Pat's Ponderings

Zechariah: The Man & His Visions

2008-02-09T18:05:00.000-06:00

Oddly enough, I picked up reading through some of the Minor Prophets this past week and have found the prophet Zechariah to have had a ton of insight into the story of our Redemption through Jesus Christ. Of course, I suppose he should have a lot of insight, being inspired by the Holy Spirit and all. Anyway, I was sitting in Starbucks earlier today and read the following passage:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.
-Zechariah 3:1-5

How sweet is that picture? A wonderful representation of the salvation that Jesus has purchased for us by His blood. May we learn to walk in the joy of clean garments!

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts.

And This Shall Be No More: Part Two - Shattered Lives

2007-10-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

Two Iraqi women were killed in a controversial shooting by members of a private security company on Tuesday, and, obviously, our media was inundated with columns and opinions surrounding the incident. It seems to be a fairly popular news tactic to smear messages and images of the violence and despair across magazines, newspapers, and the internet. But, when I began to read this article, my heart plummeted to the depths of my stomach. I felt a devastating burden of brokenness, not because of the words describing their deaths - I suppose I've grown far too used to that already - but rather because of the photograph that headlined the article.

The moment I saw it, my heart screamed, "This should never be!" And even now, as I look back to remember the boy's eyes, my soul groans and aches. I look at his once innocent eyes and see nothing but fear. I look at his face that surely once smiled and laughed and see nothing but shock and despair. Oh, what must be running through this boy's mind?! "I will never be able to go outside again to play." "I know the boy whose mother's blood that is." "I walked down that street five minutes before." "I may be killed soon...." I will never be able to express the depth of the pain in his soul. I cannot even begin to form words for how I feel!

And please, don't hear this as political rhetoric on the war in Iraq. Throw politics out the window! The broken innocence of this one Iraqi boy covers the globe. Just this week, an entire village was razed in Darfur, rape has been devastating women in the Congo, and homeless families in New York are facing more red tape. Crises with gang violence in Haiti are still pressing, and protesters are met with violent force in Myanmar in continued conflict. And these are just the ones that could be found quickly.

A man killing another man because of ethnic and religious differences is atrocious as it is. But, when innocence is shattered, like that one Iraqi boy, my gut screams and my soul weeps.

Oh, fix us, Lord Jesus! Heal us! Wipe away our tears, mend our hearts, erase our fears! Let that small Iraqi boy find peace and love in you alone. Only you can do it, Father. Bring your peace! Let us be ministers of Your peace. Love people through us. Oh, for the day when you will make all things new and shattered lives shall be no more!

Revelation 21:4

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and Culture.

Embracing Accusation & Love Alone

2007-09-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

These two songs by Shane & Shane and Caedmon's Call have really meant a lot to me lately and reflect a good deal about where life has been in recent months - from dealing with sin and shame to feeling a burden for ministry to the helpless. I wish that I could write more, but I doubt I'll have the time. So, here are the lyrics:

Embracing Accusation
Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, "Cursed are the ones who can't abide"

He's right, hallelujah, he's right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of
God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I hear him saying, "Cursed are the ones who can't abide"

The devil's singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He's forgotten the refrain.
JESUS SAVES!!!

--Shane & Shane, Pages

Love Alone
No one would love me
if they knew all the things I hide
My words fall to the floor
As tears drip through the telephone line

And the hands I’ve seen raised to the sky
Not waving but drowning all this time
I'll try to build an ark that they need
To float to you upon the crystal sea

Chorus:
Give me your hand to hold
'Cause I can't stand to love alone
And love alone is not enough to hold us up
We've got to touch your robe
So swing your robe down low
Swing your robe down low

The prince of despair's been beaten
But the loser still fights
Death's on a long leash
Stealing my friends to the night

And everyone cries for the innocent
You say to love the guilty too
And I'm surrounded by suffering and sickness
So I'm working tearing back the roof

Repeat Chorus

And the pain of the world is a burden
And it's my cross to bear
And I stumble under all the weight
I know you're Simon standing there
And I know you're standing there

--Caedmon's Call, Long Line of Leavers

This post categorized under Musical Musings.

And This Shall Be No More: Part One - Pain & Death

2007-07-09T11:07:00.000-05:00

I was fourteen years old. Most of the time, I was just concerned with enjoying the summer and making sure I didn't look un-cool around the girls. I had just returned from a youth choir trip in Washington, D.C. and was pretty excited about that. I don't remember a whole lot, but I do distinctly remember sitting on the counter-top in the kitchen telling my folks about the trip. I remember feeling like something wasn't quite right though. As soon as my dad said, "Patrick, we have something to tell you," I knew exactly what had happened. My grandmother had died. We found out a few months earlier that she had terminal lung cancer, probably caused from heavy amounts of cigarette smoke when she was younger and before we knew its horrific effects.

I really only remember my grandmother smoking once, though. It was outside the hospital just before my little sister was born. There had been numerous complications with my mom, placing a lot of stress on my grandmother's shoulders. I guess I never really realized how stressful the situation was. I was only twelve. But then, my grandmother pulled a pack of cigarettes from her purse, lit one, and apologized to me. Neither of us knew what that smoke was doing to her body.

I do remember lying in bed crying and getting on my knees to pray after we found out about the cancer. I remember asking God to heal her, asking Him to do a miracle. Everyone said that it was hopeless though. And, I remember watching her health decline with the chemo. I'm sure I have no idea the extent of its effect, but I remember playing cards in her kitchen, while the cold green oxygen tank sat on the floor beside us, small plastic tubes running up to her nostrils. I remember that it was hard for her to walk and then that it was hard for her to sit up, but I wasn't ready for her to go.

I remember the visitation and the funeral, crying because I knew that my Nanny would never be back to play cards or Yahtzee or dominoes. She would never be back to watch us swim in the pool. She would never be back to talk to when things were hard. She was simply gone. I cried because I missed her.

Death just has a certain stinging emptiness. It's a feeling that doesn't want to leave. It brings questions and doubt and loneliness. Looking back, I don't feel the same pain of Nanny being gone. I do miss her, but I've learned how to deal with it I guess. Still, it makes me wonder why life just seems to be so ravaged by death, why things must be so painful. Yet I know that we have a good Father who loves His children, and we must rest in His sovereignty as we joyfully await the promise that pain and death shall be no more.

