Top 10 Highlights from this past year

1. Getting Married

2. Having flexible jobs where, despite Ariel working nights for the year, we enjoyed time together and even a handful of great vacations together.

3. “Through the Bible in a Summer” ended up taking me 5 months, but getting hit with a whirlwind of Bible all at once was one of the most enjoyable and eye opening studies I’ve done.

4. Working with Reed and Micah this past semester, and becoming better friends with them. They’re two super enjoyable guys and it’s been fun to get more into their world.

5. Where things are at the end of this semester with the ministry. God' has brought in a great freshman class who are saying things like, “I want to pray for my hall and family over break,” “I’d be interested in memorizing scripture with you,” “Let’s next semester do something together to reach out to my floor.” I’m especially excited about one student I’m friends with whose grown up in the church and I’ve had the opportunity to share the Gospel with but is carefully considering how real he considers his faith. It excites me to see students who don’t take their faith for granted or who want to be lukewarm, but rather who are interested in all or nothing.

6. For my birthday Ariel took me up to Sedona. Sitting on a balcony at starbucks looking at the red rocks in the morning with a slight rain was one of my favorite times.

7. I got bit by a rattlesnake. It sucked, but really, how many people can say that?

8. We’re having a baby! just kidding… seriously though, not true.

9. Not passing out while giving my first Nav Night talk.

10. Despite all my close friends moving away after college, I was able to spend significant time with all of them. From visiting Kurt and Heather in CO, to seeing Thart at the Glen and vacationing in Hawaii with him Meaghan and Kmomo, seeing Scraw at Nav functions, watching Tim Lin get married, and sitting next to Mike on a 6 hour plane ride.

Tim Lin has a wife!

pictures from the trip:

View Full Album

I love bugs

Upon arriving at home I realized Ariel’s bug battery was totally dead. Turns out it’s harder than I thought to find a set of jumper cables on Christmas day…

Circle K – Open, no jumper cables

Safeway – Open, no cables

Auto Zone – Closed

Target – Closed

Walgreens – Open, might be out of stock, associate looks, found! But I’m already heading in the wrong direction so I continue along until…

Cheveron – Open, LAST pair of jumper cables!

Hoorah!

Highlights from Hawaii

• Poke and Shave Ice with Mike and Joni when they picked us up from the airport (Poke is Ahi marinated sushi, and shave ice is like heaven).
• Staying in a fun hotel with Ariel
• Getting handed a buy one-get one free coupon booklet our first night in Honolulu. Which we used. A lot. :)
• Staying in a perfectly adequate hotel with our friends
• Walking to, hiking, and walking back from Diamond Head (total: 8miles)
• Actually being there for John Armstrong’s post about being a real surfer. I too never got up and was on a little 6’ short board.
• Seeing Tim Lin’s intense glare through the entire wedding ceremony. He did break into a smile once :). I think he was really concentrating.
• Steven’s “second best speech ever” that most of the people couldn’t hear because the speaker wasn’t loud enough.
• Leonard’s malasadas (a freshly baked filled donut with macadamian nut goodness. I imagine this is what was hanging on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, and that’s why Eve couldn’t resist.)
• Driving back from the North Shore on the Windward side and enjoying the most fun dinner ever with all our friends, eating an incredible pork sandwich, watching the sun set over the ocean, listening to our monotone waitress say “sure” like a dozen times.

Cam-bowl(s)!!

Today was the inaugural Mullet vs. Soups house football throw down. It was epic. Score: Mullet 40ish, Soups 7.

View Full Album

December 1st

In honor of the first day of December Ariel and I celebrated by turning our heater on to 65.

A bit more celebratory was our first annual watching of White Christmas with peppermint hot chocolate while wrapping the presents we bought on black Friday. :)

Birthday Week

For my birthday my wonderful wife took me to Sedona for 2 days of rest and relaxation. It was the perfect vacation-hiking, great weather, starbucks in walking distance from the hotel, great food, and time catching up with Ariel after she worked 5 out of the last 6 days.

Collegiate Staff Conference

A lot of work went into this staff conference.  525 Collegiate Navigators staff embers flew to Florida all last week for a time of refreshment, encouraging speakers, and friends.  I was able to reconnect with my good friends Mike and Tim from University of Hawaii, as well as Scraw from UC Long Beach.

