Learning is a Bean Burrito

Day LIX

So, if I had to guess this will be the last post from my trip. This section will probably be left up for a while, and then relegated to the archives, to rest undisturbed for years to come. I mean, nobody really looks back there. It's sort of like the dark corner of someone else's closet.

So two hysterical things happened this week that I would like to share with you. First, I was sitting in church, and Sam Ticas was preaching on the passage in Luke in which Jesus gets into a boat to preach. He stated "Jesus didn't get into the boat because the people were all up in his business." That made me laugh.
Second, Jon and I walked into Fondelio's Starbucks, and one of his co-workers walks to the back where he's washing dishes and was like "hey Grant, your uh, homies are here." Grant was like "my homies?" and the guy said "yeah. One of them's really scruffy and one of them's really skinny. Actually, they're both really skinny."

I don't exactly agree with everything about the emerging church movement, but I certainly agree with the functinoal outcome of their ecclesiology. Check out this excerpt from an article by Scott Mcknight about the missional focus of the movement. The central element of this missional praxis is that the emerging movement is not attractional in its model of the church but is instead missional: that is, it does not invite people to church but instead wanders into the world as the church. It asks its community ?How can we help you?? instead of knocking on doors to increase membership. In other words, it becomes a community with open windows and open doors and sees Sunday morning as the opportunity to prepare for a week of service to the community, asking not how many are attending the services but what redemptive traits are we seeing in our community. It wants to embody a life that is other-oriented rather than self-oriented, that is community-directed rather than church-oriented.

(7/13/07)

Day LV

This might be the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

Beware of Geeks Bearing Riffs

On another note. I had a rather interesting conversation with a Jewish man on Friday while I was waiting for Jon at the flyaway. He told me that many Jewish-American guys my age go back to Israel to join the army. I'm not quite sure what it means, but I find it very interesting to see the kind of national identity that Jews have. If you look at any other sub-culture in America, say Asian Americans, they are unique and tend to stick to themselves. But what other culture has been displaced from their homeland as much as the Jews and yet still maintains that sort of identity? I think it's rather amazing.

I went to a Charlie Hall gig at a local church here last night. It was pretty sad, and also a good demonstration of the California mindset. It was in an auditorium that held maybe 3000 people, but there were maybe 400 there. They didn't sing, they just stood around and talked and giggled and took pictures. There was a feeling that this was not a worship service, but a concert for our entertainment. It rather annoyed me.

(7/9/07)

Day LII

I was reading last night, and I came across a verse that, especially those of us who are young, are quite familiar with:

I Timothy 4:12
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Now I know we've all read that a thousand time... we know what it says, right? What hit me this time was what's left out. Speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. No doctrine, no teaching, no knowledge, nothing relating to understanding the theology. This is especially interesting considering 2 Corinthians 8:7:

But as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you --see that you excel in this act of grace also.

You've got pretty much the same list. Why is knowledge not included in the list to Timothy? I can think of two explanations; first, Paul had taught Timothy, and so he knew that he was already knowledgeable. This very well might be the case, but I think there is another explanation. Everything in the list to Timothy relates to his actions - how he lives out his doctrine. I think this is intentional; Paul is telling Timothy that living out the doctrine he has is of first importance, and take priority over the accumulation of unused doctrine.

Now to be perfectly honest, I absolutely stink at that. I am perfectly capable of understanding any theology you throw at me. Applying something basic like actually loving people? Forget it. This, in a round-about way, brings me to something else.

A couple of weeks ago, Sisa ask me what spiritual characteristics I was looking for in a woman. At the time, I had no answer, because I hadn't really thought about it. But reading that verse really started me thinking on it, so here's what I've got. There are two characteristics I'm really looking for. First, I want someone who is willing to look at my life and my theology, and challenge me where the two don't coincide. Not just to point it out, but to keep coming back to it, so see how I'm doing with it. I want someone who's going to hold me accountable for the goals I've set in my spiritual life, and is going to push me toward them.
Secondly, I want someone who will encourage me to take risks for the cause of Christ. I'm an engineer; I don't do things until I'm absolutely sure of the result, and convinced that I want to do it. Essentially, I don't take risks. I want her to be someone who will encourage me to make decisions without knowing all the facts, and then trust the Lord to work though it. My basis for making decisions the way I do is that I'm a control freak; I don't honestly care sometimes what happens, I just want to know what's going to happen, and be the one that chooses. I want her to be someone who will challenge my control idol by forcing me to make decisions without knowing all the fact, and without knowing precisely how things will work out.