Revelation 21:4

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and Family.

Quote Wall

2007-05-17T23:26:00.001-05:00

Just some sweet quotations that I've come across over the past little while.... Enjoy.

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He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
-Micah 6:8

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
-Galatians 6:14

The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is as eternal as God's throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God works in.
-Oswald Chambers

The passion of Christianity is that I deliberately sign away my own rights and become a bond-slave of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I do not begin to be a saint.
-Oswald Chambers

Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.
-Jim Elliot

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
-Jim Elliot

So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does.
-Oswald Chambers

The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit.
-Oswald Chambers

When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.
-Oswald Chambers

Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.
-Oswald Chambers

If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.
-Oswald Chambers

Simple assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ, is by Biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving, and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions.
–J.I. Packer

Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with Him, they will find life and find it abundantly.
- Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

No one who knows and loves Christ can be content to come to Him alone.
-John Piper, Desiring God

Mystery of Mercy

2007-04-09T19:28:00.000-05:00

I've been reminded recently of the vastness of God's mercy towards us, His children, and it has brought me to my knees with both cries of anguish and of joy. This song by Caedmon's Call seemed to catch the feeling this afternoon:

I am the woman at the well, I am the harlot
I am the scattered seed that fell along the path
I am the son that ran away
And I am the bitter son that stayed

My God, my God why hast though accepted me
When all my love was vinegar to a thirsty King?
My God, my God why hast though accepted me
It's a mystery of mercy and the song, the song I sing

I am the angry man who came to stone the lover
I am the woman there ashamed before the crowd
I am the leper that gave thanks
But I am the nine that never came

My God, my God why hast though accepted me
When all my love was vinegar to a thirsty King?
My God, my God why hast though accepted me
It's a mystery of mercy and the song, the song I sing

You made the seed that made the tree
That made the cross that saved me
You gave me hope when there was none
You gave me your only Son

My God, my God, Lord you are
My God, my God, Lord you are
My God

-Mystery of Mercy, Caedmon's Call

Oh, the great weight of our Father's good mercies! They are new every morning! (Lamentations 3:22-23)

This post categorized under Musical Musings.

Let Me Be Crazy

2007-03-31T13:43:00.000-05:00

Some say David was manic-depressive. John the Baptist wore a robe of camel's hair and ate locusts and honey. Peter, an uneducated fisherman, stood in front of the religious elite to define and defend his faith. Paul was on his way to arrest believers when he was called to preach, and eventually die for, the Gospel he was trying to kill; he's still considered the world's most powerful and influential missionary.

History has known it's share of those branded with the label of lunacy for the sake of Christ: Martin Luther, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oswald Chambers, Jim Elliot. These are joined by those countless brothers and sisters living in Asia who still today must meet in secrecy, by those in the Middle East facing violent murder each day of their lives, and by all those others who have defied society and government by boldly proclaiming the Name of Jesus. All these saints, by the bold statements of their lives, have joined in Paul's passionate outcry to the church at Philippi:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith -- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
(Philippians 3:7-11)

This again coming from the man whose credentials precede these statements - a man who, by the standards of social status, wealth, and even the established religious system of his day, had obtained everything considered good. So, when he calls all that wealth and glory the vilest of waste, those around him immediately wrote him off as insane.

But surely these people could not really believe that forsaking comfort and convenience for pain, suffering, and death was truly worth the cost. I mean, that really would be crazy. They must have been exaggerating, right? Far wrong, brothers and sisters! These saints saw the great value of knowing Christ Jesus, heeded His call, and believed His promise: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

So, in light of the saints gone before us, I ask, Where are all the crazy people? Have we melted into society too deeply? Do the comforts of living in the States have us bound too tightly to our pleasure? Oh, I am as guilty as any and, perhaps, more sane than I should be. Let us consider deeply the greatness of what it means to know our Lord Jesus.

Here's the song that started me thinking on all this recently.

Why would I spend my life longing
For the day that it would end
Why would I spend my time pointing
To another Man
Isn't that crazy

How can I find hope in dying,
With promises unseen
How can I learn Your way is better
Than everything I'm taught to be
Isn't that crazy

I have not been called
To the wisdom of this world
But to a God
Who's calling out to me
And even though the world may think
I'm losing touch with reality
It would crazy
To choose this world over eternity

And if I boast let me boast
In filthy rags made clean
And if I glory let me glory
In my Savior's suffering
Isn't that crazy

And as I live this daily life
I trust you for everything
And I will only take a step
When I feel you leading me
Isn't that crazy

--"Crazy," MercyMe

Oh, let me be crazy in the eyes of this world to be in love with my Lord!

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and Musical Musings.

No Tongue Can Bid Me Thence Depart

2007-03-03T01:49:00.000-06:00

I have found myself being very encouraged recently by the profound depth of spiritual expression found in the refrains of saints whose sweet melodies have blessed the church for a great number of years. Check out this hymn written by Charitie Bancroft in 1863:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

-Before the Throne of God Above, Charitie Bancroft

Mere black text does not permit me to exclaim how great is our Redeemer! The sheer promise that Jesus Christ, the Spotless Lamb of God, stands in my place, eternally fixed as my righteousness, fulfilling the condemnation of the Law, and granting the full rights and inheritance of a true son of the Living God - oh, that promise defies the means of exultation known to my simple mind. It is as sure as the Risen Christ, more certain than the accusations of the Father of Lies, and eternally sealed by the Blood of God's own Son! No tongue can bid me thence depart! Oh, that we would sit at our Father's feet in awe of Who He is and learn from Him! No man can approach the throne of God above without coming away utterly and profoundly changed by His Glory and Grace.

This post categorized under Musical Musings.

My Calm // Your Storm

2007-02-21T12:10:00.000-06:00

I heard this song for the first time in a while yesterday, and it just seemed to resonate with me a bit in light of how busy and hectic life seems to have become and how easy it is to slip into empty methodology. Let us rather run to our Father whose perfect rest and peace are boundless and free. Enjoy!

