imagine leviathan's "it's time"

Jon Acuff’s guest poster inspired me to concoct this little ditty.

You’re welcome.

“It’s Time”

~Imagine Leviathans

So this is how I smell (PS 38:5)

And I am left to tell

“The only path to heaven runs through nails and shredded veils!” (JN 14:6)

Right to the Cross (1 COR 15:3-8)

Don't look back (LK 9:62)

Tearing my rags (IS 64:6) and giving the academies (PHP 3:8) a rain check

I don't ever wanna let You down

I don't ever wanna leave, I’m found.

'Cause after all

The Savior ever seeks His bride (REV 21:2)

It's time to begin, isn't it?

I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit
I'm just the same as I was
Now don't you understand
I must repent of who I am (ROM 7:24-25)

All verses cited from ESV (Elect Standard Version for those playing at home)

happy birthday america!

Nothing says "America!!!" like giving a king the bird and saying, "I won't pay you what you require."

Sound familiar?

the color of rose's glasses

John 15:2

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

I do not know anything about gardening.

I know enough to know that gardeners do though.

So when I see one clipping off large chunks of their rose bushes, I assume it must be to some constructive and desirable end. I assume the gardener likes the rose bush, knows how to nourish it, and is acting upon both their love and expertise to benefit both the bush’s good and the gardener’s glory.

But what about the bush?

It does not have the benefit of knowing that the pruning is beneficial.

It only experiences the loss and discomfort of the moment.

God is for our good and His glory.

He is committed in Christ to both.
He will not fail to do either.

He is a good God.

We can trust Him.

That doesn’t mean pruning doesn’t hurt.

It does.

It still cuts.

It does, however, mean that He is more committed to our good than we are.

We would never chose to prune ourselves.

We would choose to go feral.

We can trust Him.

He will get the glory He deserves.

He’s committed to it.

He will work things for our good.

He’s committed to it.

More than we are.

parade pt. 2

Check out this amazing video made by Stan Hayek, Director of SALT Company Cedar Falls.

I love my church!

chasing after wind without conviction

“Ecclesiastes may seem a strange book, but it’s more relevant than ever. Too many of us are chasing after wind, looking for satisfaction in work, family and success – all good things, yet all things that don’t ultimately satisfy. It would be bad enough if we were just restless, meandering through life, and little cowardly. But we’ve spiritualized restless and meandering cowardice, making it feel like piety instead of passivity. We’re not only living lives of vanity; our passion for God is often nothing more than a passion to have God make our search for vanity a successful one.” ~Kevin DeYoung in Just Do Something

O.MY.WORD.

That cut to the quick last night as I wrapped up this great little book while sitting on the couch next to my wife. I think she heard me audibly gasp to catch my breath after feeling my chest cave from the weight of that accurate indictment.

TWO observations:

ONE: We often think waffling is more spiritual than confident assurance. By so doing, we make cowardice ideal and courage anomalous. At least apparently we do if a cursory glance at the state of men in the American church is to be considered evidence for the plaintiffs.

TWO: We ignore Scripture and pursue vanity. We elevate a principle of soothsaying over that clearly articulated in the Bible. Our happiness cannot come from finding the right “one” to marry, the right job to perform, the right major to pursue in college, the right college to attend, the right value meal to order. It CANNOT. Yet, we ignore this clear admonition. Not only that, but we ask God to bless our ignorance, which is downright ARROGANT!

Like I said before.

O.MY.WORD.

My heart recoiled within me.

These sharp words divided my marrow from my bone and I am thankful for it.

God,

Grant me courage to be confident in You.

May I take risks because I’m confident You don’t.

I can trust You.

You’re good and you pursue my good and Your glory better than I can and do.

Because of Jesus I am confident.

Because of Jesus I am free to live in bondage to Him, not bondage to my best life now, before and later in the vanity of this lifetime and livelihood.

Amen.

don't mope

Don't mope around.

Don't moped around either.

More like slowped.

And in Iowa, you would have to, of course, bust out the snowped.

But I digress...

a commentary on modern social and commercial life‏

“The hurry and railroad rush of modern social and commercial life have shortened or even cut off entirely the hours for family worship. In the modern effort to emphasize the fact that God is love, the other fact that sin deserves and receives punishment has been thrown too far into the background or is ignored altogether. Regular reading of the Bible has become as rare as it is universal. Irreverence and skepticism in regard to its truths and teachings permeate a large portion of society, and the general influence of the social life of young people is opposed to the cultivation or expression of the religious spirit or aspiration.”

How accurate and spot on is that synopsis of the state of contemporary worship in the United States of America?

About as accurate as it was back in 1886.

The excerpt above is taken from Helen Ekin Starrett’s Letters to a Daughter and a Little Sermon to School-girls published in 1886 by A.C. McClurg & Company in Chicago in 1886.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.

The good fight is not over.

It is not only just now beginning.
It continues.

Daily.