(7/6/07)

Day XLV

Here's an interesting article I found: Spurgeon's Love of Fine Cigars

This next week is going to be interesting. I'm going to be at the Baker's house by myself for 4 days. I could use prayer that I'll use that time of solitude wisely and not just sit around and waste it, because I have some serious studying I need to get done.

(6/29/07)

Day XLII

I've been reading and writing some stuff recently, so I decided to put it up here for you to read. You'll need the Office 2007 Compatibility pack to view some of them. I could just change the format, but I'm lazy. These are both works in progress, so throw me comments. Rum is acceptable in lieu of comments.

Attraction Questions
Leading Worship

So here's a couple random thoughts I've had recently; there is no particular reason I've put these up here, aside from the fact that I happen to be thinking about them while I'm writing.

The first is a quote from my rather opinionated economics prof:

"People also retire at a much earlier age and they live longer after retirement; this means the quality of life has increased."

Now he didn't conjure that up himself - that's the way most Americans think, but why? We assume that work is a necessary evil, but is it? Nope. It's just interesting to note that a large part of our economic system's view of the end goal of life is counter-biblical.

The second is that an inordinate number of American movies are based on someone not fitting in, and that person finally gaining acceptance and, if not fitting in, at least being respected and finding others who appreciate them for who they are. Three great examples are Never Been Kissed, It's a Boy/Girl Thing, and She's the Man. From what I can tell, none of those movies are really worth watching, but just look at the plot summaries; a girl who failed in the high-school popularity contest gets a second chance. A girl who failed the high-school popularity contest switches bodies with her neighbor, a jock, and learns to loosen up, while he learns to appreciate her for who she is. A high-school girl is not allowed to play on the guy's soccer team, so she becomes a guy so that she can show the boys what she's got. Is it any wonder I hate modern movies? There's plenty more... My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Accepted, Napoleon Dynamite, basically any movie with any romance in it produced in the last 10 years. Now I'm not saying they don't have a valid point, I'm just wondering why on earth being accepted and being yourself have to feature so prominently in every movie? Look at how effective it's been... if anything, people are trying more than ever to look, act, talk, and portray themselves as someone else. Could it be that America has realized that we are failing as a culture due to lack of absolutes and is desperately trying to recover by resorting to a form of individual humanism? This is in essence idealizing lack of ideals by promoting acceptance of everything. Just my 2C.

(6/26/07)

Day XXXIV

I figured Yosemite deserved more than one picture, so I put up the stitch that Jon did with photoshop for you, Sisa. It's from the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. That waterfall on the left is around 2500 feet tall. It was pretty amazing. The second one is just sort of a random one I took of Jon and Liz on Charlie and Jack. Enjoy.

(6/18/07)

Day XXXII

So I was reading through a Stuart Brannon book, and I ran across this quote. I enjoyed it, so I figured I'd put it up here.

"Well, Earl, I have no idea in the world how a man knows for sure who to marry. The way I figure it is, you got to find a woman who wants to spend her life with you. Then you ask the Lord to help you be the kind of man she needs. After that, you make up your mind that you're going to stick it out no matter how much work it takes."
"I've sure been thinking about it a lot lately."
"Well, don't over-think it."
"Over-think?"
"Like gold flakes in a pan... if you keep washin' them around long enough, they'll slop out with the sand."

(6/16/07)

Day XXX

Three things.

Firstly, Tuesday was my first day working for the ranch. We went down to a farmer's market in West Covina. Now one thing you must realize. This is California. Therefore, they have fresh strawberries. By fresh, I mean picked less than an hour ago. Now take those, and add them to lemonade made from fresh lemons, and what do you get? The world's most delicious strawberry lemonade. Two words: chemically addictive.

