New Shots.

EDIT: 20 new shots! Go to my Flickr and check them out now! There are 18 on the first page, the final two on page 2. Thank you SO much for your comments - there have been many kind words sent my way. I love taking the pictures myself - but your love/like of them makes it all the better. Thanks again!

Hello all. Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been a bit busy these past couple of days.

Anyway - there are new pictures up over at my Flickr photo page. I would greatly appreciate any and all of you heading over there to check them out. The first ten, on the main page, are the recent additions. Please leave comments if you have good advice, and definitely leave comments if you like something.

Also - you might want to bookmark the page...I'm playing around with a new camera and, if possible, will be trying to put new pictures up in a more timely fashion.

Thanks!

What Happened To Selflessness?

I just wanted to take a quick moment to apologize to you all for my seeming lack of caring lately. I've been amazingly selfish here recently, and in the past - and while I cannot say for certain when it might end - I can promise that God is shining a light on it, showing me the damaging results of it, and working on it for the good. So all of you, in this cyber-land - my deepest apologies. Hopefully I'll also have a chance to send my apologies to the people a bit closer than the Internet. My gratitude for your almost limitless patience.

Thank You For Disappointment.

I know, it sounds ridiculous. Disappointment, being let down, not particularly getting what you want - they are all bad things. They are frustrating, disheartening.

Liberating.

You see - we often have things in our lives that we want. Things we set our eyes, our minds, our hearts, and our appetites for. They become our passion. They become our prayer.

Many times, these things are not honoring to God. Sometimes, in their best form, they merely cut short of what they should be - they are a shadow of the greatness demanded...our nature, or our pursuit, has left it something it should not be (even if it was good, or not necessarily bad, to begin with).

I think disappointment serves a noble purpose in these situations. We are running as fast as we can to reach that goal, we are fighting hard to win the prize - and it becomes a blinder to our eyes without us even knowing. Were it not for the loss, temporary or perpetual, we might have never been restored to a more faithful, firmer, understanding position.

So, thank God for the disappointments in this life - and the absolute grace to realize them for what they are - purposeful redirections towards an ultimately greater treasure.

To Be Like God.

God is the most joyous being in the entire universe.

We are (I am) lonely, depressed, saddened, self-pitying.

This tears at my insides. Our sadness is so infecting, so manipulating. It consumes us, will not let us go, penetrates to the very depths of the soul. Our moods can change on a whim, our emotions can be confused, our thoughts can be taken captive. We are restless. We are without peace.

Why? What has gone horribly wrong with us? (And I am not seeking a cliché answer).

It's such a horrible conflict. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ - and we have hope, we have joy, we have a Spirit of grace and love.

But we are still broken. Still confused. Still seeking with such persistence and power those things that battle against us, that wage war against God - that pull us deeper into a murky abyss that is not without strength to hold us down.

I know so many cries go to our God. He is beyond time, but I know that time is filled with the aching of our hearts - directly to His ears. His compassion floods over us, and it lasts for a time but then we are back again...wallowing, paralyzed, affected.

Lord have mercy on us in our dark days, in our dark nights. Help us to see the absolute temporary nature of our current state. Help us to again witness the glorious light of your presence in our lives. Leverage your strength and your power for our benefit - because you care for us, because you love us. Lead us away from these things...lead us closer to you. Never let us go, never let us go.

Renewed, Restored.

So, I was thinking about Adam and Eve this morning on my way back from Triangle Park and the Global Night Commute (which was great, and I'll try to touch on that later this week).

A close friend and I had been talking about Genesis and something that came up we had never really taken notice to before. Starting with chapter 2, in the creation account of man specifically, we see multiple occasions where God is referred as LORD God. When Satan comes along (Genesis 3) we see that he takes away the LORD part: "Did God actually say..." (Gen. 3:1)

The Lordship of God is an amazing and important thing - and here we see a deception that strikes against the very person of God. Yes, it is easy to think of there being some being greater than us that could have created the earth. Some of us even get to the point where we realize we need a Savior - someone with immeasurable strength to move us from death to life. It's even easier than all these to seek a Friend.

But where has the Lordship of God gone in our lives? When we chose deception and lies in our own lives, I think God gave us over to our own lordship. An inferior, broken one. We were created in His image - and given responsibility and a lesser lordship over the earth. But, our treason affected that and caused damage against our relationship with God and our stance in this world. We have become our own power - and, unfortunately, we have not enough.

