Postmodernism's Delimma: Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I'm Back!

Sorry it’s been such a long time since my last post. A lot has happened since then. I moved out and my house doesn’t have internet yet, so that is why I haven’t been able to post. In fact, I’m writing this on Monday and it probably won’t be posted until Tuesday. I’m also writing this from Salmon, Idaho. I had a three-day weekend at work (government workers get Columbus day off!) so I spent it hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law. Right now, I am sitting on their couch, looking out their windows at some beautiful scenery. It’s just past sunrise and there are some clouds against the mountains. It is a great place to just relax and enjoy God’s creation. I’ve also had a great time with Kellen and Jen and I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye in a few short hours. We spent some time touring the small town of Salmon, Kellen and I have watched some good football, we’ve watched small herds of deer cross their field (we scattered a couple herds on the way to breakfast), I helped lead Kellen’s stepdad’s horses in, and we’ve spent a lot of time just talking and enjoying each other. In short, it was a great weekend. I only wish it was longer.

As far as moving out goes, I am renting the top half of a friend’s house. They are living in the nicer mother-in-law quarters and are letting me rent out the top half at a great price. The day I moved out, I went to a bunch of thrift stores with my family and got some great deals on furniture. I even found a couch in really good condition for only $35! I’m really happy about that one. My house is completely furnished now. My mom also furnished me with a ton of food, so I am all set. I love my mom. And we’re not just talking Ramen noodles (although I have a ton of those). She cooked me a bunch of homemade stuff and froze it for me. I don’t think I’ll be missing home-cooking for about a month. Kind of kills the whole being on your own thing, though. Eventually I’ll run out and I’ll actually have to start cooking for myself. That should be an adventure. We’ll be getting internet at my house hopefully by Thursday or Friday. I’m looking forward to being connected to the world again. I’ve actually had to try to find things to do apart from going online. It’s been horrible ;) All jesting aside, though, it will be nice to check my e-mails and hopefully I’ll blog a bit more consistently. Oh, I almost forgot. During the move I injured my knee again. I say again because three years ago I blew out my left knee while playing basketball. I didn’t blow it out this time, but I definitely banged it up pretty good. In my parents house we have a wood burning stove and my dad absolutely loves getting wood for it and chopping it and doing the whole lumberjack thing. While we were moving my dresser into our van, I was walking backwards and didn’t see one of the rounds. I tripped over it and fell and the dresser slammed into my knee and momentarily pinned it against the log. It hurt pretty bad and I wasn’t able to lift anything heavy for the rest of the day. I think I got a bad bone bruise, but other than that it seems to be okay. Funny how these things tend to happen when you don’t have medical insurance. And that brings up another point about my job.

Some of you may know that I work for the IRS. Don’t worry, I only file your returns, I don’t audit or do anything that would cause people to hate me. But my department is getting contracted out. So I had to interview with the contractor a couple weeks ago in order to keep my job. I guess I didn’t interview too well because I am getting demoted. Fortunately, it won’t happen until the end of November. But when it does happen, if I take their benefits package I will make almost $3 less per hour. If I don’t take their package, I will make almost the same amount. Basically, I need to find a better job. So if any of you hear of a good job, feel free to let me know. I don’t mind moving out of state either. But, if nothing else comes up, I guess I'll have to be content with what God gives me. I know that if God had wanted me to get a better position with the new company, then He would have made it happened. So I'll rejoice in what the Lord has brought my way.

Over the last week and a half I’ve also been growing closer to God. Amazing how reading more of the word will do that. I’m such a lazy Christian. Anyway, I’ll probably be posting more about that as soon as I get internet at my house. Until then, God bless.

I am not repeating myself

I am not repeating myself, oh man, I'm repeating myself. I can't remember what movie that was in, but whatever it is, it's a good one. Just letting you know, I'm not going crazy with the last two posts, blogger is just having a problem and I didn't think the first post went through. Or maybe I am going crazy. You never can know.

Worship Practice

I have now become one of those guys that sits in the coffee shop working on my computer, surfing the net, etc. Except I don't drink coffee. And if I am drinking something, it's usually a cold drink that barely tastes like coffee. I like the smell, just can't stand the taste.