Segundo, I watched Pirates 3 today. I am not what you call impressed. Sure, it blew the second one out of the water, but that's not very hard. Call me picky, but I just didn't like it, and being an engineer, you're going to get why in an outline form.
A) There were no great characters. Everyone betrayed everyone, meaning that there was no one standing on the high moral ground. I am like Mr. Darcy, and, with one exception, "my good opinion once lost is lost for ever."
B) The plot was a mess. admittedly, this one had a plot, which is more than can be said for 2, but it was so convoluted and things kept changing so fast that you can never sit down and look the thing square in the eye. I think a lot of this comes from Bruckheimer's tv show background, and there I don't mind it. In a full length movie, however, you don't have a series to expand and develop things in. Like Spiderman 3, the movie was done well, but would have benefited from a simpler plot and more development.
C) How the dickens did they kill the Kraken? That thing was an unstoppable force in two, but it's suddenly gone? I don't buy it. That's sort of the way a lot of things seemed in this movie; they sort of vanish without a trace, and are never properly explained. It might be that watching all three together would help with this, but seriously, I shouldn't have to do that. For example, what the heck happened to the crabs in Davie Jones' locker? And what's with Jack's delusions?
D) Bruckheimer seems to have taken the same tack with his movie as he does with CSI; the more gore and slime the better. For example, the scene where the guy breaks his toe off. Why was that necessary? Sure, it was funny, in a disturbing sort of way. The same Jack pulling out his brain. He does the same thing in CSI; I don't really want to see realistic looking autopsies.
E) Lastly, I'm a classical studies major, meaning I study Greek and Roman mythology, and they messed around with so much of it in this series that it make me turn purple.

The last thing was I watched this movie called Next. It wasn't an incredibly great movie, basically just a well done action movie. However it brought up two interesting things; first, the whole idea of clairvoyance. I firmly believe that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon. I don't believe that it is infallible, as it appears in the movie, and I have a hard time believing that it could ever extend more than a couple of seconds.
The second thing is the movie provides a good example of Biblical roles in marriage. She complements him, extends and makes his gifts more effective. Anyway, those are my random comments from the movie.

(6/14/07)

Day XXVII

I have almost reached the half-way point of this trip. It's been fun, thought-provoking, and a very, very good chance to relax and, as my now infamous saying goes... "hit the refresh button on the browser of life."

To be perfectly honest, one of the biggest blessings has been not going to Harvest. Probably the hardest part about Christianity for me is actually caring; whether it be people or our church or my attitude, I tend to look at it with an engineering mindset: it either works or it doesn't, and all it needs to do is work. It's been great to go to Copperhill. I'm playing in the band, helping set up and tear down every sunday, talking to people, and so on. I've already met like twenty people, and the really cool thing about them is I know for a fact that their not judging me because I'm wearing jeans on stage, or because I say "crap." It's not that they're doing those things, its just that the people here don't care about the little things. It's also great to see the number of folks my age involved. So far, I haven't seen anyone involved in leadership who's over 50, but there are still old folks coming. That's not to say those folks aren't involved, but it's very much behind the scenes. It's like they're in the back providing guidance, but letting the young guys go out and try it. I think a lot of times Harvest has the mentality where the old folks say "we're going to do it ourselves instead of teaching you, because you young people might mess it up."

Anyway, 'nough of my griping. Here's an intersting cultural/religious statement made by my econ prof.

"If you know truth and act on it, the result is wealth, health, and prosperity, and all the other things you want."

That last phrase is especailly interesting, because he defines economics this way:

"Economics examines the issue of how people use their scarce resources in an attempt to satisfy their unlimited wants"

Anyway, something a little more amusing that I found this morning. This guy is apparently a prof at Master's. His students have made a facebook group dedicated to his ammusing quotations. Check it out.

Society for the Preservation of Suzuki Quotes

(6/11/07)

Day XXIV

That's a shot of Half-Dome in Yosemite valley. I was there for 3 days with my family and the Bakers. It was great, but not as spectacular as last time, because it was cloudy most of the time. Nonetheless, it's an amazing place, no matter what the weather, and quite a tribute to the glory of our Creator. The valley holds two of the worlds ten tallest waterfalls; Yosemite falls stands drops about 2500 feet. I'll put up a picture of that later.