So why am I not moaning like I often do here? Because the big thing that hit me today was restoration. Jesus' life wasn't just about going around to heal people, or to speak great words of wisdom. It was something much more.

Another close friend, who I was able to hang out with last night, was telling me that he believes Jesus came to start a following. I agree in part, and would only change it to say that I believe Jesus came to start a family.

Before Christ laid down his life He told his disciples something amazing -

"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15, ESV, emphasis mine)

And it only gets better - after the cross, after the resurrection from the dead -

"Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." (Matthew 28:10, ESV, emphasis mine)

The cross of Christ accomplished a great many things - so many that I cannot go on today (or for long enough) to detail them all. His resurrection from the dead proves His words, that it was finished with His sacrifice, and testifies to all He had spoke before that point.

Jesus has brought us back into communion with God. We now have a heavenly Father. We have a Savior. We have a Friend. But, most importantly, we can again call him our Lord. And under that Lordship His kingdom will reign, and shine, and prosper - and hopefully many will see it and come. The invitation is unconditionally open...

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." (Revelation 22:17, ESV)

What are we waiting for?

Psalm 77:1

I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.

He Is Not Here. He Has Risen.

Why look for the living amongst the dead?

Hail! The Risen Christ.

Crown him with many crowns,

The Lamb upon his throne;

Hark, how the heavenly anthem drowns

All music but its own!

Awake, my soul, and sing

Of him who died for thee,

And hail him as thy matchless King

Through all eternity.

Crown him the Son of God,

Before the worlds began,

And ye who tread where he hath trod,

Crown him the Son of man;

Who ev'ry grief hath known

That wrings the human breast,

And takes and bears them for his own,

That all in him may rest.

Crown him the Lord of life,

Who triumphed o'er the grave

And rose victorious in the strife

For those he came to save;

His glories now we sing,

Who died and rose on high,

Who died eternal life to bring,

And lives that death may die.

Crown him the Lord of Heav'n

Enthroned in worlds above,

Crown him the King to whom is giv'n

The wondrous name of love.

Crown him with many crowns,

As thrones before him fall;

Crown him, ye kings, with many crowns,

For he is King of all.

(Crown Him With Many Crowns, Words: Matthew Bridges (1800-1894), 1852)

Got A Sleeping Bag?

Then it might be worth your time to support something that can, hopefully, bring light to a terrible situation taking place in our world today: a nation where thousands of children must flee en masse to cities to prevent their capture - one that would lead to their usage as soldiers in a long-running war...a war that is being ignored by too many.

Click the picture below to be taken to the page where you can find much more information than I can provide - including information about becoming a participant in Global Night Commute. If you live in/sign up for my town, I'll see you there.

A Request.

To all my Christian brothers and sisters who read this blog, I ask that you visit the site below - Voice of the Martyrs - and sign up. You will be able to go through the entire site and see all the content, you'll receive their newsletter by mail, and you will also receive a weekly news and prayer update (all free). It has been very valuable in my life to be constantly reminded of the faith of believers who as Paul said in the Bible "...are being killed all the day long; [and] are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." It has constantly broken my heart, opened my eyes, and worked on my spirit of service.

To those who are not believers - I would recommend the site as well. If nothing else, it might show you a side of Christianity you've never seen before: people who God has called and empowered in His grace to go and possibly die to show the love of Christ. These people believe in a God that loves and longs for every person to know Him. Maybe their stories will inspire you to a search for this God.

Voice of the Martyrs

The Wisdom Of Christ.

It continues to amaze me (in a wonderful way) how truth and relevancy is found in the Bible. Some might disagree, but I believe in absolute, universal truth. There is a source of all that is good, all that is right, and all that is true. That truth may sometimes be difficult to understand, even more difficult to grasp, relate, and submit to - but it exists. I continue to find that truth every time I take time to open the Word of God. I have faith, and have seen in my own life, that on a broad scope, and even in specific situations - the truth and the wisdom of Christ shines brightly off the pages and into my heart, mind, and soul.

Yet this is much more important, and much bigger, than what some consider just a book. The reason why the Bible is so valuable, why it is so packed full of truth and relevance is because it testifies about someone. You could say that the words on that page are merely a mirror that reflects the amazing qualities of an amazing being.