Seven years on the seven seas
The winds have ceased all is well at ease
There's no tempest to attack me
Afloat on the boat of mediocrity

Way back when You first calmed me
At peace with you I'd always be
But now it's empty methodology
The fine white tomb that no one sees.

I am perishing
Within the grey of faith and form
Arise rebuke my content and my peace
Make my calm, Your storm

I want to navigate out of this lukewarm sea
Into the stream of reality
Let the waves throw their threats at me
Makes me hold on more tightly

I want to set my sails free
Discontent with what will be will be
I want to kill this thief that steals life from me
And kill myself, the Pharisee

Save me I am perishing
In this grey of faith and form
Arise rebuke my content and my peace
Make my calm, Your storm

--"My Calm // Your Storm," Caedmon's Call

Lord, stir my soul for Your glory! Wake me from the sleep of monotony! Let Your storm soak the ground and bring new life!

This post categorized under Musical Musings.

It's Been A While...

2007-01-19T20:05:00.000-06:00

Well, folks, it certainly has been a while since I last sat down in the blogging chair, almost four months to be precise. Sure, I've had plenty of thoughts that I would have loved to write about. I've even scribbled a few down here and there. But, none of them ever developed enough to make it to the big screen, and all have since made their way to the cluttered gathering of jumbled thoughts and lost paper.

Oh, I most definitely would have loved to write, even to just sit and ponder a while, but I was robbed. Robbed of something I never realized could be as valuable as it was - Time. The thief Busyness broke in over the last several months and slowly began taking what he would. But it would not suffice to just steal a small bit of Time. No, he took it all and my life was consumed by this thief. He came wearing the disguise of meetings, school, and responsibility - all good things, none of which I would have wanted to abandon. I suppose, then, that I cannot be completely absolved of guilt myself, for I am the one who opened the door to let the him in.

Such has been my life for a long while now. It started with peripheral things, like blogging, slipping by the wayside and moved on into the night cutting into sleep and leaving me exhausted. Then went a few things that I deeply regret having let slide away - things like deep relationships and adequate study and preparation for various responsibilities. Everything always seemed to be rushed coming down to the night, or sometimes morning, before. Even the time to think clearly seemed scarce. It has been by no means pleasant. And, though a month of rest has greatly helped my body recover, my mind and spirit are taking a bit longer to get back.

Yet still, I must praise God for His infinite supply of long-suffering grace! For, I fear where I would have wandered had it not been for His patience and restoration.

The simplicity of Micah 6:8 is so sweet:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Oh, that I would live this well these days and the rest of my life!

Lord Jesus, bind my heart to Yourself and be lifted high as I walk through this life.

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts.

My Little Brother, the Next Mozart

2006-10-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yeah... I gotta brag on my little brother, Noah. He played "Do Lord" for his whole school during lunch. Oh, and he's definitely the coolest first grader I know. Check him out (sorry it's sideways...):

This post categorized under Family.

Linkin' Logs: The Holy Ambition of Missions

2006-09-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

"Holy Ambition: To Preach Where Christ Has Not Been Named" - I stumbled across this excellent sermon by John Piper about missions to the unreached. He makes some excellent points on what our ambitions should look like and how they should be defined. Piper also clarifies and casts a vision for the relationship of the church regarding evangelism and missions. Again, just an overall good word from Bethlehem Baptist.

This post categorized under Linkin' Logs, Sermon Commentary, and Missions.

The Selfishness of God

2006-09-21T22:13:00.000-05:00

I just got back from an intensely edifying, challenging, and mind-twistingly awe-inspiring discussion with a few good brothers concerning the idea of Christian Hedonism - a doctrine espoused by John Piper but tracing through the ancient catechism and back, necessarily, to Jesus Himself. The catechism states, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Piper says it like this, "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him." Christian Hedonism explains how these two ends - glorifying God and enjoying Him - are in no way contradictory but rather integrally connected and mutually producing the same end. The same thought concludes that, "The chief end of God is to glorify and enjoy Himself forever." This flies in the face of what most of us seem to have been raised to believe. The objections are numerous - How can God act with such selfish motives? What about Luke 9:23, where Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily in order to follow Him? The answer is that He alone is God! I can by no means claim to fully wrap my finite intellect around this doctrine in its entirety but take great joy and peace in the Lord's response to Job in Chapters 38 - 42. The Lord's passionate response is well summarized by Paul in Romans 9:20-24:

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Wow!! He is God; who are we to question Him? But praise be to Him for it!!

There are so many other aspects to these thoughts that I'd love to expound upon, but time is short. It all comes full circle with the fact that "God would be unrighteousness if He valued anything more than what is supremely valuable." It would be idolatry for God to not desire His own glory above all else. But, His glory and our good are in no way separable. It is our ultimate pleasure to know and glorify God. If the best pleasure for God comes from glorifying His Name, how awesome is it that He grants us also to partake in that same ultimate joy! His love toward us, His children, is absolutely glorious.

Let us truly find our deepest and most enduring happiness as we glorify God and enjoy Him forever!!!

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts.

Linkin' Logs: The Journeymen

2006-09-08T18:19:00.000-05:00

The Journeymen have been pumping out the good stuff recently. Check them out:

Where Faith Must Be...: A passionate exhortation to place our faith in Jesus Christ alone
A Cleaner Way to Hell: A passage from Thomas Brooks, one of the old-school men of faith, lit on fire in a convicting charge against man-based self-righteousness
Self-help, Self-serve, Self-less?? Less Self & What About Me?: EP and Hank both chime in with lengthy thoughts on the state of selfishness in our society and in our own lives

This post categorized under Linkin' Logs.

Buying a Free Gift

2006-09-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

I was reading in Acts this morning and came across the story about Simon the magician. Simon's audacious request first seemed obnoxious and barely applicable. The second time, however, it got me thinking. Check it out again:

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
-Acts 8:18-24 (ESV)

How often do we approach the Lord offering up our money (or time, abilities, passions, etc.) hoping to receive His blessings and gifts in return? The problem with Simon was not his desire for the gift but his "heart [was] not right before God." His motivation was blatantly impure. He wanted the gift for his own benefit: fame, popularity, and personal glory. This brought me to examine my own motivation and desires and recognize the tendency to desire blessing either for the enjoyment of the blessing itself or for my own personal advancement. Rather, knowing Jesus more and magnifying His Name more should be the central motivation.