I'm now in my pseudo-home for the summer: Acton CA. I'll be here till July 12th, when I'll be flying to Seattle. I should be getting home on the 16th, which I believe is a Monday. Its going to be an interesting experience here, because in a way things have settled down, but, not being Blacksburg, I think this is still going to feel like a vacation instead of a home. Anyway, on to something from BC. I've seen this too, and I totally agree with his conclusion, although I'm not sure how it should be lived out. I think a good place to start is by combining goodness with excellence.

"The other day in the airport I saw a SEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL wearing a shirt imprinted with the words "porn star." I sat there wondering how I should respond. And the one thought that kept coming to mind was "make goodness fashionable" -- a line used by William Wilberforce in the 19th century. Make GOODNESS fashionable. In other words, make goodness, truth, and beauty cool again."

(6/8/07)

Day XX

We're leaving the Baker's today to go to Yosemite. From there my family will return to Blacksburg, and I will return to Acton. I now think that I'll be getting back on Sunday night, the 16th. We went to a rodeo on Saturday night, which was lots of fun. They had a barn dance afterwards, but it was too late, so we didn't go. My mom is yelling at me to go, so I'll put more up later.

(6/4/07)

Day XVI

I'm at the Baker's. I suppose that this would be my third day here. We had worship practice yesterday, and I'm playing acoustic on Sunday, which is gonna be amazingly fun. I haven't played with a real band for almost a year, so I had a great time at practice. I is a little irritating, because everyone else in the band is a music major or something, so they're all way better than I am. Jon and I have been getting up every day at 7:00 to go running, so I'll hopefully be in very good shape when I get back to the burg. I'm thinking about running the Odyssey Trail Half Marathon in September. Due to some changes in plans, I'm not sure when I'm gonna get back.

Here's something I found interesting. It's a rather good article about how "offensive language" changes over time, and if Christians should swear. Essentially what it says is, use whatever language best conveys what you want to say in the vernacular of the culture, but never offend people. I agree. Anyway, see for yourself. If you're wondering, I didn't find this; John Piper did.

Offensive Language: I Think My Mother Taught Me

(6/1/07)

Day XIV

I have now arrived in California. I'll post more later, as more stuff happens. I don't think that I really have much reason to post, as most of the people that read my blog are Baker, and I'm now living at your house. Oh well. We sat in the car for about 6 hours, and then we ate at Baja Fresh. Fresh it may be, but their definition of spicy is rather bland, coming from a so-called Mexican restaurant. I have no more pictures, because I haven't really done anything since the Grand Canyon.

(5/30/07)

Day XIII

First, let me say that MREs (Military issue meals ready to eat) are an abomination mankind, and a disgrace to the fine culinary arts which we as a country hold so dear. On the other hand, I should have expected it to be as bad as it was when I opened my "Mexican Rice" and it came out as a solid slab, which cracked in half upon impact with my plate. Just terrible.

The first one is a shot from about halfway down the wall of the canyon. We did a 9.2 mile hike down to near the floor today as a family. I did an extra 3 miles out to the edge of this plateau, and the second shot is of the Colorado River from this point. The hike was rather difficult, both because of it's length, and because I had to do 6 straight miles of uphill, in the dryness, heat, and dust of the Grand Canyon. It was rather fun, however, just not something I intend to do again any time soon. The canyon is like a furnace; there's no shade, and the dark rock just makes everything hotter. It probably wasn't over 80, but I was as hot as I've ever been. The last one is of some little mountain sheep we came across on the way back up. My wildlife for the day also included a pair of California Condors and a rattlesnake. We left the canyon this evening, and are now headed to Cali, to meet up with the Bakers, where I will be staying till the middle of July.

