to stop leaving God out of the center (and often the entirety) of our witness. We must boast in him and nothing else. The souls of the people of this nation depend on it.

Psalm 36

2007-12-17T21:53:00.001-07:00

In my daily devotions I read Psalm 36 a while ago and I thought I would share some thoughts:

After a long list of the traits and character of the wicked, David caps it with this: "He does not despise evil." It is the character of the righteous to despise evil. We should be very fearful when we cease to despise evil. This is a trait I see lacking in me so often. Often I can hold up and praise that which is good, but I don't want to despise what is evil. I think that's often because I don't want to give up those parts of my life. I enjoy some of those evil things and if I despise them, then I will have to give them up, so I don't shed the light of the word on those areas of my life because I want to expose my own evilness. The heart is indeed desperately wicked, who can know it? This is a sobering reminder.

And after a long list of God's attributes and why the godly flee to him, David caps it with this: "In your light, we see light." When we line ourselves up with God and can be siad to truly be in him we see him. We don't see anything else. When we are enveloped in this marvelous light, all we see is the glory of the light. Our eyes get fixed on Jesus. We were blinded by the god of this world, but then God opens our eyes to see the "light of the glory of the gospel fo Jesus who is the image of God." In order to experience this we must be in the light. In order for this to happen we cannot be prideful (vs. 11). Once pride takes it's foothold in our ives we will cease to be in the light (not in an absolute, salvific sense) and we will not see the light. Pride is a destructive sin and it has destroyed many of the unrighteous. We must not be found with it. Destroy your pride and flee to God in abject humility and he will show you light.

I love the contrast presented here. The first four verses are dedicated to showing the wickedness of the wicked. In the next five verses, David contrasts the wicked - but not with the righteous. He contrasts the wicked with God. In doing so, David exalts comparing ourleves and others to the true standard - God - instead of the false one we so quickly embrace - each other. He also demonstrates that the only true righteous One is God and we all would be like the wicked where it not for God's grace. This contrast is indeed impressive and should be taken not of. Use it to cast down your pride and your view of yourself and exalt your view of God and his loveliness and how deficient sin and wickedness is in the light of the fountain of light.

...............................................................................................................

Even though I wrote that about a week ago, I think I needed to go back over the truth in those verses. It is so easy to compare myself with others and think that I'm okay and that, compared to the rest of the world, I'm doing pretty good. But they're not my standard. God is. And the only way I can stand blameless before the throne is if I'm dressed in his righteousness alone.

I saw "I Am Legend" Saturday and this Psalm reminds me of some of the themes in the movie (really good, by the way). Without giving anything away, there were a lot of contrasts in the movie between light and dark. Dark was when the evil was present, but they hated the light. Light was the only way to defeat the darkness. Then Will Smith quotes Bob Marley when he says in response to racism "Light up the darkness." We don't light up the darkness by focusing on ourselves. We light up the darkness by giving the darkness the true Light. He is the source of all light and he is the only way that light can pierce the darkness and overcome it. We have no light in ourselves. It only comes through God. We must give the world God. Nothing else will do! Show them the light of the world by being lights ourselves. Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify God. We can be a light so long as Jesus shines through us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the glory will go to God. We are frail. We need to let the power of God shine through our weaknesses so that the world will see that it is God that changes it and not us. "Light up the darkness" with the only light that really matters - Jesus Christ. God give me the grace and the strength to see this through - every day. I have no strength to do this. I cannot move unless you move me. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me so that the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me. The world needs this gospel. And were the ones who have to spread it. I can't fail in this task anymore due to my lack of desire to despise evil. I must live in the light.

P.S. I Am Legend is a really good movie. If you go see it, look for the analogies to Christ and the light/dark metaphors. It's really cool.

Due to popular demand...

2007-12-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

...here is the link to pics of the house I looked at: http://utahrealestate.com/reports/photo/index.wfr?types=&find_listno=748489&ptype=p_res

Unfortunately I couldn't post them directly here, and I didn't have my camera with me when i went to see it. But hopefully this will sate your curiosity :)

House Search

2007-12-13T21:42:00.001-07:00

Recently I've been looking around at houses in the downtown Ogden area with my friend who's also a real estate agent. After seeing a bunch of houses that I wouldn't want to buy at all, I finally found a house that very well might be a great house. It has three bedrooms and one bath, a little more than 1500 square feet, a fireplace, plenty of living space, a killer kitchen, and a sane floorplan. It is also in the price range I've been looking for. If the Lord wills, this could be a killer place to buy. You might ask why a guy my age would be looking to buy a house instead of renting until marriage or beyond. I've come to learn that my knowledge of the will of God is much more limited than what I once thought it was. God gave me a general direction to press toward when I was 17 and as I continue to grow toward that goal, God continues to whittle down the generalities and bring me to the exact place He wants me to be in and the work He wants me to do. With that in mind, God appears to be leading me to make my home in Ogden for the foreseeable future and seek to be a light to that city. Ogden has a lot of crime and there doesn't seem to be much of an effort on the part of Christians to make an impact in the heart of the city. Most of the churches that are "successful" seem to be found in the suburbs. As far as I can tell, there really aren't many God-entranced, Bible-preaching, Gospel-centered churches in the city and God seems to be leading me to that area. So with that in mind, I've been looking at houses in the area in order to live among the people that I would be ministering to and evangelizing. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that I would really appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment in this search. I desperately need to be focused on God's will in this situation and not just on my own desires which seem to so often conflict with God's. May my ways be His ways, and His thoughts my thoughts. Sola Deo Gloria

Youth Group and some randomness

2007-12-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

How great is our God!!! For the second time in about as many months I got the cold that's going around again. A couple of days ago, my throat hurt so bad I didn't even want to drink water. Even now, the sore throat has gone away, but it's left a bad cough behind and my voice isn't strong at all and it sounds a lot different then normal. I save you the details about the crud in my throat as well. Anyway, I started the post this way because every time I've needed to sing or teach or go to an interview or anything like that, God has given me enough strength and decongestion to speak and sing clearly. We have youth group on Wednesday nights and this night I had to lead the whole thing because all of the other youth leaders were at a funeral. So this meant I had to do all the small group teaching (we're going through the "Truth Project" dvds - really good) and I normally lead worship. God gave me the strength to do all of it. And then, in the small group we were talking about evolutionists and Rom. 1:18-20 and all that good stuff and I started bringing the gospel to bear on it and emphasizing that we shouldn't go around calling them stupid and thinking ourselves superior to them, because we all used to be like that. And I was getting some of their thoughts on this and my only senior started busting out the gospel and how amazed she was at it and the incredible love that Jesus displayed toward those that were crucifying Him and just marvelling at our Savior. She's one of the deeper ones in the youth group and I know that she pursues God and loves God and is saved, but I've never really heard her just talk about the gospel that way and really be that affected by it. And I couldn't help but wonder if God is using the gospel series that we're going through to really bring home the amazing grace God has bestowed on us and how awesome heaven will be because God will be there and how that really makes death gain. I don't know if that's the case, but I hope God's used it in a small way in her life to bring her closer to God in that way.

Plus, I can't thing of a song more upbeat than "Sugarpie, honeybunch" or whatever the name of that song is. I was just at the grocery store on my way back home and they were playing that song and you just felt like singing along with it and dancing. Praise God! He's given me a really great night and it's nothing of me! I didn't do anything to make tonight cool. It was all God. How great is our God!!!

A little Newton

2007-12-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

“Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say that I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am.”
- John Newton

This came from the blog, firstimportance.org. It's an awesome site. I highly encourage visiting it. And what truth is embodied in this statement. What a glorious reality that we are no longer slaves to sin and Satan. And praise God that we will yet be glorified! We will not stay in this state forever.

No mercy

2007-11-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

"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

2007-11-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-02T20:10:00.001-06:00

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.

Happy Reformation Day

2007-10-31T17:28:00.000-06:00

Today is the 490th anniversary of the nail heard round the world.

Just letting you all know, I made it home safely. New York was amazing. Seeing the sights was pretty cool too. The mission trip made a big impression on me and brought me to tears on a number of occasions. (I know, I know, crying isn't manly, but I think this kind is acceptable.) I will be posting a much more detailed account soon, but for now I just want to say:

Happy Reformation Day

O What great things our God wrought 490 years ago today that continue to shape this world and bring many to the greatness of knowing Christ!

New York

2007-10-25T15:46:00.000-06:00

I leave my house in about an hour to go to New York with my church's youth group and the youth group of our mother church. We're going with an organization called Center for Student Ministries and we will be doing a lot of work with the poor and homeless. It's going to be pretty crazy. Hopefully I'll come back with some good stuff to write about, maybe even a few pictures to post, and most importantly, a little bit more transformed into the image of Christ.

Train up a child...