Let us view the Lord's blessings properly, using them for His purposes and the glory of His Name!

Jesus, rectify the selfish desires of my heart! Cut off that in me which desires to exalt myself.

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts.

Enemies: Going Beyond Love

2006-08-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

For a while, I have been perplexed by Jesus' command in the Sermon on the Mount that we love our enemies. Before digging into it, I tended to view this kind of love as simply not hating our enemies in more a passive sense. However, after reading through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's exegesis of Jesus' longest sermon in his book The Cost of Discipleship, I believe I have a more complete view on the Sermon as a whole. Bonhoeffer starts the chapter on enemies with a slightly shocking statement:

Love is defined in uncompromising terms as the love of our enemies. Had Jesus only told us to love our brethren, we might have misunderstood what he meant by love, but now he leaves us in no doubt whatever as to his meaning.

Bonhoeffer continues expounding on the impossibilities of loving our enemies by explaining the motivation of this love. He questions, "Who needs our love more than those who are consumed with hatred and are utterly devoid of love?" We have often heard it said that "the only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him," but how does that transcend the theoretical into practical application. Bonhoeffer claims that our enemy's "persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love," but this just doesn't seem to play out in 'real life.' Jesus says that is not ours to determine.

The love required of us for our enemy is, again, beyond what a finite mind can grasp. Bonhoeffer goes so far as to say that "no sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy." Wow! That's pretty crazy, but check this out. Bonhoeffer says that, by praying for our enemies, "we are taking their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition upon ourselves, and pleading to God for them." Again, the whole point of loving our enemies is "to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God."

This all probably seems absolutely insane. Why should you be so actively concerned about the spiritual well-being of those people who hate you, who deride you, who curse you because they disagree with what you believe? You may be thinking that Jesus is asking the impossible of us, and I would say to you emphatically that, Yes, He is.

But, back up a little bit, did any of those demands sound familiar? They should because they are exactly what Jesus lived out on the Cross! Let us not forget Titus 3, where Paul reminds us that we were all once enemies of God. It may be a good exercise to remind yourself from where Jesus brought you and remember that you owe your "very life to the One, who though [you were] His enemy, treated [you] as a brother and accepted [you], who made [you] His neighbour, and drew [you] into fellowship with Himself."

This still does not seem to address how we love our enemies. But, as with pretty much everything in the life of the saint, it requires the Holy Spirit applying the love of Jesus through us. Bonhoeffer sums it up like this:

... it is not the disciple's own love, but the love of Jesus Christ alone, who for the sake of His enemies went to the Cross and prayed for them as He hung there. [...] Perfect, all-inclusive love is the act of the Father, it is also the act of the sons of God as it was the act of the only-begotten Son. (emphasis mine)

The chorus of an old-school Newsboys song entitled Breathe captures it well:

Breathe on me
Breathe oh Breath of God
Breathe on me
`til my heart is new
Breathe on me
Breathe oh Breath of Life
Breathe on me
`til I love like You do

Let us long for the Spirit to fill us with His power to love like He does!

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts, Book Commentary, and Culture.

Living Like the End is Near

2006-08-17T18:04:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks, a group of us have met for breakfast to talk about a number of topics. This morning's focus was on the book of Revelation. Chris was talking about how scary some of the imagery that John uses is, and he made the comment that, if, for example, he saw the oceans turn to blood, there would be no such thing as free-time because it would all be spent in intense prayer and telling other people about what was happening. This made me think, "So, why aren't we doing that now?" Then, this afternoon, I read Peter's exhortation to the saints in 1 Peter 4:7-8:

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love overs a multitude of sins.

Wow, two thousand years ago, Peter felt like the end was near and told believers that, because of that, they should live in a state of readiness. Jesus Himself told the Disciples to be on the alert in Mattew 24:36,42,44:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.... Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.... Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

So, that leaves us with one question: Do we live like we really believe that Jesus is coming back?

Along with that, Jesus said in v. 14 that the "Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." What are we doing to fulfill that promise?

I would encourage you to take a fuller look at Jesus statements concerning His return in Matthew 24. I think it's probably one of the more definitive passages on one of the least defined topics in Scripture.

Let us live with eternity in mind!

This post categorized under The Church and Culture.

Jesus' Blood: Our Justification

2006-08-13T22:42:00.000-05:00

The Lord has been showing me a whole lot lately about faith, justification, righteousness, the fulfillment of the Law, and several other things related to that. I feel like this is something that we already know intellectually and theologically, but He has just been revealing His Truth in real ways that have been really sweet. It seems like everything just keeps tying back together, too, which is really cool but a big part of the reason it has taken me a long time to get anything written about it. I finally just decided to get it out in pieces. So, here goes...

This morning, Chris Osborne preached from Galatians 2:15-16 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 in a sermon* that nailed a lot of what God has been teaching me about justification as of late, and I ran across John Piper's most recent sermon** over Luke 18:9-14, which deals, again, with justification through Jesus Christ alone. Travis Mitchell also had an insightful blog post about the topic, as well. It's been a little crazy but really sweet to read and hear so much about this topic recently.

The simple fact that Jesus' blood is our only means of being right before the Holy God of all Creation is absolutely amazing. Not only does that mean that I don't have to earn my righteousness before God, but it also reminds me that I can't. We need to have a better picture of who we are and who Jesus is. Paul reminds us in Colossians 2 that we once walked as "sons of disobedience," enemies of God deserving the His full wrath. But, the blood of Jesus has brought us back into perfect fellowship with our Heavenly Father to walk in righteousness by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The key lies with whose righteousness we walk in. If it is our own righteousness in which we attempt to walk, we will "fall short of the glory of God," as Paul tells us in Romans 3 and will stand only in condemnation. Even recognizing righteousness imparted by the sanctification of God is not enough. Jesus did not come just to grant us the ability to produce righteous works but to actually be righteousness for us. We tend to forget that the downright only way to be justified in the eyes of the Final Judge is to be absolutely perfect, having absolutely no blemish, for every aspect of your being to have been right in both the sight of God and of men. Who can make such an audacious claim? Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, the Spotless Lamb! It is by His righteousness that we stand justified before the Holy God of the Universe. My only vindication before a Just God is that the Blood of Jesus has covered over me and He is my righteousness!

