God loves us not in a way that makes us supreme, but makes himself supreme. Heaven will not be a hall of mirrors but an increasing vision of infinite greatness. Getting to heaven and finding that we are supreme would be the ultimate let down.
The greatest love makes sure that God does everything in such a way as to uphold and magnify his own supremacy so that when we get there we have something to increase our joy forever—God's glory.
- John Piper
Sweet Florida, I love you. I miss your touch.
Forgive my recent ignorance of the blogging world. It was kind of nice to tell the truth. I was just kickin it ol' school on the beaches at Perdido Key Florida. I didn't even check my email until the day before I had to come home. "So how was it?" people ask me. Here you go.
Beautiful beaches. Green/ blue Gulf water. Blingin Condo. 7 bedrooms. 5 bathrooms. 13 people. Not crowded. Great food around a huge kitchen table. Talking about our Lord with an incredible family. Cards. Dominos. Catch-phrase. Apples to Apples (In which I learned from a certain person that Clint Eastwood is much more radiant that Jesus Christ on his return :)). Nerts/ Pounce. Reisen. Beautiful views of the bay. Sand volleyball. Naps on the beach. Books. Andy Griffith. Sting rays. Dolphins. Indiana Jones. Sharing a room all week with my beautiful wife! Louie Giglio. Indescribable. God's Word. Pretty Sunsets over the bay. Momentary showers over the beach. Great seafood. Father's Day. 5 year anniversary with Lovely. Family Devotional. Over-arching sense of God's goodness all week. Sand in my trunks. Sun-soaked skin. Watching people laugh. Settling into the fact that God is truly with us. Rest. Study. Prayer. Renewal.
I read 2 books over the break. I have put them on the bookshelf to the right.
And then check out these passages that I found particularly fetching last week. Psalm 33. Psalm 116:7. Psalm 119:175.
So, I am back. And I have grown in my love for my wife and my Lord. Thank you Jesus.
"Let me life that I may praise you, and may your law sustain me."
Beautiful beaches. Green/ blue Gulf water. Blingin Condo. 7 bedrooms. 5 bathrooms. 13 people. Not crowded. Great food around a huge kitchen table. Talking about our Lord with an incredible family. Cards. Dominos. Catch-phrase. Apples to Apples (In which I learned from a certain person that Clint Eastwood is much more radiant that Jesus Christ on his return :)). Nerts/ Pounce. Reisen. Beautiful views of the bay. Sand volleyball. Naps on the beach. Books. Andy Griffith. Sting rays. Dolphins. Indiana Jones. Sharing a room all week with my beautiful wife! Louie Giglio. Indescribable. God's Word. Pretty Sunsets over the bay. Momentary showers over the beach. Great seafood. Father's Day. 5 year anniversary with Lovely. Family Devotional. Over-arching sense of God's goodness all week. Sand in my trunks. Sun-soaked skin. Watching people laugh. Settling into the fact that God is truly with us. Rest. Study. Prayer. Renewal.
I read 2 books over the break. I have put them on the bookshelf to the right.
And then check out these passages that I found particularly fetching last week. Psalm 33. Psalm 116:7. Psalm 119:175.
So, I am back. And I have grown in my love for my wife and my Lord. Thank you Jesus.
"Let me life that I may praise you, and may your law sustain me."
I mean it. I am flat out tougher.
It's a proven fact. If someone were to live just one day in my skin, they would be in extreme pain. Just everyday normal living and breathing for me is easy- and pain free. But if someone were to take up residence in my body, they would be hurting severely. To tell the truth, I honestly don't feel pain at all right now.
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6.13.2008
6.13.2008
38 Years- Resistez!
Found this on Desiring God's Blog today. More inspiration from persecuted Christians . . . Be encouraged, all you Saints, and press on in the faith.
"In the late Seventeenth Century in… southern France, a girl named Marie Durant was brought before the authorities, charged with the Huguenot heresy. She was fourteen years old, bright, attractive, marriageable. She was asked to abjure the Huguenot faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior. She was only asked to say, "J'abjure." No more, no less. She did not comply. Together with thirty other Huguenot women she was put into a tower by the sea…. For thirty-eight years she continued…. And instead of the hated word J'abjure she, together with her fellow martyrs, scratched on the wall of the prison tower the single word Resistez, resist!