2007-10-22T21:44:00.000-06:00

Lately I have had the privelege of being around a bunch of little kids. And I don't say that sarcastically :) Between the families at my house church and my friend and his family that I hand out with at least once a week, I'm around about a dozen different kids during the week and only about two of them are older than 10. The rest are younger than 6. It's been a very interesting experience. For instance, at my house church three out of the last four weeks one of the kids has thrown up. I meet with my friend every Tuesday night and he has five kids under the age of six and I usually spend some time reading to them while also trying to keep them from falling off of barstools and telling them to get off the table. I'm starting to wonder what God has in store for me in the future and if he's using this to train me for something. To be totally honest, I'm kind of terrified. Don't get me wrong, I like kids and I look forward to the day when I will have some of my own. But I'm terrified that I won't be a good father. There is so much that goes into it and I know I'm going to make a ton of mistakes and I just pray that the mistakes that I do make aren't too severe. The very prospect of being a father really makes me grateful that God is a sovereign God and he will keep me and my wife and kids. He's in control. I couldn't even imagine wanting to be in total control over the situation. I would totally screw it up. Anyway, the reason I brought all of this up is because being around this many kids has caused me to think a lot more about how to raise them and the verse that keeps coming to my mind is Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." If God ever blesses me with a wife and children I think this verse will define much of my parenting efforts. If I want to raise my children and in a God-glorifying manner, then I must train them up in the way of the Lord. If I want them to be not just good kids but good adults that seek after the glory of God, I must raise them to love and seek after God through the Bible. I must constantly be teaching them the Bible and the gospel and how everything is about the glory of God and that it is in seeking that glory that we will be satisfied and find eternal life. There is no greater parenting method than to train your children in the word of God. What a God-given blessing that my parents thought that way and constantly taught me the Bible. I can only pray that God would give me the grace to do the same for my kids. Praise God that he is a good Father and a sovereign Lord and he leads us in the way everlasting and provides for us the ultimate example of the kind of fathers and mothers we should be.

Gospel Series

2007-10-18T15:29:00.000-06:00

I never blogged about it, but about two-and-a-half months ago I accepted the position at my church as youth leader. I'm not paid staff or anything, but I teach the youth (grades 7-12) Sunday mornings and I'm one of the youth leaders for our Wednesday night gathering (we combine with our "mother church"). So far we have gone through the book of Ruth, and the last two Sundays I have taught on heaven and hell. In teaching about hell, I centered on II Thess. 1:6-10. One of the phrases really caught me, and that is verse 8 where it says "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." After teaching about the eternal torment of hell and that it is those who don't know God and don't obey him that will endure that, I was deeply struck by the need to preach about what the Gospel is. In order for us to obey it, we must know it, and by knowing the Gospel, we will know who our God is. So I came up with a tentative eight-part series on the Gospel. Let me know if you have any feedback or additional topics that would be helpful to cover. Anyway here's the series:

The Good of the Gospel - God
The Object of the Gospel - Jesus
The Dilemma of the Gospel - Man
The Means of the Gospel - The Cross
The Effect of the Gospel - Sanctification and Glorification
The Enemies of the Gospel - Legalism and Antinomianism
The Power of the Gospel - God's Sovereignty and Evangelism
The Purpose of the Gospel - The Glory of God

That's it. Let me know what you think. God bless.

Response to my pastor

2007-10-10T22:28:00.000-06:00

This is a response I just sent to my pastor about an article that he sent me and wanted my thoughts on it. In short, the article sees problems in the maturity level of believers in today's church and encouraged the development of small groups and discipleship to correct the problem. Anyway, I thought I would share my response with you.

I think he's right on in most of his assessments. A couple of minor nit-picky things like using the term saints for mature Christians. Paul even called the Corinthians saints. We don't want to create a catholic mindset where we elevate mature Christians over immature ones. We are all one in Christ and we don't want to create division where the Bible doesn't and in fact fights vigorously against it (Eph. 4:2-6). But overall I think his analysis of the problem is right on. Modern day evangelical churches are producing baby Christians - Hebrews 5 Christians if you will. The level of immaturity is even such that we are losing (perhaps even lost entirely) our distinction from the world and we cannot accurately gauge the salvation of most of the people sitting in the seats in front of us. Not that we are the judge of the people's salvation and relationship to God. May that never be! I would hate to think about me judging anybody's salvation. What I mean though, as I'm sure you know, is that all we can look at is the fruit in a person's life and if the American church today is producing fruit, it is small and produces little impact. There is an aspect where I don't fully line up with the solution that is being offered. Let me say, first, that I think small group discipleship and accountability are key. If we lack that, then we miss out on half of the equation and we won't achieve the fullness of God's blessing for us and we won't fully achieve the measure of a mature Christian and thus our church bodies won't achieve the full measure of a mature man. We must have small groups. We must encourage tight knit relationships (Col. 2:2 - being knit together in love). We must have close relationships founded upon, grounded and established upon, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is my concern with the emphasis on small groups. The emphasis on small groups seems to think that if we just had good small groups then all our problems would disappear, or at least a good deal of them would. And my response to that is how often in scripture do we see the writers putting an emphasis on small group fellowship, above and beyond that of the larger fellowship? To be sure, there are examples. Acts 2 comes to mind as well as all the portions of scripture that talk about the group that Paul took with him. He was never without Barnabas or Silas, and it seemed he always had disciples around him as well, such as Timothy and Titus. He also spent a great deal of time with Aquila and Priscilla as well. In fact, at the end of most of Paul's letters he sends greetings from a great deal of people that were with him. At the end of II Timothy Paul urges Timothy to return to Paul quickly because only Luke was with him and everybody else had either abandoned him or gone into ministry in other parts of the world. All that to say, we have a great list of examples of small group fellowship and how needed and beneficial it is. If we think we can go it alone and be the American lone ranger Christian, then we have got it all wrong. We need each other, particularly in a smaller group as these examples illustrate. But my question is where do we see the gathering into small groups encouraged or commanded in Scripture? I'm just working off of memory, but I can't think of a single passage that relates small group fellowship specifically to spiritual growth. Large group fellowship is most definitely encouraged and commanded (Heb. 10:25 among others) but I can't think of any verses that specifically talk about small group fellowship and discipleship.

Rather, what I think you see more often in the Bible is an emphasis on preaching and teaching truth, specifically that of the gospel. You see this in passages like Eph. 4:11-16. What comes first? People gifted to preach and teach and expound upon the truth of God's word, and by so doing they equip the people who hear them to grow themselves up into a strong and mature body. What's interesting about this passage is that it links maturity to a knowledge of the Son of God and unity. And the end goal of all this is that we attain to the measure of the fullness of Christ. As it has been said before, when you train a cashier to spot a fake 20 you don't have them look a bunch of counterfeits, you have them look at and study the real thing until they are so accustomed to seeing the real thing that spotting a fake is easy. We all are, as Christians, called to be like Christ, so the only way that we can truly be like Christ is if we look at Him constantly. When Paul came to the Corinthians his goal and his means of making them mature Christians was to preach Christ and Him crucified and at the end of I Cor. he says that this is of first importance. When Paul wanted to correct heresy in the Galatian and Colossian churches he told them about Christ. In fact, in Colossians 2 Paul tells us that the way to be firmly grounded and established in the faith is to know and understand and gaze upon Christ. When Paul wanted to give the Philippians a reason for joy he talked about nothing other than Christ. When Paul wanted to have fellowship with the Roman church he wrote the book of Romans and then called the whole book the gospel in chapter one. In Rom. 1:14-17 Paul tells the Romans that he longed to preach the gospel to the believers there. Not to unbelievers, but believers. I think the church has made a huge mistake in thinking that the gospel is what brings us from life unto death and then the rest of our Christian lives is training separated from the gospel. I've been thinking about this and writing about this a lot lately and the short end of it is I believe that it is the gospel that saves us and, if you will excuse the word choice, it is the gospel that keeps us saved. As you know, I fully cling to and believe in the perseverance of the saints and that it is God's power that does it, but I believe that the means that God uses to do this is through the gospel. And if I went into some of the thoughts I've been having about all this and reasoning from the scripture, then this e-mail would get far too long. But the basic gist is that I believe all texts speak of God as seen through the face of Christ (II Cor. 4:4,6) and we must focus on Christ in order to produce transformation into the image of Christ in the lives of those who profess belief. So my conclusion about this article is that it is right in that we focus too much on programs and we have weak (even blasphemous) preaching and teaching, shallow books, and a self-centered gospel. But the answer isn't encourage small groups. The answer is preach and teach in such a way that people see the face of Christ and leave transformed into the image of Christ's glory and then those small group fellowships develop much easier. Granted, because of our nature and our individualistic culture we must encourage small group fellowships from the front, but I guarantee that it will be much easier when the congregation is gazing into the face of Christ and not just going along with some program that tells them that the Bible and God is all about them

The Trinity

2007-09-24T21:46:00.001-06:00

How often have you guys thought about the Trinity - what kind of impact it has on our beliefs, is it really a core doctrine, why the need for the nicene creed, and how it affects our day to day lives? I have to admit I haven't really thought a lot about the Trinity...ever. I've known that it was a core belief. I've known the basic tenants of it since I was a child. I've even known how to defend it at a very basic level for a long time. But I've never really thought long and hard about it before. Until recently, that is. The Trinity has been at the forefront of my mind a lot lately, and I've come to realize just how utterly essential this doctrine is to everything that we hold. It affects our beliefs, it affects how we view God, it affects how we view ourselves, and so, not surprisingly, it does have an impact on how we live our daily lives. We must live our lives in light of a trinitarian worldview. We need to know that God has always been in relationship with God and has loved that relationship for eternity past. There has never been a time when God lacked perfect fellowship. Simply put, the Trinity destoys all our hopes of being the center of God's "life." God has always been the center of God's "life" and He has never needed us. The Trinity is a wonderfully humbling thing. And oh how wonderful it is to be humbled by a loving God who loves showing us how perfect He is. Hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be posting more on this subject in the future. I'm sure they will be pitiful in light of this glorious truth, but I pray that I will learn so much more of the nature of my God through this study and be brought so much lower than I currently think myself to be. God bless.