Tonight was my first time leading worship practice with a real team. By the grace of God it went really well. There is one guy who sings on the team who is just an amazing vocalist and makes everything related to vocals so easy. I also planned three hymns. I think that might be a record for our church. Lord willing, everything will go as smoothly on Sunday as it did tonight. But that usually isn't the case. But in the end, it isn't about me or about how I do or how the team does on Sunday. As a worship team our highest desire is to be invisible and to just get out of the way. Ironically, that means plenty of work needs to be put in in order to not be noticed. Pray that God would humble us and prepare us for Sunday and that He would work through us to impact the congregation.

Also, it's been over a week since I got my first Sandra McCracken cd and I have yet to replace it in my car with anything other than some songs that I needed to listen to for worship. That means that I haven't even been listening to as much Shane and Shane recently. That is pretty impressive. Her other cd that I got, "Gravity," is also really good. My new old S&S cd, "Rocks Won't Cry," is also really good. I highly recommend it. My mom needs to get on the computer now, so I better log off. Until the next time, God bless.

More Piper

I am now the guy at the coffee shop with a computer doing stuff on the internet or writing papers, or whatnot. I am now that guy. Except I'm not drinking coffee. If I am drinking something, it would have to be a cold drink that doesn't taste much like coffee. Just can't stand it. Today, I am about to lead my first worship practice in about 2 hours. Keep me and the rest of the team in prayer as we prepare to lead the people of God in praise of our God. Especially pray for humility for me, because I know how susceptible I am to pride in my life. Speaking of pride, I listened to another couple of Piper sermons today at work and in the second of the two he dealt with I John 2:15-17. Tons of good stuff, but I'll just talk a little bit about "the pride of life." He explained that the pride John was talking about wasn't pride in having life, but looking at the greek word and examining its other uses, he demonstrated that the pride we have is pride in goods or our livlihood. As he explained, the two major catagories of our sin, into which all sin falls, is the desire for what we do not have and pride over what we do have. As the verses go on, we see that these are of the world and the world is passing away. We also have a command from John to abstain from these and love/obey God. Here again, we don't have some command that just limits our fun and happiness. We have a loving command that exhorts us to seek that which is eternal and not what is temporal. He also did a fantastic job of showing that when John talks about faith it is linked completely to our love and obedience of God. Basically, John cannot imagine a saving faith that isn't centered around the love of God, and if we truly love God then we must have saving faith. You can't have one without the other. There is no separation of faith and the love of God which must result in good works otherwise our faith wasn't real. I know I can't do justice to the way Piper said it, but it was really good. It's sermons like that that make me wonder why I aspire to be a preacher. I know I don't have his gift. But, God has commanded us (lovingly) to be faithful in what He has given us no matter how much He has given us. Instead of being jealous, I need to rejoice in what God has given to us through Piper and continually seek the growth of the talents He has given me through the grace of God.

Also, Piper's new book just came out, "What God Commands of the World." It looks really good. Add another book to the list.

A few thing of note continued

Just watching the start of Monday Night Football, and I'm wondering why Bono looks like Justin Timberlake...

I have some big news. I am actually moving out. In fact, Lord willing, I'm moving out this week. Some friends of mine bought a house that has a mother-in-law apartment. They are going to live in the downstairs apartment and I'm going to rent out the top from them. It's pretty exciting. I'm going to be a lot closer to both church and work (although I think it would be hard to get farther away). I'm going to have to get some furniture for the living room, but the kitchen has all the major appliances. I guess maybe I should get a table too, or something. Anyway, I think it will be fun. I'll get to see how well I manage my money when I have to pay rent :) Check back in for pleas for food.

A few things of note

I found out last week that at work I was going to be moved within my own unit to a different area. I wasn't too excited about it. I'm not trying to complain, but my job is pretty boring already and it just got a little more boring. I really wanted to just be mad at my managers and let them all know what I thought about moving me. But, by the grace of God, I didn't and instead really focused on Colossians 3:23 and applied it to my life last week. I found that focusing on God allowed me to be content in the midst of a less than perfect situation. Imagine that! When I lay down my pride and find my joy in humbly obeying the loving commands of God, I really am joyful and I can respond in a godly manner and not destroy my witness. I also found out today that even though the job is more boring, the fact that it doesn't require much mental activity (read: mindless) allowed me to listen to two Piper sermons today. I'm listening to his series on I John. So far, it is really good. In the sermon I listened to today, he said that the reason why we don't obey God's commands is because we are seeking our own happiness away from the will of God. We don't believe or understand that God's commands flow from His love for us and if we really want to be happy and experience the love of God, then we will obey Him. This is the sign of being a true believer: finding your joy and happiness in the loving commands of God. It was a convicting sermon, to say the least, especially in light of my recent struggles at work. All that to say, God is using for good what I thought was a horrible situation. Why is it that being a Calvinist I seem to have less faith in God than most of the Christians I meet? Shouldn't my belief in an absolutely sovereign God have more of an affect on my daily life? My faith is so weak. Praise God, for He is a merciful and patient God that has chosen to use me despite and through my weak faith. To Him be the glory.

