One Year Later

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor can'st thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones and rest their delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, sickness dwell,
And better then thy stroke; why swell'st thy then;
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, though shalt die.

From Holy Sonnet X by John Donne

I'm Back, Baby!

Wow, so it's been a while since I've come on here. Last September I set the goal of writing four entries a month. I celebrated this by never blogging again after September. So, to say the least, my writing is a little rusty, so I ask that you bear with me a bit.

Life has been pretty crazy since last September for me. Actually, life has been pretty crazy for a while now if you've been keeping up. I think that that's just how life is and how it's going to be for a while. Growing up you never really pay attention to all of the change going on because it rarely effects you. It's like we make this gaping assumption that the way life is when we're kids is the way life has always been for everyone around us before we ever showed up.

Life is always changing. So far my life in 2010 is nothing like what it was in 2009. And my life in 2009 was vastly different from life in 2008. Maybe I'm wrong and it will slow down eventually, but I just don't see that happening.

All of this is why I find it important to blog and to journal. Life in interesting. Even a life as seemingly mundane as my own is interesting. These past couple of weeks I've been reading about David in 1 and 2 Samuel and I've almost made it through the Psalms once this year. What I find most interesting about the things I'm reading is that I'm reading writing about David's life, and he's such a man after God's heart that when I read about him I learn about the Lord. That's what I want from this blog and my journal. I want to write about life and I want people to learn about the Lord because of it. I want someday for my grandkids to pick up my journal and not just learn about who their grandpa was, but to learn about the love of God through my life.

So, with that in mind the blog will take a different shape. The biggest change will be that I'll actually be making entries. But other than that, I have mostly used this thing as a chance to write a devotion, which I will definitely continue doing because I love sharing what the Lord is teaching me, but I'll have more "Life of David" entries just telling you about what's going on in my life or what's on my mind. We'll see how that goes and whether or not I'll actually stick to it.

If you actually enjoy reading my blog and you see that I haven't written for a while, feel free to yell at me about not writing. That's a freebie for the one of you who'll probably read this who doesn't happen to be my mother.

Fruit of the Spirit

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing John Flowers speak at Kingdom Culture. Though I'm not exactly sure of what he said that sparked these thoughts, I know that since then I've been thinking about the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 says that the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And for the longest time I've always thought that the reason that these were explained were because when I received the Holy Spirit, I received these as well. But now I'm beginning to see that this can't be an accurate view of these verses.

There are two problems with the view that the fruit of the Spirit comes when you receive Christ. First of all, not every Christian possesses all or any of these at any given time. And secondly, there are non-christians who oftentimes do.

So what I'm thinking is that this fruit isn't supposed to be seen in the same light as the gifts of the Holy Spirit (which are things which only Christians possess), but rather an indicator of the presence of the Holy Spirit. If I see a clerk showing patience with a rude customer, I'm seeing the Holy Spirit work in them. If I see a kid full of joy, I'm seeing the Holy Spirit give it to them. If I see a teenage couple show self-control in their physicality, I'm seeing the Holy Spirit at work.

This view is so encouraging. It turns the fruit of the Spirit into a highlighter for where the Lord is at work. It shows that even when someone wants nothing to do with God, He still wants something to do with them. Whenever you see one of these things, they're practically screaming, "The Holy Spirit is working here!"

Looking Like My Dad

My dad was a very hard working man. Sometimes he would wake up before everyone else in the house, go do a day's worth of work and still be back in time to cook us all breakfast before any of us even thought about getting up, and then go work a little more. I'm not sure I realized this as a kid, though. I always just saw him after dinner in his pajamas which consisted a green t-shirt and blue sweatpants. He would always put on his nightly uniform and then lay on the couch and watch some TV.

I was probably 8 years old when I realized that I too owned a green t-shirt and blue sweatpants, so one night, on a whim, I put them on and went to lay down with my dad on the couch and watch wrestling with him. We didn't really talk much, we just laid there together and watched the grown men in underwear beat each other up.

I thought it was awesome! So much so that I continued to do it nightly for a long time. My mom thought it was cute, and I know my dad loved it too, but there wasn't really anything seemingly significant about that time. Yet these still stand out as some of the fondest memories I have of my dad. I remember how much I loved imitating my dad and how great it made me feel to know that he liked it too. I really do hope and pray that someday I'll be the kind of man that my kids want to imitate.

These memories popped into my head tonight as I read Ephesians 5:1, which says, "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children." This, like so many other commands of God, is a command of love, not a wagging of His finger. He's not saying, "Ya know, you really wouldn't screw up so much if you'd just act more like Me." He's our Father. He knows that just like, imitating my dad, brought me joy, imitating God will bring His children joy as well. And more than that, I doubt little more brings joy to the Father's heart than when His kids are trying to be just like their Daddy.

