4.06.2010
the word becomes flesh
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him...
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth...
And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."
a claim as a follower of Christ carries incredible weight. we are to be the body, the representation, of Jesus to His world. we are filled with His Spirit to do greater things. we are the bride. we are the herald. we are the vessels through which His love and power travel on this earth. we are the temple in which His Spirit dwells. we are adopted as sons and daughters to carry the name of our Father and to represent our family well. in reading the scripture above i can't help but to apply this to life as we know it. the Word, the fullness of the gospel, the Kingdom proclaimed, with all of its saving power, was in the beginning, and all things are from and for it. life and light has its source and its purpose in the Word. the Word is the reason and the explanation for all things. and yet, though it is everything - the world did not know Him. and the Word became flesh. the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, in love, and in action, and showed us who He was and what the Word really looked like and then we saw his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. His glory was seen by His acts as a human, by His communal living of the Word. His example of grace and of truth in body and deed. and from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. the fullness of the Word was completed in the fleshing out of the Word. when the Word dwelt among people in love, in action, in power - in its fullness - we, then, all received grace upon grace. colossians 2 tells us that in Him the the fullness of God dwells in body, and we are filled in Him, to walk in Him, to be rooted and built up in Him, and to be established in the faith. in Him - the Word, the fullness of God in body. we are to live out - in the flesh - the gospel. Ephesians 3 says that for the riches of His glory, we pray, that by the power of His Spirit, Christ will dwell in our hearts through faith, and again, that we will be rooted and grounded in love...and know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. because of the passage from john 1 above i can't help but see that the being filled with that fullness is the direct effect of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling with the people. so: we say, in word, we believe in the power over sin and death by way of the act of the cross and the resurrection of Christ - we are to live that belief. we are to live out the repentance we put on our tongues. we are to live as sons and daughters of the Most High if we claim, in word, to have been gracefully adopted by Him. if we proclaim a gospel with healing, saving power - we are to live out healing and saving, with power. if we say we belong to His Kingdom - we are to live as if He is our King, and bow only to Him. if we say we fear God, and not man, in word - we are to live it. and so on and so on. my life has had far too many empty words as i claim to follow Christ in its fullness. His lead shows Word entering into life, love, action. my following should be His Word on my tongue entering into life, love, action.
3.31.2010
desty
i love that God, through man, has made it possible through photography: to see a person from anywhere in the world. i know what she looks like. i feel like i can tell that she is a little sassy, but probably out of a very passionate and loving personality. and i know, somewhat, what her surroundings are like. through airplanes/world travel: that people were able to get to her, make relationships with her family and village, and orchestrate the compassion project where she is, in her culture. through music: that i was able to go to a concert where an artist (aaron ivey) led me in worship of our God, and brought me the realization of compassion and its works. and essentially to a compassion packet holding the future support of desty. through the internet/electronic money system: that i made a click with my mouse on my computer and compassion can take my money and funnel it directly to indonesia to become food, medicine, school supplies, clothes, teacher salary, worker salary all for this beautiful little child. through email/paper: that we can write her letters and she can write us, and through translators: that even with our land and language barriers we can have as real of a relationship with her as possible without actually meeting in person. and through God's grace in all these things that she will grow up and have a real chance to get a job, go to college, support her family, and live under the grace of Christ, and amazingly, we can meet her in person. i've heard flack over how compassion isn't the perfect system - it isn't perfectly self sustainable. but for jess and i - its made us enter into a $32 a month,14 year commitment to desty. i love that out of our abundance we can do something as small as affecting one small child's life. God, thank you for this small representation of your Kingdom at work. the simple love of sharing one's blessings with another who needs them more than we do. just like having two tunics, we have at least 'two sets' of $32 laying around.
1.21.2010
desiring homes
http://www.youtube.com/aaroniveymusic#p/a/u/0/J4eZybIXpm8
9.23.2009
to the praise of His glorious grace
::::blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.::::
ephesians1:3-14
so, this passage is far too rich and wonderful for me to ever grasp the words. i keep reading it over and over. '...to the praise of His glorious grace...to the praise of His glory...to the praise of His glory.' all things are meant and purposed to the praise of His glorious, wonderful, amazing, undeserved, and all covering grace. Jesus our Christ submitted himself to death, even death on a cross in order that we may get close to the Father without the wrath of Him completely destroying us. recently the subject has come up of scaring people with hell so that they turn to Jesus - a 'tactic' for 'converts' that is a mistaken form of love or care for another human being's eternity. i don't need hell to scare me into the arms of Jesus and His blood. the terror of provoking the wrath of the all powerful Creator of the universe and of all things known and unknown is enough - don't you think? but wait...that God, that Creator that can create this fear and chill to my bones because i know what my sin deserves...THAT GOD...He is the one that 'in love...predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace. to be overwhelmed by the grace of God is an understatement. the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. when you understand the power of our God, (here is an off topic rant: 'power of our God' sounds so stupid to me now. He doesn't just have power and He isn't just powerful. He is power. He just is. God is God. to describe Him with our meager words is so hard. nothing works. so just know that the whole time i put words to God i cringe with how unacceptable the words are.) and you begin to see your sin in the light of His glory and perfection, and you see how ugly your sin is, and you know how God feels about sin, and you realize you are a tiny little being that walks in the fingerprints of this amazing God, and you begin to see that your sin deserves wrath from this God that created all things, and you start to understand the fear of God, and then you see that Christ Jesus our Savior was sent by the Father in order that His perfect blood would be shed for no other reason than to the praise of His glorious grace, that we might continue to walk in the hands of this almighty God without being crushed because He looks down upon us through a love that conquers all fear.....then how can you not praise His glorious grace.
this song never gets old. ever.
O My Soul! How He loves! <---clicko
6.04.2009
plants
5.08.2009
a roaring lion
3.25.2009
insignificant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foVpu6Ornw8