I'M GOING TO BE AN UNCLE!!!

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

I'm going to be an uncle!!!

We Won!

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

A brief overview of Judges and Ruth

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

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

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

Some free time

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

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

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

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

To the only wise God be glory and honor

My Grandma Prissy - at home in glory

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

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

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


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

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

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

Sorrowful yet rejoicing

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

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Abortion and Down Syndrome

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Beard

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

Matt Chandler

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

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

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

God bless you.

Almost one month later...

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

The Pulley

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

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

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

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

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

A little snow

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

Winter

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

A little mormonism

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

Psalm 36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Due to popular demand...

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

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

House Search

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

Youth Group and some randomness

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

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

A little Newton

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

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

No mercy

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

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

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