...it was the worst of times

2007-09-20T22:44:00.000-06:00

What an awesome thought that this earth is the worst of times for us! It will never get any worse than this life. I was talking about this with a friend of mine today and we both had had pretty rough days at work in general. Things just hadn't gone too well. And we both were filled with joy at the thought that the glory that awaits us will make all of this look like nothing. Our time down here doesn't even compare to what awaits us. What a hope we have in Jesus. We have died with Him and our life is now hidden in Him awaiting the time when we will be revealed with Him in glory. I love how I Peter 1:8-9 talks about our lives here on this earth. Right now we don't see Jesus as we will at the revelation of His glory (I Jn. 3:2), but we love Him and believe in Him and because of this glimpse we see now in the word we rejoice with joy inexpressable and full of glory. Let us take rest in that. We rejoice explosively because of the little bit that has been revealed to us about our Savior. Imagine what heaven will be like!

God loves being God

2007-09-10T21:42:00.000-06:00

Lately, I've been looking at a lot of cool things in creation. Last Saturday, I watched part of a show on the Discovery channel called "Blue Planet." In the one we watched they took a submersible two miles down to the floor of the ocean. Down there there is no light. The weight of the water is a pulverizing 3800 pounds/square inch. The temperature at the thermal vents is around 750 degrees. It's an amazing world. And at the bottom of this world there are animals that create their own light called bioluminescence. This light helps them catch food and evade attack. While I was watching that the thought struck me that even in the darkest places, there is still light. The analogy is pretty obvious in that even in the spiritually darkest places, there is still light. It might be small and weak, but it is still there and it still illumines and transforms. The show continued and they showed these incredible creatures that looked alien. I had never seen anything that looked like them. And the amazing thing is that even under all that weight of water, their physical structure looked more delicate than anything I've seen above water. And then today, I got on the hubble telescope web page and looked at amazing pictures of far away galaxies and stars. I realized that these things have been there since God spoke them into existence during the first six days of time itself and man had never seen them. God didn't create creation for man. God created everything for God. God loves being God. God loves displaying His glory for the very sake of demonstrating the overflow of His nature even if man isn't there to appreciate it. It brought to mind Job 38:25-27: 25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, 26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?

God brings rain on land where there is no man because God wants to pour it out and show the greatness of His glory. We are not the center, we never were the center, and praise God we never will be the center. He was, is, and always will be the center of everything and in Him everything lives and moves and has their being. All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him, to Him be the glory forevermore. We were made to feel small.

D. James Kennedy

2007-09-05T22:11:00.000-06:00

D. James Kennedy died earlier this morning in his sleep. From what I understand (which isn't much) he had been having some health problems lately and had decided to retire from his ministry. I never knew much about him but I was aware of him and some of his impact (especially as it related to ECT) and from what I've read lately he was a faithful servant of God and served the church in America greatly. I'm sure he will be greatly missed by many. Another saint has gone home. Praise the Lord!

I Beg

2007-08-31T18:39:00.000-06:00

This is another of the great songs on Shane & Shane's new cd "Pages." (You're probably going to be hearing a lot about this cd over the next few posts.) I just want to talk about the chorus of this song. It starts with a pre-chorus that says "I'm haunted by a God that has the right to ask what by the very nature of my rebellion I cannot give" I love this line. It is so Augustinian: "Command what you will, but give what you command." This has been my prayer over the last couple weeks. Probably in large part to reading Piper's short commentary on Augustine in "The Legacy of Sovereign Joy." I too am haunted by the fact that God commands me to do things that I am completely unable to do them. One of the major sins I struggle with in my life is that of trying to rely on my own strength to do things. I acknowledge that God is sovereign, and I frequently ask God to reveal His will to me and then I respond "Thanks God. You can step aside now. I got this." I think I can figure it out, perform the work, say the words. I am completely incapable and I've been wrestling a lot with my pride over this issue. So my prayer is the same as the chorus of this song: "I beg for you to move, I beg for you to move, I beg for you to break through." O God, break through my pride and the heart that I keep trying to turn back into stone. Make me humble. I long for brokenness, and the desire to say "Not by my will, but the Lord's. Not by my strength, but Yours." Have Your way with me.

Doxology

2007-08-29T17:38:00.000-06:00

I couldn't think of a title for this post, until I got to the end. I'm currently listening to the new Shane and Shane cd. It's incredible. It's definitely different from their past cds. I know it will take some time to get used to it, but its a great cd. It leads into worship so well. I can't help but worship my Redeemer when listening to these songs. So far my favorite song on the cd, and perhaps of all S&S songs, is "Embracing Accusation." When I heard it I burst into tears and wept with joy and grief. The truth of the song is so amazing and it coincided with some of the things that God has been showing me in His word. What an amazing Gospel song. Even if you don't buy the cd, listen to that song. It may not impact you as dramatically as it did me, but the truth of it cannot be denied. Praise the Lord! My Redeemer lives! My Advocate, Intercessor, Savior, and my Righteousness! To You alone be all glory forevermore!

And there was great rejoicing

2007-08-27T23:41:00.000-06:00

Shane & Shane's new cd comes out tomorrow! I pre-ordered mine in order to get the behind the scenes extra stuff, so I don't know when exactly I'll be getting my copy, but when it does come, expect a review. Until then, go now and buy it as soon as possible. It's bound to be good.

I smell like smoke

2007-08-25T07:31:00.001-06:00

After five years of having a job, I finally took a vacation. I've had some long weekends before, but this summer I took some serious time off. I just spent the last five days at Grand Teton National Park (which is right next to Jackson, Wy) with my parents, and my sisters and their husbands. It was great. I had forgotton how much I missed camping. Being outside, sitting by the campfire, watching black bears roam through the campsite looking for food (picture forthcoming), I love it. It was a really good week. We did a lot of stuff. Monday we had dinner at the Bar J Ranch. If you are ever in Jackson, you have to visit the Bar J Ranch. This was my third time. Basically, it's a real cattle ranch and you show up (hopefully with a reservation, you'll need it) and pay for your meal. There are about five choices. I had the chicken and bbq beef combo. Then you find your table in this big barn-looking auditorium. There are about 700 people seated in the building. They are able to serve all 700 people within 20 minutes. It's pretty cool. After you finish eating, you get some dinner entertainment with the Bar J Wranglers. They sing a bunch of songs, do some comedy stuff, it's a blast. I highly recommend it. Tuesday we visited yellowstone and saw Old Faithful and walked around the geysers and the hot pools. Wednesday, we went whitewater rafting down the Snake river. This was also my third time doing that. The rapids weren't as big this time as they have been in the past due to a lot of rain that they have had lately. But it was still a ton of fun. If you've never been, basically you sit on the side of a small 8-man raft and you have to paddle through all of the rapids. If you don't paddle, then there's a good chance that you won't make it through, so there is pretty good incentive to paddle through them. It's always a little scary at first, but it's a ton of fun. On one of the bigger rapids with six foot waves, my brother-in-law, Eric, was sitting in front of me and got knocked back into me. It's pretty intense. I love it. Thursday we took a day and just chilled out. We didn't do anything planned, we just sat around the campfire and read, or played Scrabble or cards, some of us took a walk, just a good relaxing day. I got a fair amount of reading done. Spent a lot of time reading the Word and I got half-way through both Preaching the Cross and The Legacy of Sovereign Joy. Both really good books. I look forward to finishing them. And finally, I drove home yesterday. As much as I love camping, I really loved sleeping in my own bed last night. If only I could get the campfire back home, then everything would be perfect. Anyway, that's where I've been the last week. Hope your weeks have been good. God Bless.

The long awaited return

2007-08-10T16:16:00.000-06:00

Sorry I've been away for so long. Some of that has been because my computer had a nervous breakdown and gave me the blue screen of death. It took a while but it's finally back on its feet. I feel as though a lot has happened to me lately, but ironically I don't know what to talk about. Let's start with a cd review.

I recently bought Matt Redman's new cd, Beautiful News. I must say it is excellent. It's one of the best cds I've ever listened to. It is incredible musically (especially considering the worship music genre), but the best part of the cd is the lyrics. They are so God-centered and Bible-saturated that they can't help but convict and encourage and uplift. They constantly point me to God time and time again. My favorite song on the cd is "Yes and Amen." It has been a particularly convicting song to me lately. We need to declare Yes and Amen to everything that God does and asks us to do. So often my mind is on my own agenda and my own ideas and I need to remember that God is the sovereign ruler over my life and He is also a good and loving Father and everything He asks of me and everything He does is good and perfect and is the best thing for me and I need to obey in faith (Rom. 1:5). That concept of the obedience that comes from faith has also really been on my mind lately. Maybe I'll devote a future post to that sometime.

I've also been recording some guitar parts (and the occasional vocal part) for a friend of mine. He's written a bunch of songs based on the Song of Solomon and we're recording them at a studio. Hopefully we'll have a cd all together sometime soon. He's also doing me the honor of recording a song that I wrote and putting that on the cd as well. I've had a lot of fun doing it. I'm looking forward to recording the rest of the songs. The songs also have really good lyrics and it's been a joy to hear scripture sung.