Praise God Ariel was able to join me for all 8 days of the conference.  It was so encouraging being able to experience this with her!!!  She was able to really connect with a handful of other staff members in our same EDGE class and really had a great time.

One of our highlights was being able to interact with other couples our age who are on staff.  It’s been difficult to find fellowship in Tucson with other young couples. It seems my EDGE class has the most married couples in it yet (almost more than single staffers actually…) and we enjoyed living with 2 other couples and sharing meals with several throughout the conference.

Jerry Bridges (author of several books) shared devotionals with us every morning over the Greatness of God, the Holiness of God, and the Love of God. They were some of my favorite times of the conference. Also a highlight was Mike Jordahl (former president of collegiate navs) sharing on the simplicity of a passion for Jesus.  He challenged us to not allow anything to take that place, whether good or bad. Not other ministry related things, busyness, time constraints, or results. Both Ariel and I fell blessed, cared for, encouraged and refreshed as a result of this time.

Mulleteers

Trick or Treat from the guys at the Mullet.

Through the Bible in an [extended] Summer

Today marks a significant day for me as I actually finished a goal I had previously set!  That’s pretty rare in my life…

5 months, 14 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes ago I set off to read through the Bible chronologically looking at some specific questions. I am looking forward to reviewing my notes and sorting out what I felt like God was showing me through this time.

Deb Masshoff, a NavRep who leads our bi-weekly staff Bible Study in California, keeps reiterating that the entire Bible is a story about God working through Jesus Christ.  I’ve never found that more true than now. God’s the main character. Not us.

Learning Experience…

Last night I made Oyakudon.  It was good. I nearly set off the fire alarm twice and spent 3 hours from start to finish.

San Diego but not really

Highlights from the Beach Camping trip this last weekend:

- At least a dozen students asked why we were taking I-10 instead of I-8 if we were going to San Diego.  “easy” I said, “because we’re not going to San Diego. We’re going to south LA.” The irony?  My caravan took the 8 :).

- A car of all guys from our caravan (which I won’t identify) somehow made it through border patrol not wearing any pants.

- Dustin and Bryce sumo-ing on the beach

- Richie and his bro Steven also sumo-ing in a Moreno throw-down

- Edwardo’s car breaking down at the meeting point before leaving and a group of guys pushing his car into a parking spot, with all the students staring asking themselves “…who’s going to have to ride in that car?”

- Asking the famous Scraw camping trip question to a tent full of freshman guys.

Statistics:

• 80 People
• 18 Cars
• 792 gallons of gas consumed
• 1 stingray attack
• 2 blown tires
• 8 vehicles that tried to find the beach by going east (needless to say, they got lost)
• 11 hours of sleep
• 14 hours on the beach
• 18 hours of driving
• 1000+ pictures and counting
• 2 students who were really, really, really sunburnt.

Credit due

When I got out of the hospital my parents came down from Phoenix for the day to see how I was doing. They brought a dozen roses for Ariel for putting up with me in the hospital and this for me:

Oh yeah. be jealous :)

In other news my blood is back to normal except for my Fibrogen levels. Right now they're at 36. They're supposed to be between 200-400. We're getting there!

What I’ve been up to

After a regional conference in Palm Springs I followed a friend back to Irvine for a few days to hang out with Tokyo BEST club, and namely my japanese buddy “M”.

It was a great time reconnecting with “M”, “MO”, and “Y".” We went surfing (I just watched because of my still-thin-but-getting-thicker-blood), hung out on the beach, and reconnected at a bonfire with all the other Japanese summer workers.

The funniest thing about the experience is that as soon as I returned to Tucson, that night was the kick off BBQ to a three day Utsunomia BEST club trip.  I miss Japan.

snakebite update

After seeing more doctors and giving more blood than I ever want to again, the verdict for now is that I can go to CA this weekend for our annual Navigators Regional Kickoff (yay!) and I don't need to get more antivenom.  So that's really good!  My blood is still screwy (read: really thin), but the doctor told me as long as I'm careful and avoid major activities for the next 2-3 weeks I'll be fine and it should thicken out eventually.

Thanks for your prayers!

