God's change of plans

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Basketball season

has begun. I just might start rooting for the Bulls too. Which is something I never thought I would do. But they played really good team ball and good defense - yes, Micah, defense. They passed the ball a lot and played really unselfishly. It was just to watch. Or maybe it was the fact that they laid the hammer down on the Heat. That was pretty cool. Dewayne Wade is pretty cool, but I can no longer root for Shaq. I liked him when he was on the Lakers, but ever since he left, I can't stand him. Or perhaps I should say I tolerated him?

And for dinner tonight, I actually ate a salad without my mom making it for me. Albeit, the lettuce was bagged and not a whole head. And a salad by my definition consists of lettuce, olives, cheese, and dressing. I don't like all the other vegetables that most people put on salads. I guess that kind of diminishes the quality, but I'm making strides.

Go Lakers!

Ephesians 2:8

Have you ever noticed the first word of Ephesians 2:8? I was just reading over it and it really struck me and I had to share it with you. It starts out with the word "For." This means that there is a direct connection with the verses before it. And this struck me as a little odd. The verses beforehand talk about how Christ saved us when we were dead and how we now receive this immeasureable gift from Him. And so the question came to my mind, why does Paul go from talking about the immeasurable riches of His grace and then jump into the means of our salvation? I think the reason why Paul does this is because we can't receive these riches if our salvation had anything to do with us. In other words, if we had anything to do with our own salvation then we would be ineligible for the riches of His grace. I know that this isn't something new, but it just really struck me and jumped out at me. How awesome is our God! How rich is His love for us! It just blows my mind.

Quick Update

I don't really know what I want to talk about. I just wanted to update the blog. Kind of sad, huh? I guess there just isn't much going on in the old brain. Actually, there has been a lot of stuff going on recently, I just don't really want to blog about it. But I do want to post something on Psalm 18 soon. I've really been impacted by it and how it is an amazing statement of the sufficiency of Christ. And speaking of the Psalms, I love 4:7 - "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." We do indeed have a greater source of joy than the world could ever imagine. And yet how often do I turn away from God and toward the world to find my joy? This is a great verse to hold on to, at least for me. It helps me remember the source of my greatest joy and that it is far better than anything the world can offer.

Down and Out

Lately I've been feeling pretty run down. I think I have some bug that's been going around. It's kind of a flu/cold bug. The lack of heat in my house probably hasn't helped matters either. I don't think I've been hit too hard with it, but it just won't go away. So today, I left work really early and have just hung out at my house for the most part. Which turned out to be a very good thing. I got online around 3:00 today (during which I would normally be working) and when I went to change the site address I accidentally hit the MSN messenger icon at the top of the screen. I decided to sign in just for the heck of it and by God's providence John, the Lebonese missionary my church supports, was online at the same time. We ended up chatting for about 30 minutes before he had to go to bed (it was 1 am his time). It was a really good conversation. It was good to connect with him and see how he was doing over there. We struck up a friendship when he was here in August and his example has been really encouraging for me. He is a year younger than I am and he has lived in Lebanon for three years. If the Lord wills, I want to go over there for a few weeks in May and evangelize and help him. Keep him in your prayers because it is a volitile situation over there. It even appears that Hamas tried to abduct him last week. He is also on his own much of the time that he is evangelizing and he could use some help and encouragement along the way. It is amazing though to see the work that God is doing through him. More and more people are coming to know Christ over there, including former muslims. It truly is amazing. God is indeed a sovereign God and He will build His kingdom in even the most spiritually inhospitable areas.

No Heat

I don't have heat in my house. The heater is broken. And the weather just turned cold so it is about freezing in the morning. My friends (the landlords) called to get somebody out here to figure out what's wrong with it, but that won't happen for another week. And to add to the chill, I have a bunch of big windows that apparently aren't very well insulated. I think I might have to start drinking hot beverages. But I draw the line at coffee. I'll drink tea and hot chocolate and maybe other things that are hot, but not coffee. I'm not that desperate...yet.

On a better note, I led my first missions committee meeting the other day. It went really well and we're trying to get some things going and start donating more money. I'm also going to try to organize an annual or semi-annual missions conference and a monthly missions prayer meeting. If the Lord wills, this will all get off the ground and I could be really busy in the near future. But I'll have to wait and see what He does.

Success

"Success...was the only god the entire world served."

A line from the beginning of Elizabethtown. All too true, especially in America. Unfortunately, it also seems to be partly true of the church as well. The church today listens to the voice of pragmatism and "what works" instead of the voice of God that declares "I will build my church" and "I am the source of its growth." Success is how the world determines what is good. What is good, what is of God, is how the Christian determines success. Until the church throws off its ties to the world and its adultery with its ideals, we will continue to flounder in lukewarm theology and lives. We must return to God like the Gomer we are if we do not wish to be spit out and become a dead and barren land.

Psalm 1

I'll apoligize in advance for the length. I couldn't help myself. I've just been really impacted and convicted by this psalm recently.

Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

In this Psalm we see a description of the righteous and of the wicked. I think that the first thing to note is the fact that there is no middle ground represented in this psalm. You are either a wicked man or a righteous one. This dichotomy is demonstrated throughout scripture. We are either children of God or children of satan (John 8:44-47). We are either of the flock or not (John 10). We are either slaves to sin or slaves of righteousness (Romans 6). We either listen and follow or we don’t (John 10 and I John 4). Therefore, I think that we should pay very close attention to what this psalm is saying about these two classes of people.

The first thing we see is a description of the righteous man. He is blessed. And the reason that he is blessed is because of what he does and what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t walk in the counsel or the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers. Rather, in direct contrast, he delights in the law of the LORD and meditates upon it day and night. Here we see another dichotomy. Delighting in and meditating on the word are contrasted with walking in the counsel of the wicked, etc. In short we either listen to and love the word of God, or we heed the advice of the wicked. Again there is no middle ground. This is an incredibly important statement. We are told here that if we do not delight in the word of God and meditate on it constantly, then we are walking in the counsel of the wicked and are not blessed. If we are Christians, then we must love the word of God and seek to immerse our hearts and minds in it constantly. This is repeated multiple times in the New Testament as well. We are told in John 10 that if we are of God then we will listen to Jesus’ voice and follow it. This is repeated in I John 4. We must love to read the word of God. If we don’t then how can we claim that the Spirit of God dwells within us, and how can we claim any assurance of our salvation. God’s word is life to us and we must love it. It must be our delight, and if it is then we will desire to read it often and meditate upon it day and night.

If this is true of us, then the rest of the description of the righteous man will be true of us as well. The first thing that is said of us is that we will be like a tree planted by streams of water. This is contrasted with the wicked man who has no such stability, but is blown about by the winds of this world. If we are righteous, then we will have stability in this world. I don’t mean physical stability, but spiritual. We will be anchored. I think part of the meaning of this is echoed in Ephesians 4 when it says that as we grow in spiritual maturity we will cease to be blown about by every doctrine of man, but we will stand secure upon the true teachings of the word. I think this also applies to the trials that come our way. If we are as a tree and not blown about by the world, then we will be able to endure the trials that come our way and not forsake God, but will remain strong in Him. I think the fact that we are planted by streams of water is also significant. The water is what feeds the tree and allows it to grow big and strong. We are fed by the word and it is the word that allows us to grow in spiritual maturity. The water also gives life and it is by the word that we receive life (Romans 10).

We are also told that the tree produces its fruit in its season. If we are counted as righteous, then we will bear fruit. It isn’t enough to just say that we believe in Christ, we must produce the fruit that that confession leads to. If we aren’t bearing fruit, then we must ask if we were the tree in the first place, because if we are like this tree, then we will bear fruit. This is the sign of a good and healthy tree. A dead tree bears no fruit. Only a tree fed by water can bear fruit and it is only through this life giving water that keeps the tree alive and enables it to bear fruit. So it is with us. If we are not constantly fed with the word, then we lose the power to produce fruit. We must be filled with the word of God.

The next thing that we see is that the leaf of this tree does not wither. A leaf withering is a sign of hibernation and a loss of life to the leaf. A withering leaf is a sign of death. How awesome a promise this is! We do not go into hibernation nor do we suffer death. We will not die spiritually. We will always be filled with life and this will be evident to the external world. A withering leaf is the sign to the world that fall is upon us and winter is soon to come. We know that life has left the leaf when it begins to wither. This is not the case with us. The world should never be able to say of us that the life of Christ has left us and that we are dying. We should always demonstrate true life to the world. They should look at us and see that we possess a life that they do not.

This is not so of the wicked. They do not have any of this, and because of that, they share no inheritance with the righteous. They have no part in us. There is no place for them with us when the judgment comes. They will face eternal destruction and death. Verse 6 tells us that way is not known by the Father, but, rather, it will perish.

This is not true of us. Our way is known by God. We are known by Almighty God. He knows us intimately. He determines our path (Proverbs 16:9). We walk with Him and He knows us. And because He knows us, we are told in John that He calls us and we follow Him. Because He knows us, we know Him and we have an intimate relationship with Him and, through Him, we know the Father. Because of this knowledge we can love Christ in the same manner that the Father loves Christ and Christ is within us (John 17:26). I cannot fathom the depth of this relationship. We are married to Christ. He abides in us and us in Him. What an awesome truth! So we must pay heed to our attitude toward the word. Do we delight in the word and meditate on it day and night? If we do, then all this will be true of us and the promises of God will be real for us. We are given an amazing promise if we delight in the word and are Christians. We are told that in all we do, we will prosper. God will cause all things to turn out for good for us. We cannot fail in this because the promises of God cannot fail. Even if we don’t see an immediate prospering, we can know for sure that we will prosper in the end, because we were promised by God. So we must pursue the knowledge and love of God.