(5/29/07)

Day XII

These two pictures were taken at Bryce Canyon. The second one is basically what the entire canyon is like. I took these on a 7-mile hike we did yesterday. The first one is just a convenient excuse to put up a picture of my sister. We spent most of yesterday hiking, and then we just lounged around the campsite in the afternoon. I am finding that I am rather out of shape, what with the altitude (9000'), the temperature (80 f), and the lack of humidity (I've gotten dehydrated twice so far). We spend most of today driving from Bryce to the Grand Canyon, and then we went out and hiked about 4 miles and took some pictures at sunset

Oh man. There's so much I want to tell you all. I'm so confused and weary right now, but I'm also joyful and excited. It's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. I'm weary because, as you probably know, I'm somewhat obsessive. If I find a problem and set my mind to it, I will not stop until I find the solution. As Momma B has told me, "Matt, you over analyze everything." I've sat here and thought and thought about this decision for hours and hours. I've analyzed hundreds of different possibilities, thought through my different options (of which I guess there are only two - do it or drop it), and basically just thought the thing to death. Now this is obviously not good, for two reasons; first, it means I'm killing myself. Second, it means that I'm trying to figure all this out with my own intellect, which is generally my response to anything I can't figure out. This is not necessarily bad; God gave it to me for something, but if I'm relying on it instead of Him, it's a problem. And I certainly am.
That's why I'm weary.

I'm joyful because I've been spending a lot of time in the word. God's word is sort of like crack; it makes you happy even when your life's not great, it's addictive, and it totally messes with your life. I can agree with George Mueller: every time I open it, I find something that's wrong in my life. It's also been cool because I'm finding that when you dwell in the word, it comes to life. By this I mean that it ceases to only exist as words in a book, and begins to interact with your world. I was just walking to the GC tonight, and all of a sudden Psalm 8 just was there. "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Standing next to the GC was a great living example of this. I'm also happy because I've been listening to a lot of Pastor B's stuff, and I've (following good engineering) come up with somewhat of a formula to make my decision for me. The idea here is to get my deceitful heart out of the picture, and answer the wise questions he posed. I guess at this point I should probably say that I thought more about my previous decision, and I feel that it was still largely based on following the desires of my heart, rather than Biblical wisdom. At this point, I'm going to shut up about this, because I feel like I'm repeating myself, and I'm guessing that ya'll are rather bored of hearing about how confused my addled brain is. If you want to know, call me and ask. I will most certainly want to talk about it.

(5/28/07)

Day IX

Here's some pictures from today. Neiher of them are all that spectacular, but that's just too bad. Beth took a couple awesome ones, so I may steal them later as post them, because they're way better than any I took.

It's Beth's birthday today. She is now 17. Hooray for my awesome sister!!! And shame on everyone who didn't call to wish her a happy birthday. Gosh

We were at Arches National Monument today. It was pretty sweet. We did a 7-mile hike early this morning, and it went way up on this plateau, from which we could see probably a hundred miles in every direction. It was seriously hot, and being my normal stupid self, I took very little water, and henceforth got rather dehydrated. I also did the ceremonial sunburn of the year. For those of you who don't know, I always sunburn once at the beginning of the summer, and for some reason never sunburn again. It was really hot, and between that, direct sunlight, and high altitude, I was dead by the end of the day.

I was doing a little thinking today, but that whole being dead thing extended to my brain, so I really wasn't doing much. Most of what I was thinking about was how the "good" talked about in Romans 8 is what is talked about in the next verse, namely our conformation to the image of Christ. Or rather, not everything works together to what we see as good, but everything in our lives as believers works to conform us to the image of Christ.

(5/25/07)

Days VII and VIII

There, you can have some pictures. Because I love ya'll. The first one is Beth at the Great Sand Dunes. They're pretty cool. Its a gi-freakin-normous beach in the middle of Colorado, with snow capped mountains behind it. We had to wade through a stream to get there (she's standing in the stream during the picture) and since the water is snow run-off, it was about 2 degrees. It was really cool, and somewhat of a surreal experience. The second one is at Mesa Verde, which is a bunch of cliff dwellings. They've been there for the last 800 years. They were built by the direct ancestors of the modern day Peublo people, so we actually still have a lot of their oral tradition. Some of those houses are almost impossible to get to. It's a rather vivid reminder of the Biblical idea of a city on a hill; you can see then from miles away (provided you have a good set of binoculars).

