You know, I’ve been thinking some about what my friend Jason Z said about us being covenant breakers. I have been thinking about this in regards to the name of the blog, which I have really liked and yet when I have put things down about the continuous pursuit, it has been emphasized about what we are chasing. And from the content from here and at my previous blog site on blogger, one would realize that the greatest pursuit that we have is our pursuit of God. Well, I think though that is as good as that sounds, I think it is only partially true. Now before you get upset, I am not saying that there is a greater pursuit than God. But in as much that I am pursuing Him and desiring to be with Him and to understand His word and to know Him more, there is something else at work here. You see, I am a covenant breaker, I am one who is prone to turn away from God. A person who if left to myself, I would self destruct. The point I am trying to make, albeit not well, is that while true that I am pursuing God, He is the one that is actually initiating the pursuit. For if I was dead in my trespasses and sins (that is really dead spiritually) then I was truly hopeless. This hopelessness was from conception, from the womb David says in Psalm 51:5. And so looking at Ephesians 2:1-3, a picture is painted of what we were destined to be without God.
Interestingly enough, based on us alone, we are bound to wrath, to destruction. Isn’t that your own experience without God. Chaos, destruction, despair, insatiable appetites for things that don’t satisfy or fill. Once God intervenes, calls, softens or intercedes in your life, the direction changes. Because HE has PURSUED you first. So in Ephesians 2:4, we see those mighty words “BUT GOD”. We were doomed, But God. We were lost, but God. We were pursuing other things, But God. But God pursued us. He pursued me and in so doing, energized, enabled, enticed, encouraged me to pursue Him, something that I could not do on my own. God interceded through His Son, who came down, lived a perfect life, paid my penalty for my sin, was resurrected on the third day and went back to the Father. Jesus did this to glorify the Father and to fulfill God’s sovereign plan, and in so doing, enabled me to be at peace with God that I might pursue Him as He enables.
So, as for Continuous Pursuit, I can only continuously pursue Him because of His Initial and Continuous Pursuit of me.
I love theology (The study of the nature of God and religious truth). I love thinking about it, studying about it, discovering new or uncovered truths. Though more difficult and less comfortable, I love uncovering false thinking, faulty thinking, misconceptions and replacing them with biblical truth. I don’t mean in others, though that is fulfilling to, but I mean mostly in me.
During the sermon this week, Pastor Marc preached through Luke 22:31-38. Awesome stuff. 12 years in church and I have not been able to put all these pieces together to understand prayer and priesthood and how that all ties together and provides us access to God. Many, many implications to this. It was like Synapses Lighting up in my brain. Illumination. I love those moments and I love the aftermath as the word comes alive again in so many ways as you see deeper into the truths that are held within the word, often right in front of you.
What did I come away with? several things…
Jesus is my intercessor, mediator, and that is why we pray through Him.
Jesus has continuous, not limited access to the father. The human priests he “replaced” when he went back to the father only had one day a year to approach God in the holiest of holies. Jesus is there all the time.
Prayer is not something we “have to do”, it is something we get to do, it is a privilege, an honor, a delight. It should amaze us, often it does not. I think because I have not fully (and still don’t) understand it. But greater understanding brings more hope and desire.
I love learning and I love hearing God’s word proclaimed.
Farming isn’t as prevalent here in the states as it once was, not just as when I was a child, but even more so than when my father was a child. Very few times have I planted seeds in the soil and experienced the growing of a plant and wondered at it. Few times have I cared for a plant at all, let alone one that I planted. I think we kind of lose track of how much we are dependent upon the growers of plants. Without people that did so, we would have little in the way of all sorts of items that we take for granted, things like bread, vegetables, plastics, cloth… the list goes on. We lose site of what it is to plant something and wait for it to poke thru the soil. We lose sight of all the work there is in caring for the soil, in fertilizing, in watering, in working with the environment to help produce life.
Likewise, I think it is interesting that many of us lose track of what it is to have God grow things in and through us through the planting of “seeds”. A conversation here, an experience there. These things over time, with watering and fertilizing, and trials and tribulations bring forth growth. Growth into unexpected areas that one doesn’t expect, nor does one possibly even desire. Thus it is with me. 12 years into my Christian life, I have watched workers come and go into the field for the harvest. I marveled at them, amazed at what they were doing. Longing to be able to see and believe and let go like they have. Conversations, Dinners, Hospitality, Housing, Giving, Supporting, Small trips, Divine Appointments… all these things have contributed through God’s sovereign grace and providence to bring me to the point where I have considered breaking loose, jumping into the void and pray that God would catch me. And it’s not just me that jumps, it is our whole family. My wife and 3 kids. Yet that is where we are, considering work in another country, another continent, hoping to be used and to be used up for His purposes and not my own. I’m insanely scared. I’m crazily excited at the prospects. I’m likely more than half way thru the life I have been given. I’ve spent a lot of that time on me. I have little time left to mess around climbing ladders, sitting in cubicles, worrying about Corporate America. There are things to do, things to say, things to write. And so, we have applied and we have moved further into the application process. Who knows what will happen. God. He can close and open the doors as He wishes. And so we pray and anticipate what He will do and where He will place us in this next phase.
