Conversing with God

A Hunger for God - John Piper

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:50:05 -0400

“When you take your stand on the finished work of God in Christ, and begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God. The more satisfaction you experience from God, while still in this world, the greater your desire for the next. For, as C. S. Lewis said, ‘Our best havings are wantings.’

If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened.”

ouch. so good. but so painfully true.

Sabbath

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:50:59 -0400

Joy is chosen, and one prepares for its arrival by rigorous suffering… Joy must be chosen, but the deeper conundrum is that it cant be controlled or cajoled as to when it will come or how long it will stay. What is joy? I can no more define joy than i can beauty. Perhaps it is best to say that joy is a touch of sweet madness that comes when we sense God is closer to us than our own heartbeats… Joy has little to do with moments of succes, reward, or honor. It is related to circumstances, yet it is not centered on someting working out well… Sabbath joy requires the exercise of starts and stops, failing and then getting back up to mock despair… Our joy is in celebrating that love is stronger than death; and the madness of God is saner than the wisdom of man. - Dan B Allender

The Gospel Coalition on Worship Music

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:12:00 -0400

The Gospel Coalition on Worship Music:

“…on the shoulders of giants…”

#trueconfessions

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 10:06:00 -0400

There is a part of me that doesnt want to like pumpin-flavored things now just because it has become a thing, but gosh darn it, it is SO good.

John Owen - The Mortification of Sin

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:35:00 -0400

To mortify a sin is not utterly to kill, root it out, and destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all nor residence in our hearts. It is true this is that which is aimed at; but this is not in this life to be accomplished. There is no man that truly sets himself to mortify any sin, but he aims at, intends, desires its utter destruction, that it should leave neither root nor fruit in the heart or life. He would so kill it that it should never move nor stir any more, cry or call, seduce or tempt, to eternity. Its not-being is the thing aimed at. Now, though doubtless there may, by the Spirit and grace of Christ, a wonderful success and eminency of victory against any sin be attained, so that a man may have almost constant triumph over it, yet an utter killing and destruction of it, that it should not be, is not in this life to be expected. This Paul assures us of, Phil. 3:12, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” He was a choice saint, a pattern forbelievers, who, in faith and love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, had not his fellow in the world, and non that account ascribes perfection to himself in comparison of others, verse 15; yet he had not “attained,” he was not “perfect,” but was “following after:” still a vile body he had, and we have, that must be changed by the great power of Christ at last, verse 21. This we would have; but God sees it best for us that we should be complete in nothing in ourselves, that in all things we must be “complete in Christ;” which is best for us, Col. 2:10.

"O For a Closer Walk With God" - William Cowper

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 10:05:34 -0400

O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the blessedness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.

Sabbath - Dan Allender

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:59:59 -0400

If division increases on the basis of self-justifying accusation, then reconciliation grows on the basis of self-giving service that annuls our right to vengeance. God, who has the right to the greatest claim of injustice, abolished that claim in the sufferings of the Crucified One and then restored - that is, recreated - life through the resurrection.

Why? - By Jeremy Walker

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:28:58 -0400

“Why was I made to hear Thy Voice,

and enter while there’s room,

When thousands make a wretched choice,

and rather starve than come?”

- William Cowper

     So asked William Cowper. And so might each child of God ask, with a thousand more questions besides.
     Why was i chosen to recieve life, when many die in their sins? Why did the Lord show mercy on me? Why was i not made a mere beast? Perhaps, why was i born into a Christian home? Or, why did God send a true friend to preach the good news to my needy soul? Why was i even made to feel my need? Why does the Lord bear with me so patiently? Why am i not cast of on account of my continued sins? Why is forgiveness so freely and readily extended? Why does God love me? Why did God ever love me? Why does he love me still? Why did he send his beloved Son to suffer and die in my place? Why was the Lamb of God sacrificed for me? Why is a sinful wretch like me not in Hell?
     Why are my prayers heard? Why do i receive what i need when i do not know what to pray, have no appetite to pray, or forget to pray? Why do i have opportunities to ser the God of my salvation? Why do my efforts secure any good? Why does god draw a straight line with such a crooked stick as i am? Why am i never alone? Why does he never leave me or forsake me? Why does the devil not readily devour me? Why do i advance? Why do i even stand at all?
     The answer to it all is, the grace of a loving and faithful God revealed in our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ - what Matthew Henry calls, “God’s free favour and all the blessed fruits of it.”
     My friend, do you ever marvel at the goodness and grace of the Lord toward you? You might, with perfect justice, have been forever cast into the depths of the pit. You might, with absolute equity, live and die without ever knowing that there is salvation for a sinner like you. You might, without any dent in or damage to the reputation of the Holy One of Israel, have been immediately and forever abandoned to you doom. [Oh my word. Think about that]
     So, Christian, have you given thanks to the God of mercy this day? Have you cried out with gratitude to the Triune Jehovah for sparing you and pouring out his lovingkindness upon you? Will you realise afresh, and respond afresh to, the blessings which are yours in the Son of God, those unsearchable riches of Christ?
     Or, if you are no child of God, will you repent of years of ingratitude and carelessness, held back from destruction while you have no thought of salvation? Will you appreciate, perhaps for the first time, what God has done in sending the Lord Christ, his only Son, to die in the place of the ungodly? Will you grasp that the offer of mercy is held out this day to you, in the face of all your sin and rebellion? Will you realise now that God is gracious, and seek his face?
     Let each one who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good lift up heart and voice to the Lord: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3).

