New Year's Prayer

Here's a Puritan prayer that I read on Tim Challies' blog earlier this evening concerning the New Year. It was moving to me. I pray you will benefit from it, as well.

O Love beyond Compare,
Thou art good when thou givest,
when thou takest away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.
Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Thy goodness has been with me another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.
Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With thee as the blessed pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless thee that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation,
thou wilt be with me in them;
If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see thy face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith fail not;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.

Al Mohler's Suggestions For Reading

Here's a link to the most brilliant person in Christianity today and his thoughts about reading. Here's the link.

Grace and Peace. λύτρον

How Should I Feel About This?

Yesterday me and my dad spent some good ol' father/son time in the local Barnes & Noble. We are both avid readers, so we could probably spend hours upon hours there without getting bored (we actually did end up spending like 3 hours).  We were rummaging through some books in the Christian section and I stumbled upon this one.

I honestly am not sure what emotion this book brings up in me... Part of me wants to laugh at how outlandish and ignorant I consider it to be. Another part of me recognizes that the guy who wrote this probably believes the stuff he wrote is accurate and true and that terrifies me. This guy is not walking alone in his ignorance, but those who buy this book and read it are having their perspectives tainted. In today's society, Christianity is beginning to take on the face of a God who desires nothing but health, wealth, and prosperity for everyone. After having thought all this out, I guess I feel kind of bad for laughing... 

Any thoughts? Feel free to comment.

Grace and Peace. λύτρο

Christmas Thoughts

Here's some stuff that I've been pondering over the course of the Christmas season:

• The shepherds are the first to hear about the Savior's birth. For some reason, God chooses the shepherds (ranked low in societal status) to reveal Himself to and then uses them to spread the Good News. God has always had a heart for the humble and He uses them in mighty ways.
• Something I've never thought about...this was breaking news for everyone in the world at the time of His birth. For countless years people have been waiting on this King they've heard prophecies about and He was finally there! Oh, what a feeling it must have been. On Christmas Eve, no one knew it was Christmas Eve! It was just a another seemingly ordinary night. It's cool to think about what they must have felt like to hear this news. We need to tap into the joy that they had when they realized the gravity of Jesus' birth.
• It's so easy to get so caught up in stuff around Christmas. There's so much to do...most of which is unnecessary and self-imposed. It's so easy to get caught up in self and to forget about our calling to love others as Christ has loved us. It's easy to worship stuff - not necessarily physically bowing down to an ipod, a hunting rifle, or new clothes, but figuratively spending more time, resources, thoughts, and energy on them instead of God-honoring things.
• I read a quote the other day that struck me. It was about us feeling good about how much we give. The quote was, "God not only looks at how much we give, but how much we keep." I thought it was pretty simple, yet profound. Changed my perspective on giving.
• The sense of tradition can callous one to some really beautiful things. For instance, many of the traditional Christmas songs are incredible. I've never really focused on what some of them say. I sang them often, yet my singing was merely a mindless repetition of a tradition and not a song of praise to my Savior. Some of my personal favorites are "Silent Night","O Come, O Come Emmanuel", and "Joy To The World.

I've been thinking about more, and I'll address them in later posts probably. This is just some big stuff I've been thinking about. I pray that you all are having a merry Christmas. May you take a moment and in solitude contemplate what the Savior's birth actually means for the world and especially to you as a Believer. I am so thankful to be finding myself wanting to grasp the gravity of Christmas and what the coming of Jesus means. I pray it will be the same for you.
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

Spurgeon: Humorous Story

One of my heroes of the faith is C.H. Spurgeon. He was the pastor of the London Tabernacle in the mid-1800's. He is often referred to as the "Prince of Preachers." He was a brilliant man and an incredibly gifted speaker. I love to read his sermons. Anyway, today I thought I would share with you a humorous story about him. Some background: He loved to smoke cigars. He was quoted saying this: "There is rarely a day when the son sets when I have not partaken of the blessed leaf." He liked them so much that he often would go outside after preaching his sermon, light up a cigar, and shake the hands of those who attended his church. One day an older lady approached him as he was shaking hands and said, "Pastor Spurgeon, when are you going to quit smoking those confounded cigars?" He responded, "Madame, when I smoke them to excess." She then asked, "You just finished preaching and you're smoking one; what do you consider excess?" His response: "Madame, I would consider it excessive if I were smoking two at the same time." Priceless.
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

Montgomery Christmas

Just got back from Montgomery. We went down there to eat lunch with my dad's family. I'm glad we got to go. I haven't seen most of them in a long time. I am so blessed to have such a great family. Hope all of you are enjoying your holidays.
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