That being is Jesus Christ.

Every word of Scripture is not meant to be reduced to rules and regulations, stories and poems and genealogies. The impact of the Bible is to introduce people to a magnificent, holy, living God. The end-all is not that people would stop doing something, or start doing something, or know this, or know that. The finality is that a person would come face-to-face with Jesus Christ - the savior of the world, the creator of the universe, the lover of our souls.

And that is why I weep at the current state of this world. It is fallen and broken and nasty and painful. There are more people than I can even fathom who are suffering unthinkable things. But the tragedy in all of this is not that they are losing on a scale of how comfortable and wonderful life can be, it's that every day that passes they are losing out on the chance to know God.

To know healing. To know love. To know acceptance. To know mercy. To know sufficiency. To know beauty. To know kindness. To know truth. To know purpose.

Again - to know Jesus.

And so it burns in my heart (because I am so awful at fulfilling this quest) to show people this amazing God that I have been blessed to find. Not because I am right. Not because I am holier than they are. Not because I am stronger, or smarter, or better. But because they absolutely need to meet this God.

Robbie Seay Band, "Come Ye Sinners":

Come ye sinners - the poor and needy
Weak and wounded - sick and sore
And Jesus ready stands to save you
Full of pity, love and power

I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
And in the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms

Or, as the One I feel honored and blessed to know once said (and still says):

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28, ESV)

"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." (Luke 11:9-10, ESV)

Let us spend every day asking, seeking, and knocking - in the great hope that our merciful, loving, compassionate, awesome God would bless us with receiving, finding, and opening.

So, Yeah...

...it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. I was absolutely exhausted when I got back from church this evening (which was an amazing service, by the way). After I got home, I ended up taking a quick walk down the road, but my dad's warnings of crazy people lurking in the darkness certainly worked to hasten my return. There was nothing good on television, and the internet just isn't doing it for me lately, so I laid down - took maybe a 30-minute nap - and was back up because of hunger and hail (a quick downpour, pretty small stuff, but it woke me up nonetheless).

Now - about 4 or so hours later - I'm still up. I turned on the stereo a while back and went through some old mix CDs I had in there. A lot of nostalgia...made me a bit giddy. I rummaged through my dad's CDs a couple minutes ago and found a bunch I like (that used to be mine before I decided to sell almost all my CDs to him). Dave Matthews Band, Crash, is currently in the discman.

I think I'm excited about plans tonight. It's our weekly meeting to hit up Common Grounds for coffee and open-mic night, and my friend has been out of town for the whole weekend...so it should be really great. There are also other reasons why I think the blood is pumping quicker and the mind is racing - but we'll leave those out for right now (nothing bad, I promise).

Anyway - everyone should go out and buy "Better Days" by Robbie Seay Band. I was listening to it this evening on the way home from church and it is absolutely amazing. Really unique sound, awesome lyrics, great for fun or just a nice, moody evening. It is totally multi-faceted. If you do pick it up, check out songs 7 and 8 - those happen to be my favorites of the moment.

So what's up with everyone out there? I'm pretty sure someone comes by here, at least occasionally, because the site tracker logs show unique visitors - and it doesn't count me. Send a comment my way and let me know how things have been, what's going on in your life, what I can pray for, what I can celebrate with you for...all that good stuff.

And I think I'm out. Probably not to sleep. More Dave Matthews I imagine.

God Is Good.

I long for a love with Christ that centers on His glory and beauty and majesty - surviving the threats and tribulations of this world without diminishing. It is so much easier for us to praise God and thank Him for His amazing blessings when things are going good, I admit.

But this past week has been absolutely amazing in SO many ways. So, I am thanking God now for His amazing blessings these past few days. Praying for it to continue, resting hard in the promise that He will still be who He is if it does not.

He has been working on my heart and has met me more than once this week to remind me of faith, love, mercy, and grace. I got to see the cross fresh and new and I wept at the beauty of His love. I feel a wave of holiness and righteousness, in part, moving in my life. I know it is the presence of the Lord that is my good, that is my boast - so I thank Him for that as well.