More about music?

I wanted you all to know that I have now become the proud owner of all cds that could reasonably be called shane and shane cds. I've owned Carried Away, Psalms, Upstairs, Clean, and An Evening with Shane & Shane for a while now, but I just got the new sampler with them doing bluegrass with the Peasall Sisters and the first Shane Barnard cd, Rocks Won't Cry. RWC has Shane Everett doing some back-up vocals so it can be called an S&S cd. I highly recommend...all of them. Can you really choose between them? They're all amazing. I also highly recommend seeing them in concert if you can. It is a truly worshipful time. Unfortunately, they aren't coming back to Utah anytime soon. I guess if I want to see them I better just move to Texas. I think they've done about a half-dozen concerts there over the last few months. Texas is so lucky.

Also, I'm leading worship at my church Sunday after next. No, I'm not playing any S&S songs (I wish I was good enough). Our worship leader is going to be out of town that day and he asked me to step in. I'm really looking forward to it. I just hope that I'll get out of the way and God will be shown glorious and exalted through me and the rest of the team.

More new music!

For those who don't know, I bought a couple of cds by Sandra McCracken. I just got "The Architect and the Builder" in the mail yesterday and I have listened to it about half a dozen times since then. It is a great cd. This cannot be overstated. Most of the songs are old hymns and she wrote new music for them. Naturally, the lyrics are great and the music is awesome. Her voice is beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Have to go.

A Thought on Paper

A quick thought:
I was talking about the brightness of white paper with Tim today (don't worry it was in jest, we weren't seriously talking about paper brightness) and a thought struck me as I drove home. What defines the brightness of the paper isn't anything intrinsic about the paper itself. In other words, the brightness of the paper doesn't eminate from the paper like it would from a light bulb. Instead the brightness of paper is measured by how much light it reflects. The more light it reflects, the brighter it is considered. This is like us. We are not holy or righteous intrinsically. We have none on our own. The depth of our holiness and righteousness can only be measured by how much and how accurately we reflect the Light. Our righteousness is not our own, it comes from an outside Source. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Christ is the source of our righteousness. The depth to which the world sees this righteousness depends on how well we reflect Christ. Now, I'm assuming some things here, but I think that one of the things that would reduce the brightness of paper would be impurities in it. If I'm right, then the analogy becomes even more vivid. What reduces our ability to reflect the Light is our impurities. The more pure we are, the more capable we are of reflecting Christ. This brightness must also be seen. When light strikes a piece of paper that light reflects back to our eyes and it is there that we see the brightness. As Christians, we receive our brightness from Christ, but that brightness doesn't stop with us, it reflects back to the eyes of the world. We are witnesses to the glory of God and God has chosen us to reveal Him to the world. We need to be an accurate representation of the Light and be bright. Our impurities must be removed so that we can be sine cere and demonstrate Christ to the world.

Fall's Back!

After a brief hiatus, Fall is back in town. The weather has warmed up a little bit, although I still have to scrape the ice off of my car every morning. The sun is shining, the breeze is cool, but not too cold, the colors are vibrant and the air is fresh. It's wonderful. I love it. Especially since I'm not in class or doing homework right now. It's great. A quick update on my paper on relativism. I've written about five pages so far but I'm not very happy with the last couple pages. I think it will be easier to just delete them and rewrite them rather than try to edit them into something workable. Hopefully I'll have it done sometime soon, though. Also, I hope to post on something more serious in the next few days, but lately I haven't wanted to post on what I've been thinking about. We'll see what happens over the next few days.

Talk to you later and God bless.

The end of fall?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that white substance on the mountains is indeed snow. In fact, we even got some of that white stuff at my house, which is at about 5,000 feet. But, I don't think this is the end of fall yet. It's supposed to get up to 75 in the middle of the week and I'm looking forward to some good fall weather. Even so, I heard that this is the earliest it has snowed here in 70 years! That's incredible to me.

Other than that, pretty good day. I went to a friend's wedding. It was a good wedding and my family and I spent a lot of time with some friends at the reception. We had a really good time. It's getting a little late so I think I'll keep this short tonight. May God grant you all a blessed Sunday.