Recovery

Keep praying I recover quickly from this dumb snake bite. I’ve been dizzy and way weaker than I though i would be. Today I had to cancel 2 out of my 3 meeting time with students. It’s even more frustrating because I’m heading out of town next week and don’t feel like I’ve had much time to “sow” during this extremely valuable sowing season.  Pray for energy and that God would lead clearly on who to be investing in during this precious time at the beginning of the semester.

And for your viewing pleasure, my best scar from this whole experience is in fact totally unrelated to the rattlesnake bite.  While in the ambulance the EMT tried putting in an IV right when we went over a bumpy bridge.  The result was an IV that slipped out, lots of blood, a ruined shirt, and a sweet bruise :)

There’s a snake in my boot!

Two days ago while walking at night in flip flops down a dark paved road with Ariel’s parents I felt a surge of pain in my foot. I shake it off, pull out my cell phone and see two small blood marks on the top of my small toe, and feel my foot start to cramp and bruise.

After an ambulance ride to the ER, two IVs (one fell out over a bridge), four bottles of CroFab anti-venom, two nights in the ICU and way more opportunities to pee in a bottle than I care to remember, I was released!

Now at home my foot’s still swelled and it hurts to walk on it, but at least I can get around. Ariel's family was in town and kept me company most of the time I was in the hospital, and Ariel spent the night both nights, which I'm increadibly greatful for.

My fat swelled foot. The lines are how much it swelled at different times.

Post-Bible Study

5 guys came out.  It was a really good group. Praise God!  Micah and Reed were both really encouraged coming away from it.  3 of the guys live on campus and are active in their dorms. Pray God would grow these men and give us favor on their dorm floors reaching out to their friends.

Ethical Question

Say for instance there was a former UofA student who since graduated and was hanging out in the dorms one night with his friends.  In an attempt to meet people he joins the Ping-Pong Tournament happening down the hall.  Out of a group of 20, he progresses to the semi-finals.

Should the former student purposely lose, or fight to win and steal the title from the legitimate freshman residents of the dorm?

…and i will walk 5,000 miles…

The lines are everywhere I walked during a typical recruitment day.  Oh yeah.  It’s that time of year.

Leave from house to walk to Gila dorm at 9:30am to pick up tent, gila to mall to set up tent, down the mall for free eegees, to mexican taco stand to hang with freshman I just met, back to tent for a while, random call from Richie who wreched his bike and lost a battle to the pavement, walk southwest to try and find him, return to tent, pack up tent and return it to Gila, continue to Starbucks to get an hour by myself, back to the Union for dinner with the crew, to the circle to drop Richie off at saferide, back over to Gila to pick up flyers, realize someone already picked them up and head to AZ-SO/Volleyball courts for Overflow, decide to go to Nico’s after Overflow, detour back to Gila, take a round a bout way to a parking lot, drive to Nico’s, get dropped off at House at 11:30pm.

Pray Blog (again)

just updated it again: www.prayforuofa.blogspot.com

My wife's up in Ohio. I'm in Tucson. I wish I could be up there.

http://amullarkey.wordpress.com/

Twitter Style

Today I bought my first pair of Rainbow sandals. After walking back from campus with them looking like a penguin, I am hoping they’ll fit better soon.

“They will see His face…”

On Revelations 22:4

…O Christ, He is the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted
More deep I’ll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory
But on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth
But on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Emmanuel’s land.

O I am my Beloved’s
And my Beloved is mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine
I stand upon His merit -
I know no other stand,
Not e’en where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

Rev. Samuel Rutherford, Puritan, 1600-1661

For such a time as this.

I think Esther 4:14 is a chilling calling verse that reveal a lot about God’s Sovereignty.

¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

God will deliver. Period. Whether you or I do anything at all, whether my University forbids religion in the dorms, whether America socializes religion and banns Christianity, doesn’t matter. He preserved the Messianic line after 70 years captivity in Babylon. God will do his deal.

The question is, will we respond to our calling? Not to do God a favor, but to save ourselves. Do you catch the subtle reference to Eze 3? “¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.”

So what about that is fair? Why doesn’t Mordicai give the same ultimatum to all the other Israelites, telling them “Hey if you don’t act you’ll die for your disobedience. Don’t worry though, God will save all your other Jewish friends though through some other means.” Answer: I don’t know, for whatever reason, God chose Esther. And although her responsibilities were greater, her rewards was far greater as well.