Seeing old friends. Interviewing for a wonderful position (being considered in the first place was amazing...the outcome lays in God's faithful hands to do what best suits Him). Late nights with an absolutely amazing person who I have grown to care about very much. Learning so many lessons in that time about where God wants to move me and how totally important it is to not only listen to the wonderful truth and advice He has prepared for relationships, but to put Him at the center - and as the highest prize - of any relationship. I've said words and come to conclusions this past week that I never thought I would.

It's finally Spring! The sun is shining and I've got the drive to get outside and enjoy creation. Going for walks, sitting and just marveling at how beautiful it can be.

There's a lot in store for the future - I see. Some of it seems like it may be difficult - to adjust and trust God with situations that I tend to be impulsive about. However, I am amazed by the hope I have that God is working this for my good, that something I have longed for might come to fruition.

And if it doesn't - I just pray for the grace of God to proclaim how Good He truly is.

Praise The Name Of The Lord, Jesus.

You do not leave me to my sin and shame and sadness and desperation.
You bring me joy, You bless me, You cleanse me, You love me.
You do not forget me, abandon me, leave me to my own strength.
Your strength is made perfect in my weakness, Your throne is my heart.

You carry my burdens.
You forgive my sin.
You give me life.
You become my joy.
You show me passion.
You become my passion.
You put a song in my mouth that I cannot help but sing.
Your glory surpasses knowledge.
Your love surpasses understanding.
Your mercy is limitless.
Your strength is infinite.
Your wisdom is matchless.
Your compassion is addicting.
Your call is irresistible.

You are my God.
You are my Friend.
You are my Savior.
You are my Lord.
You are my Husband.
You are my Joy.
You are my Righteousness.

You are my Everything.

New Photos.

I've uploaded about 10 new pictures (depending on how long it's been since you've visited my Flickr). Please stop by and leave comments. Thanks!

My Flicker Photos

Life As A Tax Collector.

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14, ESV)

How often, recently, I have felt like the tax collector. And, how often have I been the Pharisee.

This parable has stuck in my mind since I heard it again recently. It’s one of those gems that you often read in the Bible that doesn’t quite shimmer for you the first time around. I am often amazed how alive, relevant, and new the Bible can seem with every message I hear.

But why the tax collector? Is it because he is shown to be the “hero” of this story?

I relate to him because I share his same approach to God. I feel that my place is face down before Christ, beating my breast, begging for His mercy. I can’t lift my eyes to his beauty because I have perverted its value time and again with my choices. I long for humility while I puff myself up with arrogant pride.

And yet God loves me.

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10, ESV, emphasis mine)

So I plead to God for both – His mercy, and His love.

His mercy brings life.

His love is better than life.

“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (Psalm 63:3, ESV)

Oh, to love God like he deserves. What a treasure to have. What a goal to seek. What a life to live.

Cats Are Stupid.

Go here instead.

Puppy War.

(Let the "Awwws" ensue).

Check These Gentlemen Out.

Common Grounds turned out to be a very wonderful night tonight - due in total part to being introduced to the best band we've seen there since we started checking out Monday and Friday night gigs: Redefined (click the name to hit their site). These guys are absolutely amazing live, and their EP definitely captures a lot of that. I would strongly recommend hitting their site and listening to the songs - they have a nice acoustic sound, reminiscent of Shane and Shane (I know, I was totally surprised myself). If you happen to be coming to Ichthus this year, they'll be playing Saturday morning, 10:45 A.M @ The Edge Stage. Give me a ring if you want to meet up (when June rolls around).

That's Right...

...this man has a milk crate on his head. It was his chosen disguise to rob a convenience store.

High marks for creativity. Higher marks for being one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

To Those That Remain.

My apologies to anyone who might still be coming by here every now and then looking for an update - I have numerous things I want to write, and a few drafts just sitting around, but other things have had my attention lately. My putting off of school has given me quite a bit of time to waste, or spend outside the walls of my room doing other things I enjoy but haven't had the time for. However, that break from a regular schedule of schoolwork also lends itself to many nights of long hours catching up.

Anyway - I just wanted to let whomever might still be bearing with me know that there will soon be something new here...and, hopefully, the new will continue to come. But, it might be a bit of a wait (and so, by soon, I mean to ask for everyone to hold on).

Until I am able to bring anything here - please take a chance to read this article from Relevant. I don't have the time to write about it now, but it reflects a lot of things that have been on my heart lately - things that God is continually showing me and pointing me to.

Paul in Athens