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Road Trip, God Trip

Posted on June 30, 2010
3 Comments

We hope to see this, or something like this, in a month or so.

For our vacation this year we’ll be visiting Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Zion National Park. We’re gonna do it in seven days spending each night in a tent.

That’s part of the plan. The other part of the plan is to get away, far away, and see things that look nothing like San Bernardino and Southern California.

Our plan isn’t particularly earthly though, although it may appear that way.  Our plan is to see the glory, the beauty, the power, and the magnificence of our God.

It’s part road trip and part God trip.

Photo credit

Very deep, very quickly

Posted on May 17, 2010
4 Comments

There are some places that are hallowed and sacred. This picture is of people looking out onto Ground Zero.  And Ground zero is such a place and rightly so.

There are also some relationships that hallowed and sacred. Marriage is one. Parent-child is another. Such relationships are always to be well-guarded and highly prized.

For Christians, Jesus Christ is to be hallowed and sacred. He’s not to become common or distant and powerless in the details of our daily lives.

For many people, Ground Zero evokes a gut-level response. The feelings go very deep, very quickly. How we feel about Jesus is to be the same exact way.

Photo credit (See this one and this one too. He’s good!)

Imperfect Bodies

Posted on May 15, 2010
4 Comments

Honor, duty, faithfulness. All virtues we esteem.

Our journey through life, as Christians, takes many turns. Some of them rather common and a few rather exhilarating. Steadiness and consistency may seem boring, but they are actually quite hard to do. For example, to be consistently patient towards those who drive us nuts is hard.

Sometimes the hardest things to do is to do the right things faithfully for the right reason.

Hard things can be easier when we emotionally connect them to our love for Jesus. To love our church and to love those in them is sometimes hard. But if we connect the people in the church to our love for the Head of the church, and see ourselves collectively as the body of our Lord, we can gain a new perspective and motivation to love our Christian brothers and sisters.

It’s sometimes easy to bemoan the church for all its imperfections. But replace “church” with “body of Jesus Christ” and our sense of honor and duty and faithfulness to the church should be stirred and rekindled. Thankfully, Jesus is good at stirring up our love for the things that really matter.

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Busy Hands

Posted on April 22, 2010
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“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”

Sometimes it is easy to have idle hands. At other times we find out hands quite busy.

We have to be careful of doing things that give us and others the appearance of being busy, but in effect have very little to do with the Lord’s will or things that matter for eternity.

Let’s do things mightily, but mightily for something much bigger than us.

Photo credit.  Ecclesiastes 9:10. See it BETTER

Scaley & Scary

Posted on April 21, 2010
2 Comments

Lizards, like all creation, reflect the glory of God.

At first glance, their just another scaley creature. Perhaps a scarey creature too.

But upon some thoughtful observation a lizard will clearly reveal his divine Maker.

How so? Well, we gotta slow down and move past a first glance and into thoughtful observation.

That wont happen in a moment or a quick read of a blog. But if we’ll slow down enough and want it enough, we can see God in this lizard.

Give it a try.

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Bigger, better, grander

Posted on April 20, 2010
2 Comments

Some see grand things and are wowed by nature.

Others see grand things and are wowed with what God says about Himself through nature.

Jesus is behind this because of Colossians 1:16-17 and because of Hebrews 1:3.

Photo Credit.  See this BIG.  See many more.

We never know…

Posted on April 19, 2010
3 Comments

Death is always a bit closer than we’d like to think. It’s never wise to think to get too confident in the future.

Life, though, is at hand. And it is not only wise, but proper, to live to life to the full just as the Lord prescribed.

Tomorrow could be death and the joy of the presence of the Lord. But today is life and the joy of loving Jesus.

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Growth, Natural Growth

Posted on April 18, 2010
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It’s Springtime and that means Spring flowers are starting to grow in abundance.

It’s just natural. It’s just the way things are. It’s a God thing.

And it’s the way we’re designed too. It’s just the way things are. It’s a God thing that we’d continue to grow spiritually.

It’s not all that hard, even though we sometimes make it hard.  Our hearts know what’s natural. It longs to see more, and learn more, hear more. It want to be enlightened, encouraged, inspired, convicted, and motived.

It Springtime and it’s time to grow. It’s a God thing.

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So easily distracted

Posted on March 13, 2010
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We are all swayed, wooed, influenced, carried away, prevailed upon quite easily.

How do we know this? How easily are we distracted from the important (quality reading) and settle for the unimportant (TV)? How easily do we forsake wisdom (eat less) and happily succumb to folly (eating too much)?

Jesus said to love God with all our heart. And by that, John Piper thinks He meant, “Loving God is most essentially treasuring God. … If one of our human capacities finds pleasure in anyone or anything in such a way that this pleasure is not also a delight in God, then we have not loved God with all that capacity.”

To guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) is to guard our love for God. To guard our love for God is to be truly in love with Him.

Photo credit The quote comes from John Piper’s book, What Jesus Demands from the world, page 81

God does change things

Posted on March 10, 2010
2 Comments

It is easy to forget where we are and who we are.

The creation is always in the midst of the creator. The finite is always very near the infinite.  The small within sight of the massive.

The disciples went fishing. Jesus came along walking. They caught nothing. Jesus offered to change that. They obeyed. Jesus filled their nets.

In the midst of the creator the disciples saw what they were unable to see on their own.

This is no small thing. Once again we are reminded that God does change things. And of all things needed most, God changes hearts.

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