It's Good To Be Home

Man, I can't tell you how awesome it is to be home. I love getting to be with my girlfriend, friends, and family. They are so amazing and I really miss them when I am in Auburn. I'm so thankful for the next couple of weeks ahead. Yesterday was ridiculously unproductive and I am hoping that today will be a little bit better. More on that later...
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

I'll Be Home For Christmas...Call Me

That's right. Heading home in the morning. Looking forward to a couple of weeks crammed with nothingness. I'm trying to savor every last second of free time because the real world is getting closer with every passing day. Can't wait to be with my beautiful girlfriend, incredible friends, and amazing family. Looking forward to some D'Now band practice with David DeVane and the boys. Looking forward to meeting this Smokey character I keep hearing about. Can't wait to read a ridiculous amount. I haven't done that in forever, it seems. I pray you will enjoy this Christmas season and see past all of the consumerism to the coming of the blessed Savior. All glory to Him.
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

End Of The Semester

Wow. I am incredibly relieved to be done with school for this semester. It felt like it would never end...but it did. I finished up my final exams this afternoon and I am now home free! I am going to spend the rest of the weekend in Auburn, play guitar at Journey Church on Sunday morning, throw a Christmas party for the Journey youth Sunday night, and head back to Hoover on Monday morning. I can't wait to spend some quality time with my family. I can honestly say I really miss them. I know I don't tell them enough how much they mean to me and I really need to work on that. Anyway, here's to a stress free next couple of weeks, a worshipful Christmas, and fellowship with the ones we love!
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

Worst Day Of The Semester (And It's Only 8am!)

I really considered calling this post. 'The Worst Day Ever', but then I thought I may be over exaggerating just a bit. But it is no doubt the worst day of the semester and it's only 8:30am!
Here's the story:
I wake up this morning after roughly 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep to the soothing sound of rain falling gently against my window. To my dismay I know I must wake up both physically and mentally to take a Macroeconomics final exam scheduled at 8am. Against my will, I get up, take a shower, brew some coffee, and drive to campus. By this time, it has started to pour down and of course I am at the back of the parking lot and have something like an eighth of a mile to get to my building. I get out and begin to move swiftly through the parking lot as I am pelted by large raindrops. My attempt to stay semi-dry was unsuccessful to say the least... I am almost to the crosswalk across the street from my destination when some good ol' boy comes flying through the parking lot and drenches me with the splash from a puddle he drove his jacked up F-150 through. By this time, I am just really frustrated. I get to my class to find the seating chart with my name nowhere to be found. I quickly realize that the class meeting in the auditorium is not MacroEcon, but Accounting. Awesome. I quickly go into panic mode as I ponder the consequences of not taking the final. I swiftly rummage through my binder and find the syllabus. To my relief/anger I see that the exam is in fact scheduled for the next day. Fast forward thirty minutes later and here I am. Anyway, there's my rant. Blessing in disguise, though. I can now prepare more. Also, I could have a lot more issues than a screwed up schedule. I am really blessed. No more complaining.
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

Final Encounter

It's officially the last Encounter in the US. That's such a cool thought. As I sit here listening to soundcheck I am praying for the day when students in Hong Kong get to experience a service like this one with a talented worship band and a message from Matt Dean. I sincerely am excited for the students in HK. They are in for a real blessing. I can't imagine how tremendous of an impact the Grace Campus team will have in HK, but judging from the thought of how much they have impacted the already very 'Christianized' culture in Auburn, it will be HUGE! I am expecting to hear big things about them in the upcoming years. I hope to somehow continue to serve them in whatever way I can. I hope that you will continue to keep the Grace Campus team and the city of Hong Kong in your prayers. They will be sorely missed here in Auburn, but we affirm and rejoice in their committment to follow God's call. God is faithful to those faithul to Him!
Grace and Peace. λύτρον

Exponential Times

The Dangers Of Technology Concerning Our Souls

I recently read an awesome blog post. You should definitely check it out here.

Breathing Once Again

Wow. The last several days have been extremely stressful. I've been trying to knock out a huge paper in my World Lit class and it's been driving me insane. I put so much pressure on myself to pump out a decent paper, but I feel like I have to because my professor is such a difficult grader. Anyway, I'm just glad that I turned it in and I don't have to worry about it anymore. Hopefully some of my upcoming posts will have a little more substance to them. Stay tuned!
Grace and Peace. λύτρον