The most glorious transaction of history occurs at the Cross of Calvary. "[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21) Wow! Read it again! Jesus Christ knew no sin; He was perfectly blameless. But, He took on all of our sin and shame upon the Cross; He drank the cup that could not pass. Somehow, He makes the miraculous exchange of my sin for His righteousness. Do you understand that? Do you believe that? At first, it might seem right to say, "Thanks, Jesus. I guess I'll just keep drudging through my sin, and You'll forgive me anyway." Brothers and sisters, do not buy into that lie! Let the Truth of the justifying Blood of Jesus grip you! When we really understand the Reality of the Cross in light of the sheer magnitude of our sin and God's holiness, the only possible response is that of the tax-collector in Luke 18: "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" He has looked away from himself and toward God, His only hope for mercy. All the glory belongs to Jesus, as Piper concludes his sermon:

Give Jesus Christ his full glory--not half of it. Give him the glory, both as the one who is perfect righteousness for us--which we have by faith alone--and the one who, on the basis of justification, works progressive righteousness in us. Don't rob him of the glory of his role as your righteousness. He is your righteousness. And because he is your righteousness, he can, and will in time, make you righteous. Look to Christ alone, trust in Christ alone--not your righteousness--for your right standing in God's court and your acceptance with him. Amen.

Amen, indeed! Let us not miss the unlimited importance of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone! He truly is our righteousness, restoring us to glorious fellowship with our Creator.

*The audio file of Chris's sermon should be posted on the Central Baptist Church website in the next few days. You may find it here.
**The audio file for Piper's sermon can be found here.

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and Sermon Commentary.

Take My Life

2006-08-13T14:45:00.000-05:00

A sweet hymn that we sang this morning. I thought it was worth spending some time to let it marinate.

Take My Life, and Let it Be

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Ev'ry pow'r as You choose.
Here am I,
All of me.
Take my life.
It's all for Thee.
Take my will, and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself, and I will be,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Here am I,
All of me.
Take my life.
It's all for Thee.

This post categorized under Musical Musings and The Church.

Linkin' Logs: Knowing Your Call & Changing Missions

2006-08-09T21:41:00.000-05:00

"What Does it Mean to be Called?" - Another summary of a Glorieta Breakout Session from Phillip Bethancourt. Really good word on understanding the calling of the Lord.

"Lost Missions" - Good article on changing our view on the strategy of missions.

This post categorized under Linkin' Logs and Missions.

Linkin' Logs: Reshaping Your View of God

2006-08-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

Check out Phillip Bethancourt's comments on one of the Breakout Sessions at the 2006 Collegiate Conference in Glorieta, New Mexico entitled "Reshaping Your View of God." Greg Pinkner (the speaker) parallels and adds to one of my previous posts, "We Don't Get It."

This post categorized under Linkin Logs and Sermon Commentary.

Absurdity?

2006-08-04T00:17:00.000-05:00

Until more recently as the Lord has revealed some things to me, I have often skimmed over the seeming "absurdity" of Paul's words in Romans 9 with little legitimate meditation: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, [...] who are Israelites." That just seems straight-up crazy! Paul is wishing that he, himself, might be cut off from fellowship with Jesus Christ, if only it might result in salvation for the Jews who had rejected their Messiah. Sacrifice the absolute greatest and most perfect relationship man can know? Obviously, Paul was burdened for them to, as we see it, an insane extent, saying that he had "great sorrow and unceasing grief in [his] heart" because of their rejection of Christ. Jeremiah cries out in a similar way, lamenting the foretold destruction of his people:

My sorrow is beyond healing,
My heart is faint within me! Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:
"Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?"
"Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?"
"Harvest is past, summer is ended,
And we are not saved."
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

-Jeremiah 8:18-22

We see that Jeremiah is passionately distraught over the plight that his people have brought on themselves. Just like Paul, Jeremiah is in desperation over the reality that people are bound on a course of death, misery, and destruction.

Yet, still Paul's statement seems to us completely absurd. Why in the world would someone voluntarily forfeit his relationship with the Lord Jesus, that unalterable unity that has been purchased for and promised to us by the precious Blood of the Lamb of Calvary? But wait! That's exactly it! The secret lies with the Cross. Jesus himself voluntarily forfeited absolute and perfect unity with His Father to take the sin of the world on Himself on the Cross. Darkness fell on the earth for three hours when the Holy God of the Universe turned His back on His Beloved Son. In the anguish of death and separation, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" We think it crazy that Paul would sacrifice fellowship with the Father, but that is exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It was the only means to reconcile Holy God with Sinful Man. Though the physical pain of the cross was excruciating, the agony of the separation of Father and Son was infinitely more painful.

So, the question I ask myself now is, Why does that same groaning distress not burn in my heart for those walking around in the stench of death and utter hopelessness? If the Spirit of God lives inside of us, why are we not moved with compassion to the same extent that Jesus was, to the same level of laying down our very lives for our friends, and enemies for that matter? Have we become too selfish, too stuck on our own satisfaction to lay it all out there and sacrificially love people? I confess that I don't walk in that kind of love every day. Therefore, I challenge each of us to spend a good deal of time meditating on Paul's desire for the salvation of his people in light of the magnitude of the reality of the Cross. That reality which separated the Son of God from His Holy Father for the sake of buying back the souls of men. Let our lives be radically altered by that realization and let us love like Jesus loves. Let us live in absurdity!

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and The Church.

We Don't Get It

2006-07-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

We don't get it! We flat-out just don't understand the character of God. If we had a right perspective, not necessarily a complete understanding, but a view that at least points in the right direction, of who the God that we love and serve really is, I think life would be much simpler. All the issues we bring up of lacking faith and the struggle against sin disappear when we recognize who the Creator of the Universe really is.

Yes, He is completely full of mercy and grace, but that doesn't mean He sits around tossing down forgiveness like an old grandpa doling out candy. On the other extreme, that does not mean, either, that we have to perform some magical works to receive forgiveness. But, we do serve a perfectly holy and just God. So, what's the deal? I know my finite mind cannot grasp the infinite fullness of the character of God, but why do I settle for that and go on about my life living the mundane? Why do I not spend every last ounce of my life seeking to know the character of God?