And finally, I just got back from spending a week with Jen and Kellen up in Salmon, Idaho. Kellen just became the pastor of the Calvary Chapel up there. It's been very encouraging to see what God is doing in him and in the people of the church up there. We had a lot of good discussions and it was a great time of rest and relaxation. I think that was the longest amount of time I have had off since I started working when I was 18. Up until then I hadn't had anything longer than a five-day weekend, so it was a good vacation. I was able to do a lot of praying and reading during that time also. I read Mark Driscoll's "Confessions of a Reformission Reverend," which just proved to me that I am not Mark Driscoll. It was a good autobiography of sorts and gave an inside look as to how Mars Hill started and what it's goals were and are and how they hope to acheive them through the grace of God. I also read most of "The Supremacy of God in Preaching" by Piper and "How Readest Thou" by Ryle. Both are really short and really good. I recommend them both.

Anyway, that ought to be enough for now. I know I've promised it before, but this time I really will try and post a bit more frequently. Be praying for me. I have some pretty big decisions to make and I need a humble heart before God. And thanks to my two readers for checking in on me :) God bless.

Quote of the Day

2007-07-02T16:27:00.000-06:00

Charles Spurgeon on Calvinism and the Gospel, as quoted by Mark Dever at blog.9marks.org:

"I have my own private opinion, that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith without works; not unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor, I think, can we preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation, after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and him crucified in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply, "We have not so learned Christ."

Postmodernism's Delimma: Part 1

2007-06-26T19:02:00.000-06:00

I was going to write this paper back in September. I started on it and worked on it for about a week and then I kind of hit a roadblock and totally stopped. Well, I have started to work on it again and I'm going to start posting parts of it. Hopefully this will inspire me to complete the work as best as I possibly can as soon as I possibly can. This first installment deals only with the philosophical propositions that hold postmodernism up, namely that of relativism. Also, I should note that, although the thoughts are my own, I am a philosophical second-hander and am basing most of my assumptions in this paper on the work of David Wells and his book "Above All Earthly Pow'rs" and my experience in college as a philosophy minor and hearing my professor describe his own relativism. I also realize that this is only a brief handling of the subject and could us a great deal more depth, so I would appreciate any comments anybody has on the subject. Anyway, without further ado, here is part one:

The Definitional Impossibility of Relativity

As our world moves farther along the road of post-modernism, we must consider whether or not its guiding principles are valid or not. Post-modernism relies very heavily on relativity. Postmodernism is a move away from modernism and the enlightenment and the belief that there is absolute truth. Truth is relative and is defined by the self, now. Whatever is true for you is what truth is. We must be tolerant of everyone else’s beliefs and “truths” because there is no set truth that we must believe in. The only thing that we can be intolerant of is the forcing of our own “truths” onto someone who does not accept those truths, and therefore, is not held to them. That person is only held to the truths that he or she accepts. Therefore, postmodernism can be defined as the rejection of absolute truths (hence the "post" modern) and the belief that truth is now relegated to the individual and cannot be universally applied.

This belief is founded upon the fact that many people have very differing views of what truth is. I believe that such and such is truth, but someone else believes that the opposite is true. How can we determine who is right? What determines absolutes? Instead of wrestling with these questions, the postmodern turns to the answer that there must not be any absolutes because we can’t seem to agree on what truth is and who determines it. Truth is relative. But can this be possible?

In a word, no. Relativity is definitionally impossible. Relativity is founded upon the principle that there are no absolute truths. This is an absolute statement. But we’ve all heard this objection before. It usually goes something like this:
Professor: There is no such thing as absolutes!
Smarty-pants Student: But isn't that an absolute statement?

Why hasn’t this derailed post-modernism? Is this objection a correct one? I believe that it is a correct objection. We’ll deal with why it hasn’t derailed this dominant belief system later. For now, I will deal with the philosophical problems that relativism must face. I believe it is a correct objection because for postmodernism to be true it must be the case that there are no truths that are absolute, otherwise, we could hold all people to the same absolute truths. If there are absolutes, then postmodernism fails because its guiding principle, relativity, crumbles. To put it in a classical argument it would go as follows:
1. If relativism is true, then there must be no absolutes.
2. There are absolutes (as demonstrated by the above statement)
3. Therefore, relativism isn’t true
Relativism is, therefore, definitionally impossible.

But are there ways around this? Postmoderns can’t say that there are no absolutes because that would be an absolute statement. They can’t say that there are absolutes because that denies relativity and is an absolute statement. But can we say that there might be absolutes? This is not an absolute statement, because it doesn’t say that absolutes exist or not, it only allows for the possibility. But it is this very possibility that denies relativity. Relativists cannot allow for the possibility of absolutes because that would mean that truth is not always defined by ourselves, but that there can be (or at least might be) objective truths for all people. So relativity in general is impossible. But can we allow for ethical relativity? This is where postmodernism hangs. After all, a postmodern relativist would still claim that 2 + 2 = 4 in all cases, but they would deny that what is ethically true for me must be ethically true for others. So postmoderns wouldn’t deny absolutes absolutely, but they would deny them in ethical matters and matters of religion.

However, the same problem crops up in this area as well. Definitionally, a relativist cannot claim that there are no ethical absolutes because that is an absolute statement. However, it could be objected that the above absolute statement isn’t an ethical statement and therefore does not fall into the same trap as before. That is to say, you can make absolute statements about ethics because those absolute statements only negate general relativity, not ethical relativity. Therefore, I can say there are no ethical absolutes without denying my original premise. This is an untenable position. In this scenario absolutes are allowed but only in regard to general matters, not in regard to ethical maters and then trying to differentiate between ethical relativity and general relativity. If general relativity doesn’t exist, then how can ethical relativity? We cannot make absolute statements about ethics and still hold on to ethical relativity. I cannot think of any argumentation that would support this without becoming absurd.

There is another problem with ethical relativity. Relativity itself isn’t the only force behind postmodernism. Moral elitism, or rather, the repugnance of it is also a driving force behind postmodernism and the relativity that is its bedrock and cornerstone. Postmodernism rejects the idea that we can impose our ethics and morals on another culture. How dare we claim that we know the only right way to live and act and then expect all other cultures and persons to ascribe to it. This is one of the main criticisms of religion in general and Christianity in particular. It is okay (indeed, even encouraged) to have and hold certain religious beliefs. The problem comes when we attempt to change the worldview and ethics of those who don’t believe the way we do. How can we possibly say that we have the right to try and convert other religions and peoples to our way of thinking. There are so many different religions and faiths, how can we claim to have the best one? Therefore, ethics (and religion, morals, etc.) must be relative. How can we impose our ethics on one another?

But in saying this, they deny their own ethical relativism. They have made supposed moral humility an absolute moral good (not to mention that their moral humility turns into pride when confronting those seeking to impose ethical absolutes). They also commit the same error as general relativity because it declares there can be no moral absolutes. This, obviously, is an absolute statement. Postmoderns cannot cling to moral relativity and then declare tolerance of other religious views an absolute moral good. You cannot attack those who are intolerant of other religions and then say that morals and ethics are relevant. Ethical relativity in the postmodern worldview is impossible.

Really quick

2007-06-24T12:56:00.000-06:00

If you haven't visited desiringGod.org recently then you need to know that this coming Wednesday and Thursday all books in their store are only $5, no exceptions. I know I'm going to be getting a whole bunch of them :)

A much needed update

2007-06-23T14:30:00.000-06:00

I just became a man today! I shot a bunch of guns :) I went with my pastor and some friends and we shot a couple of shotguns, a pistol, and a couple muzzle-loader rifles in a ravine near the Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun. We were throwing skeet and trying to shoot them. I was by far the worst, but, in my defense, all the other guys had a lot more experience shoot various things than I did. They all know what they're doing. I'm pretty good at shoot a pistol or rifle at a stationary target, but trying to blow something moving out of the sky is a bit more tricky. It was a lot of fun though. My shoulder will probably hurt for a week now.

Anyway, a lot has happened over the last month or so. A few weeks ago I road-tripped to Las Vegas with a friend of mine in order to visit some friends, Andy and Annie, that were there for a few weeks training at the Air Force base near the city. We had a really good time. The trip was really good and we listened to some good sermons. The first night we were there we ate dinner at In 'n out, which is the best fast food place of all time and I haven't had it for about three or four years or so (we don't have one in northern Utah). We then went to a massive Pro Bass Shop in one of the casinos (my friends are big into hunting and fishing). They had a pretty big aquarium in there with some various rays and some small sharks along with a bunch of cool fish. After we had seen our share of outdoors stuff we went to the Belagio and walked around inside a little bit (very fancy and upscale) and then we watched the fountain show. If you've seen Ocean's Eleven, at the very end of the movie all the characters stand around the fountain and watch the show. That's kind of like what we did, only with a lot more people around us. We watched two shows and my friends' baby, Henry, demanded that we go back to their room. It was a really fun night. The next day we went to Hoover Dam and took the tour. It was amazing. The dam is massive. I'd post some pictures, but I'm too lazy to upload them to my computer. That night we went to the Stratosphere, which is the Space Needle looking thing, and went to the top and checked out the strip at night. We got some really good views, the night was clear, and everything was brilliantly lit up. Before we did that, though, we went to the Saturday night service at the local mega church, Central Christian Church. Surprisingly, it wasn't half bad. They only did three songs (instead of spending all their time on songs) and the sermon attempted to exposit scripture and actually lasted longer than 30 minutes. The sermon could have been better, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. All-in-all, a good night and a really good trip. And much to the chagrin of Vegas (and its nickname) we did it all without partaking of the vast amounts of sin available. That was the beginning of my summer. More to follow...