Jesus Changed Everything

Okay, so there's this one part of the Bible that has always bothered me. I've never been able to figure out what on earth it's talking about. It's found in Mark 2:18-22. It doesn't make any sense! First, some people ask Jesus about fasting, and then Jesus answers by talking about new and old garments and wine. What does that have to do with the question?

Well, I was reading this a few weeks ago, and the Lord graciously gave me a little bit of wisdom, and it makes so much more sense now. I could be wrong, so bear with me. These people come up to Jesus and point out that John's disciples fast and the pharisees' disciples fast, so why don't His disciples fast? Jesus answers by telling them that you can't put an new piece of cloth on an old garment, if you do it will tear. And you can't put new wine into an old wineskin because the wineskin will be destroyed (I'm guessing this made more sense to the original audience than it does to me, because I know nothing about wineskins.)

John's and the pharisees' disciples were fasting in anticipation of the coming Messiah, so when Jesus actually came, the whole game changed. It would have been foolish for Jesus' disciples to fast in anticipation of Him. He was standing right there. They couldn't stick to the way they have always done things and expect it to work.

We no longer live in a time of anticipation, but a time of action. We can't do things the way they've always been done expect it all to work. We can't take the religion that we're comfortable with and add a little Jesus flavor to it. If we do, the whole thing falls apart. This parable teaches that if we try to have Jesus plus anything else it leads to destruction.

And the thing behind all of those fancy words is that it's really easy to type them out. It's also easy to read it and think, "that sounds really good." But when you really think about it, those are pretty empty words because if all we do is take one set of rules and replace them with a new set of words, we miss the entire point. We can't just say, "stop waiting and start acting," or "live a radical life for Christ," because there's nothing in any of us to be able to do that.

Following Christ is all about the heart, not actions, and this is where the beauty of Christ really shines through. Christ teaches this parable best through His actions. He didn't take us and just put new "things have changed" patches over our old tears. He knew that that wouldn't hold up. He didn't try to fix us, He made us new! He set the example of not putting a nice coat of Jesus on our old self, by actually remaking us, free of our bondage to sin. And in that example, He gave us the ability to drop religion and truly live a free life as a new creation.

How can we be recipients of such an amazing gift and not live differently?

King Jesus

Sometimes I wonder why I journal everything that I do. I'll get these amazing thoughts, write them down, and then never look at them again. Maybe it's just because I remember things better when I write them down than I would otherwise. But, either way, on the rare occasion that I do look back at my journal entries, God typically reminds me that His truth is true no matter when I wrote it down. Here's a thought that He reminded me of.

I've heard Mark Driscol teach on how Jesus has three distinct roles: Prophet, Priest and King. Everything that Jesus does falls under one of those three categorizations. What this also means is that if we overemphasize or minimize an aspect of Jesus, we don't see Jesus as He is; we see a Jesus of our own making.

In my own life, I have no problem viewing Jesus as my Prophet. I experience Him naming my sin and convicting me to repentance. I especially have no problem viewing Him as my Priest. In fact, it's all too easy for me to view Him as the one who forgives and atones for my sin. But my problem becomes apparent when it comes as viewing Jesus as King.

Jesus is King of everything, and way too often I view Him as a just partner in my life; helping me make my way. But Jesus isn't my sidekick, He's my Master. He is sovereign over everything, especially me.

Viewing Jesus as King affects everything in one's life, but nothing more for me than my prayer life. When I don't view Jesus as King of all, my prayers tend to be pretty weak. It's only when I view Jesus as sovereign that I have the faith to pray big prayers, because it's only then that I see Him as capable of answering them.

Life as a Soundwave

God spoke the world into existence. If we can agree on this, this whole post will go a lot easier for you. In my head I've always imagined it going down this way: God had in His head what He wanted to create, spoke it, and then boom, there is was. But what if there's a lot more depth to it than that?

God is real. Like, really real. His reality is greater than our reality. We're almost not real by comparison. James even compares our lives to mist. When I speak, sound waves are created that carry a short distance and are put out in such an order that makes sense to the hearer. Maybe creation is just what happens when God speaks. Maybe the Earth is just what happens when God says "Earth." Maybe the sun is just what happens when God says, "Let there be light."

What if God is so real that right now we exist on the effects of His voice? When we speak it is communicated in a way that one sense can process it. Look around yourself. Everything in front of you from the chair you're sitting in, to the car you drive, to the food you've eaten, to the body you exist in is all there because of God's voice! God is so real that when He speaks, it effects every sense. His voice can be heard, seen, touched, tasted and smelled by us.

So with all of that in mind, I have one thought that's blowing my mind right now. If we can be this overwhelmed by an effect of God's voice, what's it going to be like when we actually see Him?