Here's what I've been thinking about the past two days.
You know, I don?t really even begin to understand how precious wisdom is. Check out this verse from Proverbs 8. Wisdom has just described creation, saying "when God did this part, and when God did this part." Now we're sitting here going "when He did that, what?" She says "I was beside Him as a master workman, and I was daily His delight." God himself delights in wisdom. Now admittedly, this is sort of weird, because Christ is called Wisdom in the New Testament, so in a sense, God is rejoicing in Himself. I think that's pretty incredible, though. We are told that we are supposed to be seeking this thing that gives God himself joy.

I really feel like God has showed me His calling for my life. I was reading in Acts the other day, and came to the passage about the selection of men to take care of the widows. In it the disciples say "it is not desirous for us to neglect the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task." In my case, its computers, not widows, but I think it's the same thing. I don't have any gifts in the area of evangelism, or anything like that. I'm fairly sure I'm not called to go lead a team of missionaries to a foreign country or anything like that. What I am called to do is to support those who are doing that by taking over the background work that needs done to facilitate their work. I had a great example of this in the past couple weeks; the most fulfilling thing I've done in a long time was taking people to the airport and emptying coolers for the NANC folks. I wasn?t really doing anything major, it was just stuff that I had the opportunity to do that needed done. Most people would probably be like "yeah, I guess I can empty that cooler for ya" but for me, it was something that gave me joy. The only thing that I?m still not sure about with this is where music and leading singing fit in, because that?s something else that I find very fulfilling. Maybe that's another part of God's calling, or maybe it's just that that strokes my control idol. I'll have to work on figuring it out.

Psalm 119:74 says "may those who fear You see me and be glad, because I wait for Your Word." That's something that I really wish I had; a reputation as such a godly man that people just wanted to be around me, not because of my jokes, or my ideas, but because of my godliness. I think that that's something we should all desire, and that we should be helping each other work toward. One thing that God has really been showing me lately is the importance of praying together, wherever we are, whether it's talking on the phone, or chilling at the mountain, or what, we should be constantly in prayer with each other and sharing things to pray about.

As I read through Psalm 119, I've been noticing that a lot of the text is the author crying out, because he is being persecuted; what is his response to this persecution? He does two things: he recognizes the Lord's sovereignty in his situation, and he desires the word. This is powerful, because in times of stress, we tend to do a lot more speaking out of the abundance of the heart. If that's what he's doing at this time, then that's what's in his heart; he desires God.

(5/24/07)

Day VI

Almost a week. We left Lincoln today, and made it to Pueblo CO. It was really good to hang with the fam, and we got to go to my cousin's church, which was cool. They have a Hillsong-style band, which is a little different from my normal thing, but it was good. I started my summer classes yesterday, and I was up till about 2 working on that. I'll probably pull the same thing tonight, cause I have to finish the entire first two weeks of classes by tomorrow morning, since we won't have internet at the Grand Canyon. That was a pretty cool run-on sentence. I've made both of the big decisions I had to make, which is a weight off my mind in some ways, but in other ways it's another load. It was cool to see God at work, however; I remembered a conversation with Doug where we talked about what would be hardest for us to give up to follow the call of Christ, and for me one of the hardest is Blacksburg. When Jon suggested that I come out there, my first reaction was "no way, that would mean I'll be away from Blacksburg for two months. I can't do that." Then I thought "is this how I would react if I was called to foreign missions? Sorry God, I can't go, it's not Blacksburg." So I've decided that I'm going to go, as much as I'm going to miss ya'll back home. Then I commented to my uncle that I was going, and he volunteered to fly me home. So I'm sort of thinking that that's God at work.

I've also decided to go ahead with the other thing I was deciding about. I need ya'll to pray that I will be patient and wise in how and, more importantly, when, I do it, since there is a good probability that it will get thrown back in my face. Also, pray that I will be more passionate and focused on God than I am on this, and pray that God will give me joy, no matter what the outcome. I am trying to get my head around the command to rejoice always and in everything give thanks, because I am fairly sure that rejoicing is not going to be my first response if things don't go the way I want to. I figure that a good place to start is the middle of that command: pray without ceasing.

Here's some other stuff I've been thinking about.