Interview

2007-06-14T21:35:00.001-06:00

I have had a great couple of days. I think I may just have to post about them. Which I guess would be the exception given my current lack of posting. But for now, I will post an interview courtesy of Laur.

1) Have you ever gotten a ticket? Tell us about it.
Twice. The first time I was driving to work and I was going 47 in a 35. However, the other side of the road had a 50 mph speed limit so I thought it was crazy that I got a ticket (but I didn't say that to the cop. It kind of came to me sometime after). To make matters worse, they changed the limit about two weeks later. But I didn't fight it because I had been speeding in the previous section and figured it was my just deserts. I ended up going to traffic school though and the ticket is still not on my record :) The second time I was trying to stay behind my brother-in-law and rolled a stop sign pretty badly even though I knew that there was a cop on that road. That was a pretty stupid ticket :) I think that was about 3 or 4 years ago. Since then - ticket free!

2) When you were small, say 7 years old, what one food would you have wanted to have if you had to pick just one to eat for the rest of your life?
Hands down, pizza - pepperoni only. I thought that was God's gift to mankind. I could eat pizza all the time.

3) Pets as a child? (Not a yes or no question.)
Yes :) ...But seriously, my family had a dog and a cat when I was a kid. Our dog was named Uriah and was about the ugliest mutt you have ever seen, which actually made him rather adorable. He was a great dog. Very devoted and very protective, which was his unfortunate downfall. Because he was so protective he ended up biting a few people that he thought were threats to us kids. So my parents ended up taking him to the pound. As a family we never had a dog after that, although my younger sister now has a basset hound named Phebe. My cat was named Emily (although the name Bathsheba was jokingly kicked around) and we got her when I was 3 or 4. She was a great cat. Very personable and enjoyed being around you, but wasn't too needy. She lived for about 14 years and died of natural causes. Since then my family has gotten two more cats named Shylock and Othello.

4) If you could own a plane or a boat (for personal operation, not just to have a lear jet and a pilot to fly you around), which would you pick? What would you christen it?
Interesting... That's a tough one. I would probably go with a plane. That way I could use it to visit my friends and family, whereas a boat would probably end up being more recreational only. Plus with a boat you then have to get a trailor and a new truck. And although the new truck sounds tempting, I'll have to go with the plane. You could also use the plane for mission trips and, if big enough, perhaps I could even get to Europe with it. As for the name, I only have two options. One is Sola Deo Gloria for obvious reasons. The other would be Diana. The reason for this is that after I read Jane Eyre I really liked the name Diana and for a long time wanted to name my first daughter that. So I think those would be my two options.

5) When were you baptized and why then?
I was baptized when I was about seven. I can still remember sitting in my pastor's office with my dad while he explained what baptism was. He said something like "baptism is a little like taking a bath. When you take a bath you wash all the dirt off of you. Baptism is an outward demonstration of when our sins were washed off of us." Or something like that. I knew that when we are baptized we are proclaiming that we are Christians and I wanted to do that. My dad ended up baptizing me and I remember giving an account of my salvation and who I believed Jesus was and my dad asked me what my favorite Bible verse was. It was Phil. 4:13. I thought that was about the coolest verse in the Bible. Back then I thought that meant that if God wanted me to, I could outrun my dad's truck. My dad tried to dispell that notion and give me a more biblical view, but I still believed that if God really wanted me to, I could :)

If you would like to be interviewed and join in the fun than just follow these directions:
1. Leave me a comment that says "Interview me."
2. I respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you ask them five questions.

Prayer Request

2007-05-18T20:07:00.000-06:00

Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted anything. A lot has gone on since then. I've still been working about 50 hours per week. God's teaching me a lot about endurance and work ethic through that. But what I really need prayer for is this Sunday. We are having a missions Sunday and I'm giving one of the messages. The Lord has really been teaching me a lot through the whole process. I'm having to learn all over again how dependent I am on Him and how to stop doing things in my own power. It has been a really humbling experience. And on top of that, it just so happened that our worship leader is going on a camping trip that Sunday and needed me to cover for him, so I'm leading worship this Sunday as well. Pray that God would give me the physical energy and vocal cords to do everything and more importantly pray that God would speak through me and impact the hearts of the hearers and that I would be humble and give the glory to God. I'm looking forward to what God will do through all of this. What a great and glorious God we serve! Grace and peace to you all.

I'm back again

2007-04-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

So I know I haven't posted in a long time, but I have a good excuse. I ended up moving into a room in a friend's house a couple of weeks ago and I didn't get internet access until just now. Plus, I don't know if I would have posted anyway during that time, because I've been working like a mad man. I think I've worked an average of about 55 hours per week over the last three or four weeks. I've had one Saturday off in the last month. The only reason I'm up right now is because I'm waiting for some laundry to get done. And the only reason that can't wait until tomorrow is because I have some dress shirts in the dryer and I have to take them out immediately so I don't have to do any ironing :) I dislike ironing. I think I've only done it once. Perhaps I would enjoy it if I knew how to do it. My work schedule hasn't been all bad though. I'm beginning to learn how you can waste your life working. I used to think of wasting your life only in terms of doing nothing, watching a lot of tv, etc. Now I know you can totally waste your life by working too much. I tell ya, at the end of a hard day I feel emotionally, physically, and spiritually dry. It can get really hard to focus on Christ after days like that. But I'm slowly learning how and I'm really resting on the phrase in Psalm 23 when it says that He restores my soul. I love that God restores our souls. Just yesterday, I got to experience it up close and personal. I worked from six in the morning until noon and had a fairly bad day. But when I got home I started studying for my Sunday school lesson and just dived into the word and a commentary and I felt totally refreshed afterward. It was like the morning never even happened. What an awesome God we serve who continues to keep His amazing promises. Praise Him!

Today has been a really good day too. After church, I played basketball with some guys from my church and another church and there was a guy there shooting around. He ended up playing a couple games with us and me and my pastor got a chance to share the gospel with him afterward. We talked to him for about 15 minutes before my pastor had to leave, but I ended up talking to him for about 30-45 more minutes, after which he asked God for forgiveness and trusted in Christ alone to save him! It was really cool. I had never been used to lead another person to salvation before. I'm constantly amazed that God would use such a frail vessel as me. I love II Cor. 4:4-7. We are the ministers of such an amazing gospel and we carry it in vessels of clay in order that all might know that it was God and not us that did the work. Anyway, I took him to the college group tonight and gave him a Bible. He seemed to connect with some of the people there and there definitely seems like a change has taken place in his life, but we don't know if this is just seed falling on rocks or if it is a genuine conversion until fruit becomes evident. I'm going to take him to my Bible study tomorrow night. I really hope that he has a true relationship with Christ. How amazing His work is! Well, I think I need to take a shower and get my laundry.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Hymn rewrite

2007-03-21T20:53:00.000-06:00

I was reading about William Cowper on Micah's blog and I really loved the lyrics to "There is a Fountain." I hadn't read them in a long time, and I think I'm finally beginning to understand the beautiful depth of them. However, I'm not a big fan of the tune. It's not a bad tune. It's just not my favorite. So I decided to rewrite it. This is my second tune rewrite. The first was "Be Still My Soul." But I did something different with this one. As I played through my rewrite I decided I needed to add a chorus. Personally, I really like this recent twist on old, awesome hymns. I know, it might be close to blaspheme for some :) but I like it. I think it adds a central thought to fix your attention on and not be lost in the number of deep thoughts that are being sung. Anyway, here is my rewrite:

There Is A Fountain
Verse 1
There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see, That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away. (2x last half)
Chorus
There is a fountain so rich and free,
There grace was bought and applied to me
Glory displayed and peace restored
And but the cross I boast no more
Verse 2
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood, Shall never lose its power
’Til all the ransomed church of God, Be saved to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream, Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be ’til I die. (2x last half)
(Chorus)
Verse 3
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue, Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save. (2x last half)
(Chorus)
(End on last verse)
©Darwin Jordan Music.