With that, I don't think that we have a proper understanding of the magnitude of sin. We see that in, one, a continual struggle against sin and general lack of 'effective' repentance and, two, an incomplete concept of grace. I'm not sure if we can fully grasp it, but do we even have a clue as to the weight of sin that was placed on our Lord Jesus Christ as He bore the cross of Calvary? I think that if we did we would catch a vision for Biblical repentance and genuine worship. Look at the actions of the disciples of John the Baptist. Before Jesus even came on the scene, they recognized and repented of their sins because they knew enough about God and what He had declared through the prophets, including John, to see the need for repentance.

This idea of understanding the enormity of sin is, again, tied back to the concept of knowing the character of God, specifically His holiness and justice. So, once more, I ask why we are not pursuing a deep, intimate knowledge of Who God is? Why do we not run headlong, as Paul said, in a manner so as to win the prize? The root of the problem is not so much that we don't understand God. The really scary thing is that we're okay with that; we're okay with skimming the surface; we're okay with repeating the same sins over and over and over again. It just doesn't seem to be a big deal to us that we hardly know our Heavenly Father. The One Person that we can actually have full and complete intimacy with is the one we know the least. Why have we taken the most blessed oportunity presented to mankind and set it on a shelf, neglecting its fullness? Because we're too scared to fully know, believe, and, thus, change because of that fullness.

Many have argued, and I have, at times, been included in this group, that God is such an incomprehensible, cosmic force that we can never fully understand Him. A couple thoughts on that: Yes, He is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds, but Paul prays in Colossians that they would be "filled with the knowledge of His will" and ever "increasing in the knowledge of God" and again, in Philippians, that they would "abound [...] in real knowledge and all discernment." This doesn't seem to make room for our inability to grasp God's infinite character. The key that we seem to lack is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of power who we, at least in the Bible Belt community, tend to fear and neglect. The Spirit is our Counselor, the One who is supposed to explain and teach us the things that we simply cannot understand on our own. As with everything in the Christian life, on our own abilities, it is absolutely impossible, but, by the indwelling power of God Himself mainfested through the Holy Spirit, it is simple. We can know and be filled with the fullness of God Himself because of the Blood of Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord! The veil was torn for a reason - that we might intimately know that Holy Lord of all Creation. How sweet is that!

But what does that realization look like? Check out Isaiah's vision in Chapter 6: "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne." Hold on. Did you catch that? Isaiah saw the Lord, fully arrayed in the splendor of His holiness, majesty, and power. Isaiah saw God for who He really is, "lofty and exalted" with angels constantly declaring His holiness. Immediately, he recognized who he was and cried out in distress because of his sin and that of his people. He knew that God had told Moses that "no man can see [God] and live!" And, because of that, he was stricken and paralyzed by fear crying, "Woe is me!" But, Isaiah got it; he understood, in a very real way, the magnitude of both who God is and who he is. Right after that, the angel purified his lips and the Lord called him to take His message to the people. The Lord used Isaiah in mighty ways, but it wasn't possible until he recognized the reality and fullness of the character of the Lord. It doesn't have to be through some supernatural vision, but we need to be people like Isaiah, people who really get it, who see God for who He is and grow more deeply in love with Him because of it, serving the people for His glory and His purposes.

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts and The Church.

Pray for the Harvest

2006-07-21T00:35:00.000-05:00

Well, as a bit of a follow-up from the trip, I just wanted to throw out a few things that need to be prayed over from this side of the ocean. I feel like the Lord really burdened all of us to be praying specifically for our friends from this summer. He brought home the realization that we may be the only people praying for them. Along with that, the Lord has had to work on my mindset a lot to bring me to pray for big things in faith trusting that He will and is completely capable to do those big things, things bigger that we even know (Eph. 3:20-21). Anyway, here are some people that I would love for you to join me in praying over:

Mike: I'll probably write about this guy later. It's a stinkin' awesome story of how the Lord worked in ways that I absolutely did not expect. Anyway, this guy is a new brother, right at two weeks old. So, he's just beginning to crawl in his faith. It was a sweet thing to watch his desire to know and understand more about the Bible. Pray that our Father would fill that desire and use it in huge ways and that discipleship with one of the long-termers would be really productive. Pray also that Mike would open himself up to being used as God's mouthpiece for spreading the Name of Jesus. Mike talks incessantly, but now he's got something good to talk about. Pray also for general protection from the attacks of the enemy and rapid growth and expansion of the Kingdom through this brother. I can see the Lord doing some sweet work through him.
LD: The circumstances around how I met this guy are crazy awesome, too. So, I'll probably have to write about that also. He's super-interested and really wants to know a lot more about the Bible. From spending some time in his family's home, I found out that his dad has a Bible and has been to church at least a few times, if not more regularly. Ask that the Spirit would reveal Truth to him, that He would see Jesus as the Living Savior, not just some Western-minded philosopher. Pray that LD would seek Truth with the right motivation, not merely to expand his worldview or knowledge base, but for the redemptive power of Jesus. Pray for his family also that their eyes would be opened to the Light and that they would fully embrace the Lord Jesus for who He is.
PowerKing & Shu: Yes, his name really is PowerKing, PK for short. Don't ask why. I never did. These two guys became some of my really close friends, which is a bit weird because most of all we ever did together was play basketball, and, if you've ever had to watch me play basketball, you know how insane that is. Anyway, it took a long time to finally get to spiritual conversations, and, when we finally did, they didn't go super deep. I feel like it was more breaking up ground by loving them. Pray that the Spirit would use that and really show them that my love came from Jesus. Pray against the strongholds of Buddhism and Chinese thought, especially for PK. Pray that the Spirit would silence all other voices - friends, sports, materialism, superstition, etc. - and would speak Truth to their spirits. Pray for salvation.

Those are just a few main points. I'm hoping to follow up with things about the city that need to be covered in prayer as well, but that will have to come later. I'd also like to have a collected resource of names to be praying for from the rest of the team. It has become so cliche, and I don't know that we really understand it fully, but don't neglect the power of prayer (James 5:16b).