Internet Explorer

If you’re still using it, please do yourself a favor and go here:

http://www.google.com/chrome

or here:

http://www.apple.com/safari/

or yes, even here:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

The Book of Daniel

I’ve always had a difficult time with the book of Daniel because of the languages it was written in and crazy prophesies.  It is hard for me to read it and think it was meant for anything other than a series of motivational stories about Daniel’s courage and faith in God.

But today I was reading it and had a very different thought. The book showcases God’s Sovereign work through foreign nations in a way no other book in the Bible does.  Nebechadnezzer: sternly humbled before God and ends his life regarding Yahweh as the true God.  Neb’s son, the last King of Bablyon, an arrogant, pompous King who dies from a fulfilled prophesy against him the night before.  Cyrus, King of Persia, conqueror of Babylon, for a reason only attributed to God directing his heart, releases the Jews from captivity in Babylon and sends them back to Jerusalem along with their temple treasure to rebuild the temple.  King Darius, successor of Cyrus, is yet another King who finds favor in Daniel, and seeing God close the mouth of the lions and spare Daniel’s life, also turns to God and believes Him as supreme.

Sure, the book gives a model for us to follow.  But I think there’s something else going on in it that God wants us to notice.

Prayer Blog

I started a prayer blog.

I will continue this blog as it's been, with a mix of serious and not so serious posts. Both Ariel and I will regularly update our prayer blog with specifics about our ministry at University of Arizona.

http://prayforuofa.blogspot.com/

David vs. Job

David:

Hear, O LORD, and answer me,  for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.  Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long (Ps. 86:1-3).

Job:

"If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit- let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless- (Job31:5-6).

Compare and contrast?  Two righteous men, two very different ways of appealing to God: one on the basis of God’s goodness, the other on the basis of his own goodness.  Two very different results follow:

David: “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Job:  "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? (Job 40:8) “…I [Job] have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.  Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6).

Next time you read through Job take note of how Job views himself at various points throughout the book.  It’s fascinating.

No wonder people are angry

⁸But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
⁹you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, "You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off";

Hold the phone. God just called Israel his friend? God has been, at best, their adversary the past 350 years. About a hundred years ago God sent Assyria to destroy, pillage, rape, and murder Israel because of their wickedness. the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah have been belittled, ridiculed, and tormented because they've been commissioned to tell Judah their fate will be the same, and that fate its coming quickly. God will send his servant Babylon to humiliate Judah's King, burn down God's temple, and export legions of Israelites to a foreign land. Yet God uses the word friend.

And it's no wonder many people today are angry at God for such-and-such a reason. People have been fed a narrow-minded and incomplete Gospel saying God is unconditional love and nothing else. This as their shallow foundation of doctrine they simply can't fit the idea of the Lord "sending them off to Babylon" with all its hardships and despair into their paradigm of God. God winnows and sifts them for their own good, then extends a hand of friendship to them, to which they respond "No! We've already tried that solution and it didn't provide what we were looking for!" And they miss out of the full picture of Love God offers us. A love so deep he drags us into a deeper and fuller view of His glory, where we learn how much more honorable He is, and we begin to take a greater delight in that glory.

Ezekiel, ya' old crazy preacher...

Today I read Ezekiel 40-48. Try as I might, I don't understand in the slightest the significance of the Temple. The new, glorious temple is mentioned in both Ezekiel and Revelations 20-21. It was constructed by Moses and the gang, beefed up by Solomon, slowly stripped by the stupid Judean kings that followed and used as tribute to Assyria and Babylon, demolished by King Neb of Babylon in 586bc, rebuilt by Ezra thanks to King Darius in 515bc-ish, (though it was a sad imitation of Solomon's), and destroyed again in 70ad by Rome. It hasn't been rebuilt since. Before the temple was annihilated Paul says "you yourselves are God's temple, and God's spirit lives in you." And the author of Hebrews adds that the Temple was a mere shadow/illustration/parable of the New Covenant, lighting the way for the One who can once and for all offer a sacrifice, meriting us perfect righteousness.

Why should the Temple be such an encouragement to Israel? Why should the Temple in Revelations be such an encouragement to us?