Update

If you've been reading this, then you know that I posted a while ago about calling a person that had something against me. I got a call back from that person last Saturday. Unfortunately I was in the middle of moving Kellen and Jen and didn't have the time to really talk about the situation, but I made sure that he wanted to talk about it and I told him I would call him back early the next week. By the grace of God I followed through and called him back Monday afternoon. Again, I didn't reach him, but I left a message. This time he called back within a couple hours. We ended up talking about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, there was no reconciliation at the end of the conversation. It brings me a great deal of sadness that the situation is what it is. I believe that throughout the conversation, by the grace of God, I was humble and loving toward him. But, in the end, we were still on opposite sides of a very personal issue. After analyzing the issue again, and through much prayer, I cannot change my position. I believe that it would be sacrificing truth on the alter of peace to change my stance. I am deeply sorrowful over the situation and long for our fellowship and friendship to be restored. I leave it in God's hands. He will do what He will in this situation and in our hearts. I only ask that you pray for humility in me to see the truth and will of God and the faith to follow wherever that will might lead. Praise our Lord and Savior! He is indeed over and above all situations and can turn the hearts of men like rivers of water! There is none like Him! He will have His way, I cannot thwart it! He gives and He takes away. Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Fall

There are few things better than the smell of the beginning of a storm and the rain hitting dry dirt? Or the freshness just after the rain. The feeling of a cool breeze can't be beat either. I love fall. The hills are on fire with reds and oranges and yellows. It's getting cooler and the weather is beginning to change. I think this is my favorite time of the year.

Cut Capo

A couple nights ago, I made a cut capo for myself! I know, I know. You're all incrediblely excited for me. It's absolutely amazing. Seriously, though, I am pretty excited about it. If you don't know what a capo is, it basically makes it easier to play in certain keys by covering all the strings across a fret. The cut capo only covers three strings making an Esus chord. Basically, it makes it possible to play one-finger chords and do some cool things. Plus, Shane Bernard (or is Barnard) uses one on some of his songs. I'm pretty excited about it.

Bittersweet Farewell

I now know what that phrase means. We left Salmon today at 3 p.m. and got home about an hour ago. It was really hard to say goodbye. But, we know that it isn't forever. We'll talk a lot and I might even go back up there in a month. But our lives won't be the same and we won't get to see them nearly as much as we want to. But it was sweet in that we know that they are doing what God desires of them and they are embracing it with joy. We rejoice with them, but we are sad to see them leave. But, as Kellen's mom said, we will have forever, this life is just a vapor. I can't wait for heaven. To see my savior, to worship Him perfectly, to enjoy perfect fellowship with all the saints as we worship God. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait!

Our time in Salmon was really good. I got to ride up with Kellen in his old, beat-up car and we had a good time. We didn't have A/C but the weather was just about perfect. We rolled the windows down and just cruised. Unloading all their stuff went pretty easy. Bill, Kellen's step-dad, cooked some great meals (ham the first night, salmon and elk steaks today). It was a really good weekend. But I am exhausted physically and emotionally. I'm glad I took tomorrow off.

I hope that you all had great Sundays. God Bless.

The Soul's Delight

Be still, my soul
Find rest, my soul
You have been led by still waters
Drink deep, my soul
Be restored

Shout joyfully, my soul
Sing praise, my soul
To the King of all ages
Rejoice, my soul
And be glad

Why cast down, my soul?
Hope in God, my soul
Send out Your light and truth
Praise Him, my soul
Be overjoyed

I will seek You, O God
I see Your glory, O God
Your steadfast love is better than life
I will praise You, O God
O God, my God

Greekfest!!

Today was the Salt Lake City Greekfest! The Greekfest is awesome! This is the third or fourth straight year I've been to it. Or something like that. Anyway, we try to go every year. Tonight was also Kellen and Jen's last day in Utah. We leave tomorrow morning. They love the Greekfest so much that they planned their departure date so that they could still go to it. We went with some friends, had some great food, had some great desert, toured the Greek Orthodox Church, and talked to Father Matthew about Greek Orthodoxy. To boil it down, I basically found out that Greek Orthodoxics (Orthodoxians, Orthodoxites? who knows?) don't believe that Christ paid the full penalty for our sins. They believe that it simply bought the opportunity for salvation for all of us and we have to work (although they wouldn't use that term) the rest of the way. In other words, it's basically the same as infused grace as opposed to imputed grace. It was a very interesting conversation. We were encouraged to e-mail our questions to him and I think I'll take him up on that. Anyway, we ate tons of food and had a really good time together. I'm looking forward to next year. Jen and Kellen are already planning on being back in town for it.