*Note: I stole this idea from Danielle. So, you should check out her prayer list also...

This post categorized under Personal Thoughts, Missions, and Culture.

Wow.... I'm back already...

2006-07-17T15:38:00.000-05:00

The past six weeks have flown by way too quickly. I've got lots of stories and plenty of thoughts about the trip. So, I'm sure a good deal of those will get posted, but I'd love to sit down and talk to anyone who wants to know more. I'm glad to be back from the tired-from-running-so-hard aspect, but I miss my friends and our city a lot. Thanks for your prayers.

I'm not here...

2006-05-31T23:03:00.000-05:00

Well.... If you're reading this between 4:30 AM on the 1st of June and later afternoon on July 16th, I'm not in town. I'm probably not even in the country. Thus, I won't be able to respond, etc. for a while. Thanks for your prayers.
Peace
-pat

Love... Its Source and Its Expression

2006-05-31T11:43:00.000-05:00

The ideas for this post have been sitting around for a couple weeks now, but I came across some good stuff in Matthew that tied in well. So, I decided to sit and write rather than pack for the trip. Only a few hours left...

The entry for May 11 in My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers, started the thoughts:

YOU WON'T REACH IT ON TIPTOE
"Add to your brotherliness . . . love." 2 Peter 1:7

Love is indefinite to most of us, we do not know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the sovereign preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that that preference be for Himself (cf. Luke 14:26). When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ is easily first; then we must practise the working out of these things mentioned by Peter.

The first thing God does is to knock pretence and the pious pose right out of me. The Holy Spirit reveals that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now, He says to me, show the same love to others - "Love as I have loved you." "I will bring any number of people about you whom you cannot respect, and you must exhibit My love to them as I have exhibited it to you." You won't reach it on tiptoe. Some of us have tried to, but we were soon tired.
"The Lord suffereth long. . . ." Let me look within and see His dealings with me. The knowledge that God has loved me to the uttermost, to the end of all my sin and meanness and selfishness and wrong, will send me forth into the world to love in the same way. God's love to me is inexhaustible, and I must love others from the bedrock of God's love to me. Growth in grace stops the moment I get huffed. I get huffed because I have a peculiar person to live with. Just think how disagreeable I have been to God! Am I prepared to be so identified with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness are being poured out all the time? Neither natural love nor Divine love will remain unless it is cultivated. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained by discipline.

Paul talks a lot in Colossians about love amongst the brethren, how it is because of Jesus that we should love each other deeply, putting on a "heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Because of Jesus' death, the dividing wall was destroyed and "Christ is all, and in all." There are no divisions, no inequalities; we are the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ! We should act like it in love toward each other. And where is this love in the Church today? I don't want to be hypocritical, but we have come a long way from the unity of the earlier church.

I think about Jerry, an older black man with a scraggly whitish beard and a slight odor to his worn blue coveralls. We picked him up under an overpass on our way back from Kansas last week. He has chosen somewhat of the drifter lifestyle and seems to fit a lot of the outward stereotypes. He has been all over the place, served in the military for seven years, and carries all his possessions in a small green suitcase and a black duffel bag. The point is, regardless of his appearance, Jerry is still a human being, a creation of the Most High God. But, when we dropped him off at the McDonald's in Ardmore, Oklahoma, the stares of my fellow middle-class, white Americans bored holes through his heart. I imagine he is probably used to it, but it angered me that we can't love people if they are different from us. I don't really know where Jerry is at with the Lord, but I hope to say that he saw the love of Jesus shining through us.

Anyway, I got off on a little rant with that, but it's all to say that, on the whole, we flat out don't love people like Jesus called us to. How can we realize that the Holy God of the Universe loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us while we were still in straight-up rebellion to Him and His purposes (Romans 5:7-9) and not be moved to love people like that?!? Do you need a reminder of how much He loves you? Check out Matthew 18! Jesus uses the parables of little children and lost sheep to show us just how much the Father really wants to be with us. We get so caught up in our own pursuits and position that we forget two fundamental truths: 1) We have been given an inexplicable love that was completely unmerited and 2) Jesus tells us to show that love to everyone around us, not just the people we like (Matthew 5:43-45). It's time for the American church to get out of our pews, out of our special 'worship' services, out of our protective little Christian bubbles, and love people. Love people like Jesus! Don't just talk about it, do it. Look back at what Oswald challenged us with: "Be so identified with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness are being poured out all the time!" Jesus didn't pour out His life in the ultimate act of love so that we could just enjoy the benefits. He wants to love people through us. It's time to wake up to be what Jesus wants His Bride to be.

Craziness...

2006-05-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

Oh my... I wish I had more time to post. There are several thoughts bouncing around in my head, but, alas, I'll be getting on a plane headed West but really East in thirty-three hours and four minutes. I might get a post out before that, but I'm not promising anything. If not, I'll return to the blog world in a month and a half.
Grace, love, and peace to everyone.

Dependence

2006-05-28T14:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I just got back from Kansas where my East Asia team and I survived 'O-Week' with FOCUS International. The volunteers and staff at FOCUS provide, I think, the best preparation for going overseas available for short-term teams. Anyway, I just wanted to talk about a couple things that the Lord taught me throughout the week.

Probably, the most impactful lesson was a realization/reminder about depending on the Lord in the midst of difficult situations. One day had gotten specifically difficult for me both as the leader and on an individual basis. I was absolutely worn out physically, mentally, and spiritually. I was frustrated with myself and with some of the authority figures. But, when we got into worship that night, I was sitting there thinking and praying while everyone was singing, and God revealed to me that I had been seeking His strength, when I need to be seeking His Face. I had been relying on His blessings, not on intimacy with my Father. He continued to speak to my heart and brought to mind something I had read a day or two before from Second Peter:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

The rest of the passage goes on to talk about characteristics in the life of a believer, but these few verses brought home the idea that God has provided, and will continue to provide, absolutely everything we need to live this life for His glory. The key, though, is to seek the Father, not His benefits. When this lines up in the life of a believer, the Lord is going to do some pretty sweet things. It just reminds me of Matthew 6:33 : "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."