You Satisfy

2007-03-21T19:49:00.000-06:00

This is a song I started writing a while ago and I finally got around to finish it. I guess I'm still a pretty massive procrastinator :)

You Satisfy
Verse 1
Two sin I commit, they always find me out
I have turned from You, the Living Fount
Then I turn to the broken cup this world sold
And I drink the sand, for no water it holds
Chorus
O Living Water, You satisfy, You satisfy
And pleasure You possess when I behold You on high
You filled my heart with more joy than all other things
To You and You alone will my praise I bring
Verse 2
Now I live for You, my blessed Savior
And I breath You in, for it’s You that I adore
Now I take delight in You, my portion forevermore
Draw near to me, help me love You more
Ending
My Portion, My Savior, You are good, draw near to me
I live You, breathe You, die to me for You
I hunger, I thirst for You, You fill me, I’m satisfied
All others I forsake now, To You alone I turn

Ockham's Razor and the Problem of Evil

2007-03-15T21:19:00.000-06:00

Ockham’s Razor and the Problem of Evil

How can a good and omnipotent God allow sin and evil to exist in His creation? This is the basic question the drives the so-called Problem of Evil (PoE). It has been stated in other formats as well. Such as, how can a loving God allow such bad things to happen. In this phrasing it is assumed that God has the attribute of omnipotence (that is, all powerful) and bad things are evil. The obvious reason why the problem of evil exists is that evil does definitely exist and God could have prevented it. We know evil exists because of things and people like Hitler, the Holocaust, murder, theft, lying, serial killers, etc. And if God is who the Bible claims He is, then He is an omnipotent Being that is capable of keeping evil from ever appearing. He is also a good God and would apparently have cause to keep evil from appearing because of His intrinsic and perfect goodness. It is assumed that God’s intrinsic and perfect goodness conflicts with the existence of evil such that God’s omnipotence would be forced to eradicate it. Therefore, if the God of the Bible exists, then the existence of evil is incongruous with His existence. Therefore, it would appear that if we want to solve this problem, then we will have to change one of the three variables in this equation. However, I’m not going to go into the arguments for and against which variables to do away with or lessen (i.e. lessen the extent of God’s omnipotence). I will say, however, that I don’t think we should or need to eradicate or lesson any of God’s attributes or the extent of the existence and depravity of evil. My goal, however, is to respond to a common objection based on this problem. In a past philosophy class, I was asked by a professor, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to create us without the capacity for evil and sin?” My response at the time was that in order for us to see the fullness of the glory of God displayed in His justice as well as His grace, sin had to exist. He then responded by saying, “Couldn’t God just have shown us a Simpsons episode that described what evil was and then we would have been able to see God’s justice?” I responded by saying that we can’t truly know what grace and justice are (as well as a myriad of other attributes of God) if we don’t experience them. I am not completely satisfied with my answers to these questions. In my first response I think I touched on the truth, but I don’t know about my second response. It may very well be true, but it isn’t the most convincing argument and doesn’t exalt God as highly as He could be. Therefore, it is my purpose to examine this issue further and demonstrate how evil is necessary for God’s glory to be displayed in its fullness.

I believe that the PoE exists in human minds because of Ockham’s razor working in the mind of humanity, which is bent on suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). Ockham’s razor states that “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.'' Basically, this means that given two or more scenarios that have the same or similar result, the simplest is usually the right answer. The simplest answer in the minds of humans regarding the PoE is that God should have made us incapable of evil and then sin wouldn’t exist. We know God is capable of this because of His omnipotence and we know that He created heaven which is a place where we will be incapable of sin and still see the glory of God. Incapablility of sin and ability to see God’s glory are not incongruous. In fact, the Bible tells us that because of our glorification and final sanctification we will actually be able to glorify God perfectly. As is the case in many false teachings, the objection to the existence of evil is based partly on truth. So the root question in the minds of men is why did God create us with the capacity to sin? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to create us without an ability to sin and then we wouldn’t have all the problems that we have now? But I think we need to go back even further to a more basic question. Why did God create the world? Being a perfect God, He didn’t lack something that creation provided. The triune God enjoyed perfect unity, perfect love, perfect enjoyment, and perfect satisfaction in Himself. Why even create the world in the first place? And why create a world that God knows will sin and need saving? Why create a world where one member of the Godhead will have to suffer and die on the cross and bear the sins of many? That doesn’t make sense. To our minds, God would have been better off without this world. God has one purpose and end in all that He does: namely, to glorify Himself. If He failed to have this purpose, then God wouldn’t be God. He would be an idolater. God must glorify Himself in all that He does or He would be worshiping something else and thereby making that object a God and removing His deity from Himself and giving it to another. In Isaiah 48:11 God says, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” Therefore, the only conclusion we can come to about the creation and continued existence of the world is that God intends to glorify Himself through it as its ultimate end. Therefore, in light of this truth, sin is necessary in order to display the fullness of His glory as seen in His manifold attributes. God must glorify Himself by displaying both love and justice, mercy and wrath, as well as many other attributes that are only seen with the existence of sin. God would not create a universe that displays His glory, but does not give a full picture of that glory. So God’s simplest answer to the right question – namely, how can God glorify Himself most fully – is to create a world where sin is possible and then allow it to occur. God cannot defeat His own purpose – His glory – by creating a world that fails to display His glory. This means that His purpose is not only to create beings to see and enjoy His glory, but that creation itself is meant to demonstrate the fullness of His glory as well as a finite creation can display infinite glory. Creation wasn’t just meant to see and enjoy; it is meant to demonstrate and show forth. The only way the universe can show forth the fullness of God’s glory is if sin and evil exist and God can conquer them and show forth mercy and justice, grace, love, wrath, etc.

Prayer Request

2007-03-12T21:18:00.000-06:00

If you guys would, I could really use some prayer for my living situation. I have about two-and-a-half weeks to either find a roommate or another place to live. I think God is teaching me how to rely on Him through all of this. I tend to not learn this lesson very well. I find it really easy to rely on myself far too often, which is completely insane considering who God is and who I am. Amazing how a pitiful creature like me tries to say to God, "It's okay, I got this one." So if you would, I would appreciate your prayers for me in this situation. The resolution of my living situation doesn't really concern me as much as seeing Christ in all of this and treasuring that. Wherever I end up living, I just want to trust God more. He is a good and sovereign God, and no matter how hard it gets, He always has my good and His glory in mind. Praise the LORD!

"Please Come Home"

2007-03-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Okay. I've listened to the new, aforementioned, Dustin Kensrue called "Please Come Home." It is an excellent cd. The only way I can describe it is as Johnny Cash-blues-folk rock. I absolutely love it. And I wish I could write stuff like that. The cd receives a solid A from me. Great music and really good lyrics too. The title track is based on the prodigal son and focuses on the father's love for his son. It's really good. I highly encourage everyone to check it out. But if you have doubts, you can check out a few of his songs at myspace.com/dustinkensrue. Well, I should be getting to bed soon. Don't know if I will, but I should :) May God give you all a blessed night.

Check out this video

2007-03-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

This is a really cool song by Dustin Kensrue. Very good. In fact, I've been waiting for his solo cd to come out for a while and I just found out that it's been available for a month and a half so I'm leaving my house right now to go get it.

The weather recently has been absolutely beautiful. I love this time of year. Enjoy!

And the #1 Single on the Country-Rock-Half Folk-Kinda Bluesy Chart is...

2007-03-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting in my living room, messing around on my guitar and I start playing this really basic chord progression (literally A, D, A, D, etc.). As I'm playing it I feel the need to sing something to it. But not just anything, it has to be about a girl. (They always have to be about a girl, right?) And not just about a girl, but something vaguely sad, yet oddly uplifting. So I start making up some lyrics and I think I might have just written the first half of the next hit single on the aforementioned Country-Rock-Half Folk-Kinda Bluesy Chart (yeah, I don't know what that means either). So here it is:

She's goin' back home to Georgia (she has to be from the south, right?)
She's goin' back home
She don't know what she's goin' to
But she know's what she's been from

She's going' back home (are you catching a theme?)
To those that know her best
She hates where she's been from
She's tired of being out west

Just for the record, there is no inspiration for this song. Just whatever was going through my head in the two minutes it took to compose this. Anyway, that's the long and short of it.

Chapter One

2007-02-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

That's the name of one of Shane & Shane's songs. It's based on John 1:18 "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." I was listening to my ipod at work today on shuffle and this song happened to come on. As I listened to the lyrics and thought about what that verse was talking about I just started crying. I realized that lately I've had somewhat of a hard heart toward God and haven't seen Christ as who he truly is and considered him my only source of joy. He is the image of the invisible God and because of him we get the awesome pleasure of seeing God displayed in Christ's face. This is the joy of the world. We see God through Christ, and it is everything to us. Psalm 16:2 "I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord;I have no good apart from you.'" God has shone into our hearts and has allowed us to not only know him, but delight in him. Praise God that he caused this song to come on and allowed me to truly hear it. I'll leave you with the lyrics. They make an awesome and humble prayer.

Chapter 1
Stir my affections
Stir my affections
Stir my affection for You
for You're my only hope

You Yeshua
explained the way He moves
as just an ordinary man
then again, You're the first, Jesus
and by Your hand we move
You're the image of the invisible God
You are God, You are God

Bring fascination
Bring fascination
Bring fascination of You
for You're my only hope

Crash and Burn

2007-02-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Can you crash and burn at a job fair without even an interview? I think that's what just happened. Some background: I am trying to find a better job right now. Preferably one that requires some thought. I would like to try and use my degree somewhere. I heard that a local company was having a job fair. The company is ATK Thiokol. You might have heard of them, they do a lot with NASA and the space program. They were looking to fill about 300 engineering jobs. I'm a communication major with a bunch of clerical jobs under my belt. You can probably already imagine how this turned out. I knew I was a long shot, but they were hiring for some non-specialized engineering jobs like quality, so I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try. I got there at around 9 a.m. this morning and went to the front desk to sign in. I greeted the woman behind the desk, handed her my resume and proceeded to sign in. When I finished I looked back up at her and could tell she was wondering what on earth I was doing there. She asked what I was looking into and I told her quality or logistics because with my skill set I thought I would be good at them. She told me that they didn't have any of those hiring managers at the job fair and the best way to get my resume into their hands would be to go on their website and apply that way. I'm pretty sure I just got the boot. She told me I could go in and look at their materials and help myself to some refreshments if I wanted to. So I decided to not make the morning a total waste and took some information and a free pen. The pen looks like it might be a decent one, too. Anyway, that's how you can crash and burn without even an interview.