From a few seeds comes growth, I just never imagined being a plant that would be transplanted.
brandi and I captured these shots at our church’s third birthday last week. It was a blast, as you can see here. There was a lot of great stuff that day.
download here…
I finally have assembled the tools to take showit slideshows and turn them straight into videos and dvd’s by using ShowitTransformer and ProShow Gold. It has opened up yet some other medium to offer.
we spent the weekend shooting a wedding in Yachats, Oregon. it was a blast and it was beautiful. Those pics should be up on line soon at her site.
This summer I’ve read a few books. I somehow have become a disjointed reader, maybe due to the fact that life is that way. I often find that I am reading 3 books at one time, based on my sitting location in the house. One by the bed, one by the couch, one at my desk and of course one in the bathroom. So I’ll tell you what I’ve been reading, but I won’t tell you where. you’ll have to figure that out on your own. 
The first book, which I just happened to pick up on a whim from a stack of gifted books from past Christmas times, is Bryson City Tales by Walt Larimore M.D. It is the story of a doctor’s first year coming to a small town in the smoky mountains. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It is well written, funny, serious and emotional. Having grown up straddling between immersion in city life and familiar with country life and traditions of my parents, there were several parts of this book that brought tears and understanding and longing for those times again. There was the imagery of the outdoors, the no-nonsense ways of the locals, the feeling of the outsider being slowly accepted, even initiated. Country life and struggle, hospital action, family concerns, humor and sorrow all wrapped up. I’d recommend this book as a great recreational read. It would make a great movie, but they’d ruin it, so read it instead.
My second book of interest that I am right now in the final pages of reading is The Call by Os Guinness. Yes, related to the brewer of beer. The subtitle of the book is “finding and fulfilling the central purpose of your life”. This book is hands down one of the most influential books I have read as far as practical living and spirituality. It is from a Christian worldview and it goes to great length explaining some of the trends in culture today and exposing some of the great errors in past thought and teaching that has brought us to where we are today as a society and a culture, not just America, but the west as a whole. The premise of the book, if I have discovered it is that we have lost calling as a concept and purpose that guides our lives. This is primarily due to the fact that we have gone away from and done away with God. And basically calling makes no sense, in fact is not even possible if there is no caller. Instead we have changed the search for vocation to the search for what will make us money. We no longer do things in modernity because it just should be done or do it for the value of the thing or sake of the thing itself. We only do things based on the perceived profit and benefit. I believe that this is an excellent book for any reader of any background. It poses some interesting positions and viewpoints and deals with a variety of topics and historical events as well as philosophy and religion. Those not of the Christian faith might not easily take in all that Dr. Guinness puts forth here, but no matter what background you come from it challenges you to think about life, about meaning and about what it is that you were created for.
The third book of the summer that I have been reading is a classic. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Originally transcripts from a radio show that he did, they are adaptions of the radio show worked into book form. I have always enjoyed C.S. Lewis since I first read a young child the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. This book is more like a conversation you are having with Lewis, with him doing most of the talking and him anticipating some of your remarks. The chapters and short and the topics range all over life and religion. I believe he does a great job of explaining the core of Christianity to the non-believer and believer alike. He does not get into denominational traditions or issues, but just the core of what it means to be a Christian, and he brings a great apologetic and support against relativism and the popular thought that truth is relative and right and wrong are relative. Those are great awesome points and stir up great philosophical conversations with and between people. But as Lewis points out, relative truth and relative right and wrong are great until you personally are the one being wronged, or the one lied to or affected by someone else’s truth. Then all of a sudden we discover a standard that seems to be there across all peoples. The book goes from there. I’m just about finished.
The final book of summer was “confessions of a reformission rev. - Mark Driscoll“. This was a gripping book, a history and airing mistakes, disasters and successes of a church that started in Seattle in the 90’s and is now considered a mega-church with over 4000 weekly attenders. The pain and sacrifice of bringing the Gospel to Seattle, the learning and unlearning, the building and re-building, all this documented in this book by the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church (marshillchurch.org). Mark has a great ability to tell stories and get you right in the mix, as well as just let you feel the gut wrenching pain and the soaring satisfaction of success, all the while interjecting great humor and sarcasm among the gory details of building a church such as Mars Hill. He is frank and honest about people and about himself, about where they came from, about where they are and about where they are going and how. Anyone who wants to see and understand a glimpse of what it takes to truly be on mission and attempt to stay focused on that mission and learn and suffer a long the way should read this book. Then they should look at their own life, their own church, their own pastor and understand all that is going on that they don’t see, and then they should stop complaining about all the silly things that we complain about in church and get back on mission.
Well, that’s all that I’ve read this summer aside from some various readings in books of the bible. If you pick any up based on this, let me know how you like them. Peace out.
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