"Hosanna" by Psalters

Oh is it true that songs can do what bombs have always missed? To strike the lips of power that all men have longed to kiss?
That all may know if You don't save then everything is lost, Your roadmap to freedom is from infancy to Cross. 
No rock will bear my load I'll cry out within my time, a battle cry against this world "God help me" is the line.
And as I rush upon the field I know I may fall slain, but I would rather fight and die than live my life in vain.

Who do you love most of all?

I had an interesting day last week. I wasn't feeling like the greatest Christian and I didn't feel that God was "blessing" me as much as some other days. So I got to thinking; why do I have these types of days? They don't happen very often, but it sure is a downer when they do. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the days that I don't feel like a "good Christian" are those that I love myself more than I love Christ. As a child of God, my main goal in life isn't my own satisfaction or the fulfillment of my desires, it's to glorify God with my life, share the gospel with the unsaved, build up His church, and make sure that at all times; God is my all. I get distracted quite easily with the vast amount of tasks I need to accomplish at any given time and lose sight of my goal and this always results in a lack of joy and satisfaction. True joy comes from living out your purpose, and despite what the world may say; that purpose isn't self satisfaction.

Just wanted to share this thought because it really helped me put things into perspective. Enjoy the Christmas season dear friends, keep your thoughts focused on Christ and the amazing thing that happened over 2000 years ago when God Himself came down to earth and took the form of man so that He could die for sinners like me and you. Also, remember to use this time to serve others instead of expecting to be served by them.

Blessings & Prayer

Lately I've been trying to make sure that I notice the many blessings in my life. The Lord really is good to me and all too often I pay too much attention to my trials, the difficulties in my life, shortcomings in my character and/or personality and not nearly enough to all the great things God does in my every day life. While it is, however, very important to pay attention to the not-so-pleasant things and learn from them; to dwell on the negative or difficult things is detrimental to our spiritual health and just downright unnecessary. I've been thinking more and more about how amazing it is that God saved me. This is something that's kind of become "normal" or even kind of old for me because I'm so focused on moving ahead in life, growing spiritually, and maturing as a man. What a shame that this isn't always something that makes me want to shout with joy! God saved me; a sinner, someone who hated Him. He saved me and made me His child. That's something to constantly be thankful for. God also gave me a family who loves me and is patient with me, He gave me friends who accept me and help me grow, He gave me a church where I can work to build up His kingdom and am surrounded by people who encourage me and whose lives are an example to me. There's just so much in my life to be thankful for, and so many things that aren't even on my radar that the Lord does for me every second of my life. Be thankful to God for your life. Praise Him for His goodness, His love, His care, and His patience. Don't grumble, don't dwell on the difficulties; but instead rejoice in the fact that God has given you what He's given you and use it to glorify Him with every breath He graciously grants you.

Another thing that's becoming more commonplace in my life (unfortunately quite late) is regular prayer; a deeper communion with God. I'm starting to see the importance of bringing everything to God and truly trusting Him with it. I'll be honest, my prayer life is pretty weak. I'm working on fixing that, but for a long time this wasn't something that I saw as being all that important and therefore I didn't actively work on it. I've been seeing the horrible flaw with this kind of thinking and just how much it has stunted my spiritual growth. What I've been doing recently is making prayer lists for different days of the week and actually making myself stick to them. It's such a simple thing to do, but it has very unfortunately taken me a long time to figure that out. I've experienced a HUGE blessing in seeing God actually answering prayers and seeing that He does actively work in our lives. I urge all of you to be intentional about your prayer lives if you aren't already doing so. Don't be like me, be proactive in prayer!

Peace

I've recently had the privelege of being able to see that I lack peace in my heart. Through different trials, circumstances, and occurrences in my every day life I saw that when the pressure is on me, I start to crack. It starts very slow; first I usually just become kind of quiet, more irritable, then it progresses to me worrying, stressing, getting upset, and eventually just shutting down. It was very upsetting to see these things happening in my life, and it was much more upsetting to see that this was a cycle that had been repeated every so often for quite some time. I realized that I don't find peace in God, I don't see him as one who is in control of my life. I often see myself as a victim of my circumstances and become so engulfed in this pathetic state that I lose sight of God. 

The more important lesson that I recently learned though is that God is good. He is VERY good. Despite the fact that I was so spiritually down and out, God used people in my life and His word to show me how wrong it is to despair over things that are trivial, earthly, and some that are just downright ridiculous and not at all within my control. It's interesting that I've heard that statement so many times but didn't ever dwell on it for too long. God really is good though, He's as good as good can be. That's a crazy thought, because I am not good. I sin, I hit low points, I lack trust, assurance, peace, patience, and joy. God's goodness is so good though, that it covers all of that. It's easy to think that it's unfair that we have to suffer or experience discomfort, and I unfortunately do think like this on occasion. What's really unfair though is that God forgave me, knowing that this is how I am. He loves me despite the fact that I don't always love Him. He chose me when I chose everything but Him. And he gives me peace and patiently shows me that I can't find it anywhere else.