Clothing

2007-02-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Piper's current series on marriage lately. Ipods and podcasts are really cool, by the way. A week or two ago, he talked about being naked and not ashamed. He was referring back to Genesis 2:25 and the end of God's definition of marriage. As he was talking about the clothing Adam and Eve used to cover themselves after the fall I was really struck with the gospel in this passage. Adam and Eve started out as perfect and therefore there was no need to cover themselves. There was no sin. But as soon as they sinned, they knew they needed to cover themselves. And I was struck with the truth that as fallen human beings, we recognize our sinfulness and attempt to cover ourselves with our own handmade clothing. We do good deeds, give money to the poor, try to live a good life, attend some church, etc. We even recognize those individuals who don't attempt to cover their sins as evil (e.g. serial killers). But this doesn't even come close to acheiving God's standard. We are standing before God with garments of fig leaves saying "See God, I clothed myself, aren't you happy?" When what we need to do is fall before Him, and acknowledge our sinfulness and need to be clothed by Him. When we do that, God shows mercy on us and clothes us with new clothes - the blood of Christ, our righteousness. In the Garden of Eden, God removed the man-made clothes of Adam and Eve and killed an animal to give them clothes of skin. Blood was required to cover up their sin. God demanded a greater blood sacrifice to not just cover sin, but eradicate it. As Christians, we no longer walk around in our man-made fig leaf abominations. Rather we walk around in clothes wrought with blood. Praise God for that! Praise God that we can't earn it! Praise God that we don't have to try and make adequate clothing for ourselves, but that He has graciously provided all we will ever need to be holy before Him!

This week in work

2007-02-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

My first post in February of '07. Work has been kicking my butt this past week. As you may remember (I think I've mentioned it here, anyway) I work for IAP in the IRS files division (the IRS contracted it out in December). This means that we have long rows of files on shelves in our buildings so we can reference certain tax returns from within the last year or two. We just got finished shipping a bunch of these out, so we now have to move everything around to make room for the new stuff. You might be able to guess where this is going. Because I'm one of the only guys in the building (the ratio is something like 2 guys to 15 girls) and the biggest at that, I got picked to do the biggest job. We have these boxes that we call shoe boxes because they're about that size (unless their my shoe boxes, in which case they are about half the size). They weigh around ten pounds each and forty of them fit in one column. As of today, I have probably moved around 45-55 columns. This means I take them off the shelving, put them on a cart, attempt to roll the cart on the catwalk grating without tipping it over, and then unload them back onto some other shelves. I counted and I have at least 39 more columns to move. That's right, that equals approx. 1,160 boxes, weighing approx. 11,600 lbs. cumulatively, lifted twice for a grand total of approx. 23,200 total pounds of lifting that I will have to do in the next two days. Wow, I just realized that's over 11 tons. You may think I'm complaining, but I'm not. It's actually nice to do work that requires physical effort. I feel like I've accomplished something at the end of the day (I ususally work the mail desk). Plus, I haven't needed to go to the gym this whole week. All-in-all, it's been pretty good.

Tea

2007-01-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

I think I'm turning into a tea guy. I never would have thought this would happen. I'm not a hot drink kind of guy. But I must say, I like tea. I'm kind of new to it and I haven't tried too many different flavors, but so far I think my favorite is raspberry herbal. It's pretty good. Plus, it doesn't keep me up at night. I just thought I'd share that with you.

II Samuel 17:14

2007-01-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.

Setting: Absalom conspired against David and has driven him from Jeursalem. Ahithophel went to Absalom and forsook David. Hushai is loyal to David and seeks to confound and override Ahitohphel’s good counsel.

In 15:31 David prays that God would turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.

In 17:14 God answers David’s prayer, but not in the way we would expect. Ahithophel still gave good and sound counsel. But God turned this counsel into foolishness in the ears of Absalom and the rest of his advisors. In this verse, we see a glimpse of how God did this. We get a glimpse into the inner workings of Heaven and God. In short, God manipulated man in order to accomplish His purposes

God ordained – This is the decreed will of God. He commanded that Absalom would fail to heed Ahithophel’s counsel. This wasn’t a small matter either. In 16:23 we learn that Ahithophel’s counsel was highly esteemed by both David and Absalom and was like seeking the mind of God. So God’s command required a reversal of thought and attitude that had been built up over time. Absalom and his men went against their own better judgment. God changes our inclinations to effect change in our wills. They followed their strongest inclination (Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards), but God decreed that their strongest inclination be changed. He moves the hearts of men like rivers of water.

God ordained to defeat Ahithophel’s counsel – He defeated it. How? God used human means to bring about His ends. God used Hushai – a faithful follower of David – to bring about Absalom’s death. God did the initial work of changing and hardening their hearts so they would be inclined to listen to Hushai. Then God used Hushai to bring about His ends. How often this is the case in all aspects of life. God uses His creation to help bring about His ends. Even in salvation, God changes the hearts of men, but He uses us to deliver the message. This should give us all the more incentive to be faithful in all aspects of our lives so that God will use us and bless us through that and bring us joy.

God intended to bring harm against Absalom – God is indeed the judge. God metes out punishment. He is not simply a God of love. He is also a God of wrath. We see that He punishes Absalom for his wickedness, and He disciplines David for his sin with Bathsheba (in the death of Absalom). God intended to do this. It pleased God to glorify Himself in bringing harm against a human being by violating his so-called free will to effect His purposes.

God manipulates man and uses us in order to accomplish His purposes.

Contending for the Truth

2007-01-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

That's the name of the 2007 Ligonier National Conference. It features Piper, MacArthur, Mohler, Sproul, and Ravi Zacharias. It's in the middle of March in Orlando. I am definitely going to try to be there. The lineup of speakers and topics alone is enough to make me salivate over it, and then you throw in Orlando at the end of winter (9 straight days of below freezing and counting). It would be totally awesome to be there! We'll see what God has in store.

I promise I'm trying to post regularly

2007-01-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's just not happening for whatever reason. I guess I just haven't had a lot I felt like posting about. Anyway, I had some friends over to watch the Colts-Pats game. It was a lot of fun watching the Colts come back and win it. It was a lot more fun watching it with good friends that were rooting for the same team. Toward the end of the game we cheered so loud that we startled the Kibbey's baby, Reed. So when the Colt's player intercepted the last pass we all cheered quietly and Tim jumped up and hit his hands on my ceiling. We all had a good time. We'll see what the superbowl holds in store for us.

Other things of note: I put in for a promotion at work. The interview went well and I'm just waiting to see what God does with it. I also got the opportunity to witness to a prank caller. It was an interesting conversation. It was some girl and her friends, and she was claiming that I had ditched her at the mall. At first I didn't know whether or not it was a prank call. I thought maybe it was a friend playing a joke on me. God used that to keep me on the line. I kept talking to her and God really put it on my heart to share Him with her. By God's grace, I was able to give her the basic gospel message. I know that God's word won't return void. I only pray that He uses it to convict of sin and lead them to Himself. Whatever the result, I know I learned something from the experience as well. I learned the importance of being ready to give a defense and that you have to take advantage of every opportunity, and I saw again that salvation is only of God. Praise God for that, for if it was up to me, nobody would be saved. But even while it only God that can open the eyes of their hearts, we carry this treasure in jars of clay. I love that whole section of scripture. It declares the greatness of the gospel and our lowliness in order that God might be glorified even in the delivery of the gospel. There is never a time when we can look to ourselves and call ourselves great. We are but jars of clay-pottery-but we carry the greatest treasure of all time. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." (II Cor. 4:7) What an awesome truth. Far be it from me to glory in anything but the cross.

God's change of plans

2007-01-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing when God reveals His will to us!

For the better part of the last two months God has really been working on me and showing me what He wants to do with me. You may remember that I have wanted to go to seminary and go to The Bethlehem Institute. These plans have changed. God has used a sermon by Piper to really effect this change. The sermon is based on Romans 15:18-24 where Paul relates his calling and, as Piper puts it, his "holy ambition." In this section, Paul talks about how he really wants to see the Roman Christians, but he is constrained by His calling and strong desire to preach the name of Jesus where it has not been named. The thing that really struck me about this section is the constrained part. Paul had a strong desire to see the Romans, but because he had an even stronger desire to preach to the unreached he couldn't go to them. I've been talking a lot with Kellen and my parents about this and have been earnestly seeking God's will. I still think it would be awesome to learn from Piper and attend seminary, but my strongest desire by far is to minister in some way to the people in Utah. Utah is not only a physical desert, but it is a spiritual one as well. The people here are lost to the deception of the mormon heresy or they've been so burned by religion that they don't want to have anything to do with God. There is also a very strong satanic subculture that has established itself in the top of Utah. And on top of all of this, the Christians in this area, for the most part, are very lukewarm. I truly think Utah is an oddity in this way. Usually, in areas of persecution (physical, social, or emotional) the Christian community tends to be very strong and united, even if it is small. This is not the case in Utah. There are very few Christian churches in the area, and I believe that there are not very many Christians in those churches. There is very little striving after God and very little desire to plumb the depths of His word. Therefore, my strongest desire is to be used by God to effect change in this area. I believe God is calling me into pastoral ministry and I want to be used here. Of course, God could always change my mind, as He has so many times in the past, but until then this is what I will pursue. I'll probably still try to obtain some seminary level education and I would like to take some Greek and Hebrew courses at Salt Lake Theological Seminary. I'm also being mentored by my dad and sharpened by Kellen and others around me. In the end, God will use me as He sees fit, and I'm completely fine with that :)

My computer is healed!