Psalm 119:74 says "may those who fear You see me and be glad, because I wait for Your Word." That's something that I really wish I had; a reputation as such a Godly man that people just wanted to be around me, not because of my jokes, or my ideas, but because of my godliness. I think that that's something we should all desire, and that we should be helping each other work toward. One thing that God has really been showing me lately is the importance of praying together, wherever we are, whether it's talking on the phone, or chilling at the mountain, or what, we should be constantly in prayer with each other and sharing things to pray about.
As I read through Psalm 119, I?ve been noticing that a lot of the text is the author crying out, because he is being persecuted; what is his response to this persecution? He does two things: he recognizes the Lord?s sovereignty in his situation, and he desires the word. This is powerful, because in times of stress, we tend to do a lot more speaking out of the abundance of the heart. If that?s what he?s doing at this time, then that?s what?s in his heart; he desires God.

(5/22/07)

Day III

We're in Lincoln today, so we're basically just hanging with the family. I went and hung out with my cousin Aaron, who was making a stop-motion animated film with some of his friends. It was pretty sweet to see how they did it, but it got rather boring, as it requires movement of the characters between every frame, meaning you get about 10 seconds an hour.

Sometimes Beth can be rather peculiar. For example, today we were just walking along, and all of a sudden she burst out with "You know, the difference between American motorcycles and Japanese motorcycles is that Japanese motorcycles make you feel like a chipmunk, but American motorcycles make you feel like a sea otter." That pretty much made my day.
On to better things...

I like the Westminster Catechism's definition of prayer: Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies.

Right now, I'm having a rather hard time with that verse in Matthew "whoever loves father or mother (or, if I may follow the logical implication, any other person) more than me, is not worthy of me." What we love is demonstrated by our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions. Therefore, if we are spending more time thinking, or being with, or devoting ourselves to, or even praying for, anything other than Christ and His glory we are "not worthy of Him."

(5/18/07)

Day II

Well, despite the setbacks yesterday, we made it to Lincoln today. It was a fairly long day (800 miles), and I drove for about 2 hours. But I got through another chapter in Piper's When I Don't Desire God, and I came up with a plan of sorts for my Bible study in the car. As Piper said, it's always good to have a plan, because while I'm going through about 7 books in the New Testament and most of Psalms and Proverbs, there's plenty of the Word left for spontaneous reading. I'm a little apprehensive about how much free time I'm really going to have, what with taking 6 credit hours on the road, but we'll see. Anyway, here's what I've been thinking about.

Have you ever read the story of the selection of Matthias? It's an interesting situation. The apostles needed a replacement for Judas, so they sat down and looked at the brethren gathered together, and chose two men. However they didn't make the final selection, rather they cast lots for that. I can see only two reasons for this; either they, using the wisdom given unto them by God were unable to make a decision, or they simply preferred to leave the final selection up to God. Now remember, these are some of the most godly men who have ever lived; they are lead by Peter, who is the rock upon which God built his church and a writer of scripture. I'd be willing to bet that they went about this in a Godly way, so what does this say for us?

Our plans are not our own. Like in the gospels, everything we do must be prefaced with "if the Lord wills." This means that sometimes, we may feel strongly a certain way, and follow those feelings, and not get that which we desire, and yet have fulfilled the will of God. It seems to me that God often allows us to chase something in order for us to rely on Him; if we won't come to Him of our own accord, He will draw us to Himself through circumstances he places in our lives. If this means that we must be disappointed, then so be it.

Second, sometimes God doesn't let us make our own plans. He will intentionally allow us to get to a spot where we can't, even through the wisdom He gives us, make a decision. At this point, we must simply trust, and take a risk. I think of George Mueller, who ran an orphanage in England. He often was completely out of money to feed his children, yet he never turned a child away. As illogical as it appears, he trusted God to provide and work, and God never failed Him.

(5/17/07)

Day I

So one flat tire and dead battery later, we've made it Louisville, Indiana. That was rather disappointing, but I guess there's some reason for it. I've been thinking a lot about different things; the stories of Boaz and Ruth and Leah and Rachel. I also had a long conversation with myself prayer, and why I'm praying what I'm praying. Here's a little Piper for you.

I John 5:14
This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if ask anything according to His will He hears us.

Prayer is not for gratifying our natural desires. It is for gratifying our desires when those desires have been so purified and saturated with Christ and His word that they coincide with His plans. This happens more and more as the Word of Christ abides in us.

(5/16/07)