This passage was very helpful in leading me to understand these things and I've been very blessed by the Apostle Paul's words to the Church of Philippi:

^"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:6-7

Some Thinkings

It's been a while... I've missed you.

So the last few weeks have been quite busy and I'm only now getting to slow down and rest a little bit. Last night was the first good night's sleep I've had in about a month; it was magical. Our youth group's camp and retreat were wonderful! I had a great time working at the camp, getting to be around some very serving people from our church, and spending time with our high schoolers. I was very blessed by the sermons, the worship, and the overall atmosphere.

As for retreat, what an amazing time that was! The worship at retreat was unbelievable and the fellowship truly blessed my soul. I had a chance to spend some time with some very close friends and get to know some great people (from our church as well as some visitors). I also realized something during these last few weeks: I really love our church. I've said it before, but I mean it much more now. After learning more about the church and how God is fully in control of it and is constantly working on it, I see how blessed I am to be where I am. I am now thrilled when I get to be around members from our church. It gives my heart great joy to see growth in people's lives and I thoroughly enjoy worshipping with different kinds of people. Thank you to all the people whose unique lives, personalities, and testimonies make up our beautiful church body. Thank you for your prayers, your service, your presence, and your love for God.

Having said that, there's a hymn that's been on my mind the last few days. It's been reminding me that I truly need God every moment of my life. I need His guidance, His mercy, His grace, His love, and every other characteristic that makes up our great God. Where would I be if God hadn't saved me from my life of sin and despair? I don't really want to know. The hymn is called 'I Need Thee Every Hour.' If you haven't heard this hymn yet, do give it a listen. It sounds better when sung by a choir or a good quartet, although a good quartet recording is hard to find. Here are the lyrics though, I hope you are blessed by this hymn as much as I am:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

Refrain

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

Refrain

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

Refrain

Just a thought...

How often is my faith and trust in God tested? How often do I come out feeling somewhat beaten up and more than just a little bit humbled? It is unfortunately all too often that my faith is more vocal than actual and I had a chance to be reminded of that in a very real way recently. As some of you may know, I had somewhat of a fiasco with my car and the whole thing didn't quite pan out like I would have preferred. But... something good did happen. God showed me how faithful He is when times are tough and He also showed me just how little I really trust Him.

Thank you all for your prayers in the past couple of weeks, they mean a lot and had it not been for them, I may have still been wallowing in my puddle of self pity and discontentment.

I urge all of you to not get hung up on financial difficulties and every day trials. Learn from them and become stronger as a result of the experience. Spend more time worshiping the Lord for His never ceasing goodness as opposed to questioning His actions and the directions He takes us in. Spend more time with those you love and cherish as opposed to time on your own during times of hardship, dwelling on the things that are out of your control. And most importantly, wholeheartedly praise God for the trials in your life; without them you would be weak, confused, and utterly helpless.

The End of the World?

So May 21st was supposed to be the end of the world (or the beginning of the end of the world)? As far as I know, not too much happened. From what I've read, Harold Camping's prediction was for the rapture to occur two days ago. Are the believers still here? Did I get left behind? The complete end of the world, however, is supposed to happen on October 21st of this year. This is all quite humorous but the fact is, many people are being seriously misled by this man and his false teachings, and that is no laughing matter. I was driving back from California yesterday and I saw one of these signs:

As I understand it, the only thing the Bible guarantees is this: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of the heaven, nor the son, but the Father alone." - Matthew 24:36.

It's very sad that the picture a lot of people have of Christianity is paranoia, worry, "conspiracy theory," and all of that other junk. At times like this we need to grow in our knowledge of God and His word because although the end of the world may not happen on October 21st, it will happen soon and there are still many people who are unsaved in the world. We should also be finding comfort in the fact that we'll be meeting our Lord very soon. It's important that we are able to answer people's questions about why these earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, wars, etc. are all piling up. I'm getting very excited though! The end of the world means I get to meet my God soon, and that's a fantastic truth that gives me peace.

Whenever I hear about all of this, I can't help but sing "it's the end of the world as we know, and I feel fine..." in my head.

Interesting Encounter

I had a chance to talk with a man at my college today, and it was quite an interesting  conversation. We got into a deep talk and I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him. His response was one that's not all that common... He blatantly said, "You're brainwashed man! I am shocked that you believe this crap." I had to respond to him without letting my emotions get in the way and all I said was, "Yeah, my brain has been washed, and all the junk has been filtered out." He was quite surprised by my response and just said he wanted to drop the conversation. We're all 'brainwashed' to a certain extent, it's just a matter of what your brain is washed with.

It's interesting to think that God "washes" our brain when He saves us. There's such a strong stigma attached to brainwashing, and there should definitely be some concern that tags along with the word. But, I (as well as other believers) should feel extremely privileged to have had the filth of sin and selfish desire washed out of our brains. It is unfortunately all too easy to picture the loss of our selfish inner longings or aspirations as a negative thing, but when our heart and brain are "washed" by the Lord, it becomes quite clear how detrimental and realistically dark these things truly are.

I'm glad God has washed my brain :)