2007-01-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year everybody! I hope God continues to bless all of you this year and draw you ever nearer to Him.

Well, northern Utah has finally experienced its first really winter storm system. The mountains have gotten snow and the valleys have had a little bit so far, but a couple days ago we got 4-6 inches in only a few hours timeframe. It was pretty cool.

I'm not much of a new year's resolution kind of guy. My family never really did that growing up, so I guess it never became a tradition for me. So, instead of posting some resolutions, I think I'll give some music awards. (Totally similar, right?)

Top 5 Artists/Bands of All Time
In order to qualify for this list, I must have listened to at least two of their cds. One-timers and newbies are left off.
1. Shane and Shane (as if there could be anybody else in this position)
2. Sandra McCracken
3. Matt Redman
4. Thrice
5. Trace Bundy
Runners-up: Underoath, Norah Jones, Further Seems Forever, Johnny Cash

Best Guitarists I Have Ever Seen
1. Trace Bundy (If you think he's amazing when you hear him, you should watch him play. Incredible!)
2. Jason Truby, guitarist for P.O.D. (I saw him pull off a five minute solo flawlessly at a concert one time. Truly a great guitarist.)
3. Shane Barnard (I have never seen anybody do what he does on the guitar and sing like he does at the same time. God has really gifted him.)
4. Kellen Criswell, and Eric Ahern (I know, I know. They're my brothers-in-law, and I'm a little biased. But they are really good, even though they won't admit it.)

Best One and Done of All Time (The Rest in Peace Award)
1. Beloved, cd: Failure On

Best New Artist (New for me anyway, and discovered this past year)
1. Sandra McCracken (Thanks Lauren!)

Best Song to Listen to at the End of a Long Day
1. Rock of Ages (When the Day Seems Long), by Sandra McCracken
2. Say it Ain't So, by Weezer
3. The Long Day is Over, by Norah Jones
4. In a Little While, by U2

Best Song that gets the Adrenaline Pumping (Renamed the Queen Award or the We Will Rock You award)
1. Music Box, by Thrice
2. Running from me, TrustCompany
3. The Earth Will Shake, by Thrice
4. A Moment Suspended in Time, by Underoath

And now the moment you have all been waiting for: the final award of the night.
Best Albums of All Time
These are the cds that I can listen to over and over again and never tire of them. If I were stranded on a desert island, these are the cds I would want with me.
1. Tie between Clean and An Evening with Shane and Shane, by Shane and Shane
2. The Builder and the Architect, by Sandra McCracken
3. Facedown, by Matt Redman
4. Silence, by Blindside
5. Adapt, by Trace Bundy
Runners-up: The Illusion of Safety, by Thrice; The Lonely Position of Neutral, by TrustCompany, The Pride and Prejudice Soundtrack; any other Shane and Shane cd (I thought I should only pick one or two of them for the top five); MMHMM, by Reliant K

That just about does it for me. I welcome discussion, comments, or jokes aimed at my musical tastes (or lack thereof, depending on your view).

Some recent happenings

2006-12-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm at my parent's again and thus I will write a short blog entry. I hope your Christmases have all gone well. Kellen and Jen are due to arrive in a few hours and will stay through the new year. My Christmas was pretty good. We didn't do anything too special because we're waiting on the aforementioned Kellen and Jen (is that one word or too?). We just hung out and ate food. All in all, a good day. Sunday was really cool though. I went skeet shooting with some friends from church. It was my first time shooting a shot gun. I did pretty good for my first time though. I hit probably six out of twenty-five. I definitely feel more like a man now. I think I might need to go out and get me a shotgun now. It was really fun. Anyway, I need to get going. My aunt, grandma, and cousin are here and we are about to watch Christmas in Connecticut. Mind you, this is not the old version. This is the new version with Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson. I'll leave it at that :)

Hey everybody!

2006-12-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back. I haven't died or anything, but my computer did. At least that's my excuse for not posting any time recently. I can turn it on, but the keyboard and touchpad don't work. I just sent it back to the manufacturer yesterday, so hopefully I'll get it back soon and working. There have been a lot of things going on recently. I'm in the middle of planning a missions conference for May 13th. My work schedule changed recently and I'm now working 6:00 am to 2:30 pm. I don't like getting up so early, but I do like my afternoons. I also turn 23 tomorrow. In fact, as I write this I'm at my parents house and we're going to have a family thing tonight because I'm pretty busy the next two nights. I'm not too big on my birthday. I don't like to make a big deal out of it or have a big party or anything. I would like to think that it's because I'm just a really humble guy and I don't like being the center of attention. But I know that isn't the case. So I don't really know why I don't make a big deal out of it. Or perhaps that's what I'm doing right now? The world may never know. Kellen and Jen are also coming to visit over New Years. So we are going to celebrate Christmas then with them. I figure the day doesn't really matter as long as you're celebrating it with family. I'm really excited for that.

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel convicted for focusing on Christ's birth mainly during this time of the year? It just seems like I don't think about the incarnation more during the rest of the year. The incarnation is inextricably linked with Christ's oblation and should be as much of a focus for us as the cross is, but yet I don't think much about it until I come across those passages that talk about the incarnation and, of course, Christmas time.

Anyway, I better get going. Merry Christmas to everyone and may the glory of Christ be on all your minds and in all your hearts. And may you all have a great holiday season.

Beta

2006-12-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I've decided to switch to the new blogger beta. I like the customizability (that's not a word, is it?). I also started a new blog titled In season and out of season at letusreturn.blogspot.com. I didn't really mean to, it just kind of happened when I was trying to switch over from old blogger to new. I don't really know if I'm going to keep it going (I kind of doubt I will since I can't update this blog regularly). Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

Check this out

2006-11-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

You have to watch this video. It's of a guy named Trace Bundy, who is an absolutely amazing guitarist. I've known about him for a while, but I just watched some of his stuff on youtube. It's incredible. You have to see it to believe it. Check out some of his other stuff while you're there. You won't be disappointed.

Kellen and Jen's visit

2006-11-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

It was great having Kellen and Jen down to visit for the weekend. Kellen and I spent pretty much the entire time just hanging out and talking, we even caught a movie (The Prestige, pretty dark and disturbing). Jen got in some much needed shopping (Salmon, ID doesn't have too much to offer. Not even a Wal-mart [gasp!]). And we just spent a lot of time together as a family. It felt kind of like Christmas or Thanksgiving having the whole family descend on my parents' house like that. Anyway, I got some good pictures (can you tell I like my new camara)

This is my sisters and their husbands and a couple that are really good friends with Kellen and Jen

These are my sisters. Keri on the left and Jen on the right

Here are my brothers-in-law with my sisters. Kellen is on the left and Eric on the right.

And this is the updated family picture. From left - my dad and mom, Kellen, Jen, me, Keri, and Eric.

And this one is Kellen playing my guitar. Both he and Eric are far better guitarists than I am.

Anyway, that was my weekend. I thought about posting a picture with my ankle wrapped in ice (my football injury) also, but I thought better about it. Perhaps a little too graphic ;-) You'll all thank me later.

Some more pictures

2006-11-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

I am including these for the orographically challenged.

This is the east side of the Wasatch range

This is the view from the valley where my parents live

This is Snowbasin ski resort. My brother-in-law, Eric, works up there.

This is the same range and resort from the road over the mountains

This is Weber Canyon. I have to drive through this to get to my parents'

And the Lord makes them tremble at the sound of His voice. What a great and awesome God we serve. I think that's why He gave us mountains. So that we could see how much bigger than us God is and how much more powerful.

A random thought

2006-11-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

I left the tv on while I took a shower and attempted to recover from football, and The Wizard of Oz came on. And I had an interesting thought. Wouldn't walking around in ruby shoes really hurt. There wouldn't be any flex, probably no arch support, and absolutely no cushioning. Why would anyone want to wear them. And why didn't the wicked witch of the east ever use the shoes? I'm beginning to get quite skeptical of the whole situation.

I have some pictures forthcoming and I hope to post them soon.

Kellen and Jen

2006-11-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

are coming down for the weekend!!! I'm really excited. It's also great because they'll get in tonight and I have tomorrow off for Veterans' day. So I can spend the entire weekend with them. Totally looking forward to it. It'll be really good to see them again.

In other unrelated news: I have found that the best thing to listen to on the way home from work and at home is Blues and/or Cool Jazz. I listened to some B.B King on the way home and I'm listening to Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, right now. Very relaxing. I highly recommend it. Any other suggestions for wind-down music? I also like classical, but I'm not too well versed in the different composers.

Well, gotta go. Plenty of things to do. God bless.

A view from my parent's house

2006-11-06T16:41:00.000-07:00

Just getting the whole posting pictures to your blog thing figured out

This is the view from my parent's house in Huntsville

Unfortunately, I didn't get any mountains in the picture, but I'm sure I'll be posting some of those as well.

Vote

2006-11-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is a great article by Piper on why we should vote, even if the candidates aren't great. I don't yet know who I am going to vote for tomorrow, but I am going to vote. I'm not voting ignorantly either. I'll know who and why before I actually do.

Friday

2006-11-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

I put a guy in jail. I don't want to get into the long version, but I saw a guy hit his wife and I called the police. He was in jail last night. I don't know where he is now, if he's still in there, if he's out, or what. Pray for him and his family. Pray that they might see their need for Christ through this.