I think there was someting I wanted to post about but now I've forgotten it. Don't you hate it when that happens? I'm really enjoying reading "A Case for Amillenialism." It's challenging and very interesting. Looking forward to getting more in depth on the subject.

Well, I'll be travelling to Salmon, Idaho tomorrow so I won't be posting for a few days (what else is new?). May God bless you and be near to you. His nearness is our good.

New Beginnings

I just started that paper I mentioned earlier. I really enjoyed writing an introduction to a paper like that. I can't believe that I'm actually missing that. Inconceivable! Anyway, I haven't written anything past the intro but its a start. Starting is usually the hardest part for me. Now we'll just see how long it takes to finish it.

I also just started "A Case for Amillenialism" by Kim Riddlebarger a couple days ago. I'm only two chapters in, but I can tell that it is definitely going to challenge almost everything I grew up believing about the tribulation, rapture, and millenium. It might be hard, but I'm submitted to the word of God and will go where He leads me. You can pray for understanding for me and humility to continue to submit to the word and will of God.

Today was also Cordell's first worship practice. It will be different without Kellen leading us, but I think God is teaching me that it isn't about the person leading music, but the God we worship. He is the center of our worship. I think I get caught up too much in the physical and temporal, especially in areas like this. It certainly is a time of submitting to God in all things right now.

The Last Sunday

Yesterday was Jen and Kellen's last Sunday at CCC. It's hard to even write about it without tearing up. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for them. But it's sad to see them go at the same time. Plenty of tears were shed by me and my family. I think I'll be spending a lot more time on the phone then I used to. At least I better. I'll be talking to them quite a bit. We will be moving them up to Idaho on Saturday and spending the weekend with them. So this week is going to be really packed. There are two going away parties for them, Bible Study on Wednesday and worship practice with the new leader, Friday is the Greekfest in SLC and Saturday we leave. Definitely busy.

I also ended up in a pretty interesting discussion last night after the college/young adult group meeting. We meet at the pastor's house and I ended up talking with the pastor and a friend of mine about covenantalism and dispensationalism. My friend and I were on the covenental side and my pastor was on more of the dispensational side, although he isn't a hard-liner or anything. We agree on a lot of things. It was a good argument that lasted about two-and-a-half hours. To kind of give some background on me, I wouldn't really call myself a covenantalist or a dispensationalist, although I'm pretty sympathetic to the covenantal side. I grew up not learning much about either side and am just now starting to really dig into it. So, I'm looking for insights and information from those more familiar with the whole debate. Specific verses that either side uses, books, etc. Anything would be helpful. I'm really interested in learning more about covenantalism. I can't believe that I haven't heard more about it until now, especially since I've been a five-pointer since I was a teenager. Anyway, that was my Sunday.

A few random oddities

I just saw the newest Burger King commercial with their mascot "The King" doing a press conference with Drew Rosenhaus, who is Terrell Owens agent. It may not be very funny for non-football fans or those who haven't seen Rosenhaus' press conference last year. But for me, it was hilarious. Those Burger King commericials are kind of hit or miss with me (mostly miss) but this one was pretty funny.

I realized today that even though I don't miss going to school, I do miss parts of it. I was driving home and I thought of a really good topic for a paper. I just finished reading David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs (which is a great book) and was thinking about the postmodern view of relativity and realized that it is definitially impossible. As I thought about it I started putting an argument together and developing an outline. I thought that would be a great topic for a philosophy paper. Maybe I'll write it anyway for the heck of it and for the practice of writing papers. Who would have thought that I, of all people, would miss writing papers? If I do write it, I think I'll send it to one of my philosophy professors and see what his reaction to it is. Maybe it will open up an avenue for talking about God.

Speaking of talking about God, I went out with a few people from my church Wednesday and passed out some tracts in downtown Ogden. John (the lebanese missionary), Don, and I ended up talking to a Catholic guy for about thirty minutes. It was a good conversation. We talked about Mary and Purgatory and Mass and a bunch of other topics. We gave him the word of God and presented the truth to him. He said he would try to come to our church, but that's because he considers himself open-minded, not because he was convicted. Either way, I hope to see him on Sunday and talk to him some more. We're also going to try to go out on a regular basis to pass out tracts and evangelize. We'll see what the Lord does with it.