We can look, too, at the life of Jesus. Paul talks in Philippians about how Jesus shed His deity to dwell among men and to live life as a man. He did not rely on His deity. He could have called down legions of angels at a second's notice, but, instead, He sought intimacy with His Father on a very regular basis. Now, I don't claim to fully grasp the full doctrine of the deity and humanity of Christ, but I do know that Jesus depended on His relationship to the Father, not on the power that He already had naturally as the Son of God.

I want to be like Jesus!

Costly Grace

2006-05-19T16:14:00.000-05:00

Well, I re-started reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship a few days ago on the way to go kayaking with my dad. I'd gotten a little over halfway through it a long time ago; so, I just decided to start from scratch. Anyway, this book is really intense and challenging. I am constantly amazed by old-school authors like Bonhoeffer and Chambers and tons others how every single word seems to be perfectly hand-selected to be overflowing in depth and insight.

In the first chapter, Bonhoeffer presents the idea of costly grace versus cheap grace, costly being grace viewed from a Biblical standpoint and cheap from a watered-down and 'easy' viewpoint of the bloody Cross of our Lord. So, here are a couple things he says:

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

[...] Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

[...] It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves.

This standpoint of grace seems to have lost its place in our churches today. I make a generalization, yet I think for the most part a fair one, in saying that most churches have strayed from the truth of the Lordship of Jesus. Let me explain. Last Sunday, in his sermon, Chris Osborne talked about the common 'American' philosophy that God's grace allows us a license for sin. People think they can go about their lives without submitting to Jesus as Lord, continuing in rebellion against His standards, and God will still forgive their sin. This is straight-up self-deception. Paul talks about grace like this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). Hebrews is even more demanding: "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:26). If we look at the life of Paul, the love and grace of God changed his life dramatically. He was 'glory-driven' because He knew "the breadth and length and height and depth" of the love of Christ in a real, deep way (Ephesians 3:18-19). As American Christians, we are plagued by the false doctrine of being 'pleasure-driven' believing that, because God loves us, He wants us to be happy. Bonhoeffer's idea of 'cheap grace' is similar:

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world, for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are all forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that. [...] In both cases [of cheap and costly grace] we have the identical formula - "justification by faith alone." Yet the misuse of the formula leads to the complete destruction of its very essence.

Oh, where have we strayed and distorted our Lord's blood to such an extent? How can we look upon the Cross of Jesus and not offer Him our everything? He is so worth it!

By no means, do I have this whole thing figured out, and I am challenged to say that, as Bonhoeffer describes Martin Luther's realization of the magnitude of grace, that it has completely "shattered [my] whole existence." But, I do know that "Jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the strength to perform it. [...] Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow him, knows the journey's end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy" (Bonhoeffer). What amazing promises we have in Jesus!

Lord Jesus, bind my life to Your own. Let it be poured out as a drink offering for the Glory of Your Name. You deserve all praise for your inexplicable grace!

random stalker

2006-05-15T16:30:00.000-05:00

hi this is brittany, pat's friend. I am his stalker. :) not really but I am at his house and on his computer. hahahaha

Gloriously Stern Abandonment

2006-05-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I really, really like Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest and will probably quote a lot of stuff from him on here. Anyway, below is today's entry and some thoughts.

BUILDING FOR ETERNITY
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary - the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say - "This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. "If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple." Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.

So, what does abandonment really mean? what does it look like? I don't think I'm all the way there by any means, but Jesus says we must hate the people with whom we naturally have the closest relationships. Now that's tough! And, again, what does it really mean? Is Jesus actually telling us to hate our family and loved ones? Clearly, our Lord strongly emphasizes our love for each other (John 13:15). So, we see that the hatred here, put into context, is merely how our love for our brothers and sisters should look in light of our love for our Savior and Lord. Again, we think about the immeasurable grace that has been poured out for us, that Jesus did "count the cost" of Calvary and found that it was worth it all. How in the world can we look at that kind of divine love and not fall so deeply in love with Jesus that all our earthly relations are hatred in comparison!

Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound

2006-05-06T14:28:00.000-05:00

Read this today... It fits in real well with a couple things the Lord has shown/reminded me in the last day or so about our motivation for living, specifically missions. His love and grace really should compel us, give us a burning desire for other people to know His grace and praise His wonderful Name because of it... His unfathomable grace really is amazing!

"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

-Paul (2 Corinthians 5:11-21)

Here Go the Thoughts

2006-05-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought I might try the blog thing out for a little while, but I'll probably just post excerpts from stuff I'm reading or songs I like.... So, don't get too excited. This will probably just be more a place for me to think out loud.... Grace and peace....
-pat

Musical Musings

2006-05-01T08:00:00.008-05:00

Thoughts on various musical expressions of life:

Family

2006-05-01T08:00:00.007-05:00

Thoughts about family and tidbits from my own:

Culture

2006-05-01T08:00:00.006-05:00

Thoughts on the culture we live in and happenings in the world as a whole:

The Church

2006-05-01T08:00:00.005-05:00

Thoughts concerning the Church and life as a Body of believers:

Missions

2006-05-01T08:00:00.004-05:00

Thoughts dealing with missions, both local and international:

Sermon Commentary

2006-05-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

My take on talks and sermons I've heard recently:

Linkin' Logs

2006-05-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

Blurbs of interest floating around the web:

Book Commentary

2006-05-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Just my take on things I've read recently:

Personal Thoughts

2006-05-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

A few of my personal thoughts that got written down:

About Pat

2006-05-01T07:30:00.000-05:00

Pat's Ponderings
-- just thinking out loud...

Exactly that, these are just some of my thoughts written down, mostly about Jesus and walking through this life alongside Him. I'm not going to make any promises as to what kind of topics will show up on here, but I will tell you that I always get excited about international missions and am re-learning a lot about the foundational truths of the faith. So, those will probably come up frequently.

As for myself, I want to be about Jesus, plain and simple. I want to think like He thinks, love like He loves, and go where He goes. Whatever else comes with that is secondary. Currently, I'm studying Civil Engineering with an emphasis on Water Resources at Texas A&M University. I'd like to use that overseas as a platform for doing the Lord's work among people who've never heard His Name. But, we will see where He takes me. All to His glory!

Feel free to email me with your thoughts or questions at any time.