The word is still seen and gaped at by tourists on the stone wall at Aigues-Mortes…. We do not understand the terrifying simplicity of a religious commitment which asks nothing of time and gets nothing from time. We can understand a religion which enhances time…. but we cannot understand a faith which is not nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things will be better. To sit in a prison room with thirty others and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one's flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and to endure." (p 116-117)
-Karl Olssen, Passion
I look forward to meeting Marie Durant.
"In the late Seventeenth Century in… southern France, a girl named Marie Durant was brought before the authorities, charged with the Huguenot heresy. She was fourteen years old, bright, attractive, marriageable. She was asked to abjure the Huguenot faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior. She was only asked to say, "J'abjure." No more, no less. She did not comply. Together with thirty other Huguenot women she was put into a tower by the sea…. For thirty-eight years she continued…. And instead of the hated word J'abjure she, together with her fellow martyrs, scratched on the wall of the prison tower the single word Resistez, resist!
The word is still seen and gaped at by tourists on the stone wall at Aigues-Mortes…. We do not understand the terrifying simplicity of a religious commitment which asks nothing of time and gets nothing from time. We can understand a religion which enhances time…. but we cannot understand a faith which is not nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things will be better. To sit in a prison room with thirty others and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one's flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and to endure." (p 116-117)
-Karl Olssen, Passion
I look forward to meeting Marie Durant.
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6.09.2008
6.09.2008
The most blessed hour of my life...
I have such mixed emotions about the death penalty. I believe it's necessary, but I hate it. I cannot stand the thought of watching someone have life taken from them. I am not trying to be political, I am just being personal and honest. I don't think I could ever count it a privilege to watch someone die. I was surprised to find that a hero of mine, Charles Wesley, counted his witness to an execution as being the most blessed hour of his life.
-Your finest hour, Charles, is watching some criminals get hung? How could it be possible for the most blessed hour of one's life to be spent witnessing an execution?
-Your finest hour, Charles, is watching some criminals get hung? How could it be possible for the most blessed hour of one's life to be spent witnessing an execution?
I love to read and to hear about hero's of the faith. I just read the following today on Desiring God's daily blog/email. Check the following out- it's too good not to share:
Wesley and Bray asked if they could be locked in overnight with the prisoners who were to be executed the next day. That night they spoke the gospel. They told the men that “one came down from heaven to save lost sinners.” They described the sufferings of the Son of God, his sorrows, agony, and death.
The next day, the men were loaded onto a cart and taken to Tyburn. Charles went with them. Ropes were fastened around their necks so that the cart could be driven off and leave them swinging in the air to choke to death.
The fruit of Wesley’s and Bray’s night-long labor was astonishing. Here’s what Wesley wrote:
"They were all cheerful; full of comfort, peace, and triumph; assuredly persuaded Christ had died for them, and waited to receive them into paradise. . . . The black . . . saluted me with his looks. As often as his eyes met mine, he smiled with the most composed, delightful countenance I ever saw."
"We left them going to meet their Lord, ready for the bridegroom. When the cart drove off, not one stirred, or struggled for life, but meekly gave up their spirits. Exactly at twelve they were turned off. I spoke a few suitable words to the crowd; and returned, full of peace and confidence in our friends’ happiness. That hour under the gallows was the most blessed hour of my life." (Journal, vol 1, 120-123)
O may the boldness of Wesley be found in me! And may the message of the cross not be emptied of it's power by the temptation to half-heartedly mince words so I may not be offensive. May I see that eternity truly hangs in the balance with how someone responds to Jesus Christ. And may I count it a privilege and a blessing to see the saints go down in peace.
Jesus makes all things better.
pain with Peace.
grief with Joy.
loss with Gain.
sickness with Health.
anger with Self-control.
fear with Trust.
lost with Hope.
confusion with Order.
momentary anguish with everlasting Enjoyment.
bleak with Light.
death with Life.
life with Jesus!
"Because your love is better than life, my lips will praise you."- psalm 63.3
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6.03.2008
6.03.2008
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