Thanks...
last post.
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I've moved my blog to tumblr this week, so this is my last post on this blog. I would love it if you kept reading on my tumblr. I will be posting more frequently than I have been. Little thoughts, quotes, pictures, lessons. Hope you'll visit me there.
he has come for us!
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Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and Angels sing. Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christians, fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleading. Chains shall he break, and in his name all oppression shall cease.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
Fall on your knees! Christ is the Lord!
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and Angels sing. Haste, haste, to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christians, fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleading. Chains shall he break, and in his name all oppression shall cease.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
Fall on your knees! Christ is the Lord!
how long?
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There's a restlessness.
It penetrates the hollow of the heart and breaks the innermost.
If only to hear the words and see the One for which this heart yearns, then this earth-harnessed soul would be released!
But until then, these noisy groans will not be silent.
It penetrates the hollow of the heart and breaks the innermost.
If only to hear the words and see the One for which this heart yearns, then this earth-harnessed soul would be released!
But until then, these noisy groans will not be silent.
groanings for heaven
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Sitting in accounting class this week, I was bombarded with bad news. My teacher told us of corruption in businesses, bankruptcy in famous corporations, rampant selfishness and greed for money, and countless cases of cheating and deceit as a result. Hearing it all made me feel sick. "It's all about money," My teacher told us again and again. "Here's how to get a job with a six figure salary...If you can get that, then you know you're successful."
My heart sank. All of these permeating lies grieved me. What a broken, empty, messed up world! I wanted to stand up in class and scream that wealth and reputation are not what this life is about. It's about Jesus! Success isn't a good job and more money. It's being found righteous in Jesus by grace. We don't even achieve it by our own effort. Having a good life means losing it now for the joy set before us. It doesn't mean conniving others to get a better position at work. Why do we keep striving for useless things?
Everyone is longing for something. Something better or something more. Sadly, so many people nullify their longing with trivial things, attempting to fill the void with temporary pleasures, when the longing is only fulfilled by Jesus in Heaven.
The more this surrounding world breaks my heart, the more I long for my true Home. I want to go there. To find eternal satisfaction for all these yearnings. And the more I want to go there, the more I don't want to rust in comfort, wealth, and prestige while I'm still here. I want to live this life for that place, wearing myself out following and making much of Jesus. If it means poverty, let me go there that I might long more for treasures in Heaven. If it means rejection, may I remember Jesus on the cross and cling to it tighter. And if it means death, let me embrace it as gain.
The Christian life was not supposed to be comfortable and affluent. Jesus says the rich man has a hard time even entering the Kingdom of Heaven let alone living for that Kingdom. No, the Christian way is different and harder. It's a daily act of losing ourselves because we have everything in Jesus. David Brainerd, a missionary to American Indians in the 1700s, wrote about his suffering in relation to eternity. "Such fatigues and hardship as these serve to wean me more from the earth; and, I trust, will make heaven the sweeter."
I've been recently listening to Andrew Peterson's song, The Far Country, which so vividly portrays the reality of this fallen world. Peterson's heart cries in the midst of it though, saying "This is a far country, not my home." May these words shape us.
My heart sank. All of these permeating lies grieved me. What a broken, empty, messed up world! I wanted to stand up in class and scream that wealth and reputation are not what this life is about. It's about Jesus! Success isn't a good job and more money. It's being found righteous in Jesus by grace. We don't even achieve it by our own effort. Having a good life means losing it now for the joy set before us. It doesn't mean conniving others to get a better position at work. Why do we keep striving for useless things?
Everyone is longing for something. Something better or something more. Sadly, so many people nullify their longing with trivial things, attempting to fill the void with temporary pleasures, when the longing is only fulfilled by Jesus in Heaven.
The more this surrounding world breaks my heart, the more I long for my true Home. I want to go there. To find eternal satisfaction for all these yearnings. And the more I want to go there, the more I don't want to rust in comfort, wealth, and prestige while I'm still here. I want to live this life for that place, wearing myself out following and making much of Jesus. If it means poverty, let me go there that I might long more for treasures in Heaven. If it means rejection, may I remember Jesus on the cross and cling to it tighter. And if it means death, let me embrace it as gain.
The Christian life was not supposed to be comfortable and affluent. Jesus says the rich man has a hard time even entering the Kingdom of Heaven let alone living for that Kingdom. No, the Christian way is different and harder. It's a daily act of losing ourselves because we have everything in Jesus. David Brainerd, a missionary to American Indians in the 1700s, wrote about his suffering in relation to eternity. "Such fatigues and hardship as these serve to wean me more from the earth; and, I trust, will make heaven the sweeter."
I've been recently listening to Andrew Peterson's song, The Far Country, which so vividly portrays the reality of this fallen world. Peterson's heart cries in the midst of it though, saying "This is a far country, not my home." May these words shape us.