—————

May we be more thankful, more often; that the creator God was not obliged to do anything for us, but from out of his good pleasure, according to his gracious will, decided it would be a good idea to save us so that we could see just how glorious he is and reflect that glory to the world as his grateful Sons and Daughters, a royal priesthood. I hope i never forget that.

Jonathan Edwards, "Pardon for the Greatest Sinners"

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:57:00 -0400

“The mercy of God is as sufficient for the pardon of the greatest sins, as for the least; and that because his mercy is infinite. That which is infinite, is as much above what is great, as it is above what is small. Thus God being infinitely great, he is as much above kings as he is above beggars; he is as much above the highest angel, as he is above the meanest worm. One finite measure doth not come any nearer to the extent of what is infinite than another. So the mercy of God being infinite, it must be as sufficient for the pardon of all sin, as of one. If one of the least sins be not beyond the mercy of God, so neither are the greatest, or ten thousand of them.”

So thankful for this insight/perspective/truth. Just another way I can take God out of the box that Ive put him in. His ways truly are above our ways!

Hallelujah!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:50:42 -0500

When from the dust of death i rise

To claim my mansion in the skies,

Ev’n then this shall be all my plea,

Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

Jesus, be endles praise to thee,

Whose boundless mercy hath for me -

For me a full atonement made,

An everlasting ransom paid.

O let the dead now hear thy voice;

Now bid thy banished ones rejoice;

Their beauty this, their glorious dress,

Jesus, they blood and righteousness.

-Exerpt from the hymn ”Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness”

Best Christmas song rendition ive heard this season… maybe...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:29:47 -0500

Best Christmas song rendition ive heard this season… maybe ever.

Love the feeling of closing a book you've read all the way through.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:28:44 -0500

Orthodoxy

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:39:57 -0500

Children always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necesity that makes all daisies look alike; it may be that God makes every daisy seperately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

- G.K. Chesterton

What a great new way of thinking about our Creator. He is the Father of Time, but he is also “younger than we.” He delights in the simple. Where my mind is infatuated with fairy tales, God delights in just the fact that there is a tale. Where I observe the strangeness of a nose, I overlook the intentional design of a nose itself. I try so hard to entertain myself and to seek God in intricate and exaggerated ways, when God is all around.

Love is from God like light is from the sun

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:43:50 -0400

Just what i needed today. Thank you, kid, for being so...

Tue, 24 May 2011 17:45:25 -0400

Just what i needed today. Thank you, kid, for being so disgustingly rad.

Quite possibly the most thoughtful gift ive ever recieved.

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:49:01 -0400

I sure am going to miss you this summer.

The questions and ruckus that the supposed "rapture" caused only revealed/reaffirmed that the world does care about where they will spend eternity.

Sun, 22 May 2011 22:08:53 -0400

They are hungry. They want something deeper, truly.

We have what they want. I want to share it with them.

Camp just needs to get here already.

Fri, 20 May 2011 13:30:38 -0400

this anxiety is stupid.

notpreparednotpreparednotprepared.

Fri, 20 May 2011 08:44:10 -0400

i just woke up to a slight panic attack about camp.

no big deal.

My afternoon today has been exactly how ive pictured a perfect summer day.

Thu, 19 May 2011 13:40:42 -0400

Waking up early-ish.

Eating a great breakfast, with even better conversation.

Being active outside. Sweating. Taking in the sun.

Playing on a playground.

Eating lunch at Sonic. Outside.

Ordering said Sonic food in an Australian accent.

Sitting in the back of the car. Talking.

Doing it all with one of my best friends ever.

Solid day.