I can see in the strip malls and the phone callsThe flaming swords of EdenIn the fast cash and the news flashAnd the horn blast of warIn the sin-fraught cities of the dying and the deadLike steel-wrought graveyards where the wicked never restTo the high and lonely mountain in the groaning wildernessWe ache for what is lostAs we wait for the holy GodI was made to go thereOut of this far countryTo my home
Oh how I long for that place and that day when we see Jesus and all our striving is fulfilled!
the happiest place on earth
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We walked briskly towards our next ride. People hurried past us, brushing into our shoulders as they made their way through the crowd. Some families rested on benches outside little shops, while others sat at restaurant tables eating the food we hungrily craved. Mickey Mouse hats, princess dresses, and giant Winnie the Pooh stuffed bears speckled the landscape with Disney.
As we weaved our way through the mob, I made a quick glance toward my family on my left to make sure I was still with them. To my surprise, I saw my mom holding on to Layne who started throwing up. Looking at the littered pavement, the rest of us kids wondered how to help. While Layne and mom hurried off to find a bathroom and the oblivious crowd walked past without a glance, we guarded the mess on the ground so no one would step in it. We were a little embarrassed, but more than that, our hearts broke for Layne.
It was our first day in Disneyland – “the happiest place on earth” – and Layne was miserable.
She wasn’t the only one though. I heard a family grumble about a ride that was closed, saw a little boy cry because the ride was too scary, and watched a pregnant mother wait alone next to her stroller while the rest of her family enjoyed a roller coaster.
I realized “the happiest place on earth” wasn’t as happy as it was made out to be. It still disappointed, left people wanting more.
The day Layne got sick, one thought rarely left my mind.
Everything is meaningless under the sun
…even Disneyland.
The pleasures in this life are a striving after the wind. Fleeting. Momentary. Short-lived. Why worry yourself over having your best life now? It’s a wasted effort. Meaningless.
Rejoice that the Happiest Place is still to be enjoyed.
We’re ready for you. Come soon, King Jesus!
As we weaved our way through the mob, I made a quick glance toward my family on my left to make sure I was still with them. To my surprise, I saw my mom holding on to Layne who started throwing up. Looking at the littered pavement, the rest of us kids wondered how to help. While Layne and mom hurried off to find a bathroom and the oblivious crowd walked past without a glance, we guarded the mess on the ground so no one would step in it. We were a little embarrassed, but more than that, our hearts broke for Layne.
It was our first day in Disneyland – “the happiest place on earth” – and Layne was miserable.
She wasn’t the only one though. I heard a family grumble about a ride that was closed, saw a little boy cry because the ride was too scary, and watched a pregnant mother wait alone next to her stroller while the rest of her family enjoyed a roller coaster.
I realized “the happiest place on earth” wasn’t as happy as it was made out to be. It still disappointed, left people wanting more.
The day Layne got sick, one thought rarely left my mind.
Everything is meaningless under the sun
…even Disneyland.
The pleasures in this life are a striving after the wind. Fleeting. Momentary. Short-lived. Why worry yourself over having your best life now? It’s a wasted effort. Meaningless.
Rejoice that the Happiest Place is still to be enjoyed.
We’re ready for you. Come soon, King Jesus!
spinning another web
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I returned home from my walk a couple mornings ago just in time to watch a spider spin its web. Each movement was careful and the placement of the silk was exact. Spider legs often creep me out, but this time they were graceful and captured my attention. It was easy to tell that the spider was designed to spin a web.
As I continued to watch it circle the structure it was creating, carefully repeating its steps again and again, it struck me that this spider must get pretty tired of the same routine each day. Spin a web, sit on it, wait for a bug, kill the bug, drink its blood. That's the spider's life. It sounds extremely boring and monotonous but that's what God created it to do. And each time the spider does it, it brings glory to its Maker.
I then thought about my life. I quickly grow tired of the dull tasks in each day and long for a change of pace, a new adventure - something to get me out of the routine. It hit me recently how I'm often looking forward or rushing ahead to the next big thing in life, thinking it will be more important and more exciting than today. After all, a lot of life is organized in a way that points us to the next thing. We want more, want to move on, and experience something new.
This past week, I figured out school for this year and grew anxious for what the year would hold. It hit me though, while I was dreaming of what was to come, that I don't exist for those "next things". Even though our lives are working towards the next thing...school, getting married, having kids, etc...we exist to bring praise and glory to the King today. I'm not created to be satisfied in the next things when they come. I'm designed to be satisfied only in Jesus. It's great to plan and push towards the next thing and it's often hard work, but it's greater and sometimes harder to remember to worship Jesus today, when things are going slow and I'm constantly doing seemingly meaningless tasks.
A spider spins its web and glorifies Jesus doing so. It doesn't have a "next thing", that I know of anyway. Like me, it was designed to bring glory to Jesus. I ought not let the next thingsin my life get in the way of my worshiping Jesus today. That's what it's about. Jesus.
I may never even get to the next thing, but may today's "spinning of a web" be pleasing to Jesus.
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