P.S.

here's my favorite three posts for the week:

Promises

Thoughts on False Doctrine

Death & Taxes 2010

great book

Some day I would like to go through this as a devotional. Its great because cahapters with the title "Incommunicable Attributes of the Character of God" are followed by "Questions for personal application," "Scrupture Memory Passage," and even a Hymn.

Jer 22:8-9

⁸ "People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?' ⁹ And the answer will be: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.' "

Background: God's about to throw the smack down on his chosen people of Judah by calling Nebechadnezzer of Babylon to utterly destroy them.

I came across this in my reading today and was stuck on the idea of "Why?" Why Lord do you cause this to happen? One reason that occurred to me was: Because the Lord will not let his name be defamed.

Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Moab--they each served their own patron diety. If one was from Babylon he and his actions were associated with the god Marduk, and the reverance that person showed his god was how others saw that god. Similarly, Judah worshiped Yahweh. However over the last several hundred years their worship of Yahweh had become intermingled with Asshura poles, child sacrifice, and temple prostitution, to name a few. An outsider looking in saw this as how to worship Yahweh, and God was very, very angry.

Three years ago when I was in Japan a Christian there told me one reason it's difficult for Japanese people to become Christian is because they associate all people in America as Christians, just as we associate everyone in Israel as Jewish. The Japanese do not like the picture American's who consider themselves Christians portray, and thus, don't want anything to do with it.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (II Cor. 5:20).

Woe to us if we call ourselves Christians and our life does not model it. We are ambassadors to a Leader who very concerned with His Honor.

Credit Cards

Let me describe my last hour to you

Call American Express toll free line to discuss an error about my card.

Sit through automated service.

Receptionist tells me I need to speak to a credit bural.

Call Experian.

After answering to a maze of options, I answer wrong question and the automated systems responds "good by"

Call again. Realize I need to sign up for a free credit report

Sign up for credit report online

Call again. Reweave through maze and get put on hold.

still on hold

Still there

almost.

finally

talk to very friendly and helpful receptionist

Call back american express new card application

Transfered to customer service.

Customer service has no idea what's going on and transfers me to "Jen" at some unknown office promising she can help.

Phone goes dead

Call customer service again and ask to be transfered to magical "Jen" lady. The person has no idea what I'm talking about.

Reexplain (for literally the 5th time) the situation. He says I need to talk to American express' credit bural. Unfortunately, they just closed 8 minutes ago (no joke).

Asked again to talk to "Jen." No luck.

Tried to explain situation [again] to customer service agent.

Hung up utterly defeated.

This really shouldn't be that difficult...

The Miracle

48 hours ago this 2004 beauty suffered half a can of coke to the keyboard, thus potentially destroying my entire Funding database, among other important documents. Thankfully, the only permanent damage is a missing key and sticky keyboard. Thanks God!

Men of Whom the World was not worthy

http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/MP3CDs/ByTopic/42/363_Men_of_Whom_the_World_Was_Not_Worthy/

You can click on the link of the names and listen to/read the sermons.

A parable.

Once there was a great flood.  It was so great that it broke the dam of a small community and threatened all who lived there.  The waters continued to rise.  

Inside the town lived a God-fearing man stubbernly would not abandon his house.  The water grew higher and higher, and the God-fearing man climbed on top of his roof.  The water level continued to rise and the God-fearing man prayed "Lord would you rescue me so I don't drown?"

Soon a neighbor rowed by in a boat and said to the God-fearing man "Hurry jump in!"  But the God-fearing man sat down and said "no, I am waiting for my God to save me."  Shortly thereafter another boat rowed by, manned by the coast guard.  The coast guard said "Hurry, jump in!"  But the God-fearing man simply said "no, I am wating for my God to save me."  As soon as the boat rowed out of sight a helicopter flew overhead, and the pilot shouted "Jump in!  For the water is still rising!"  But the God-fearing man simply responded "no.  I am waiting for my God to save me."

The water continued to rise and the man drowned.  The man appeared in Heaven standing before God.  A bit perplexed, the man asked God "Why didn't you save me?"  God replied, "I did!  It tried three times!  I sent two boats and even a helicopter, but they couldn't get your attention!"

------------------------------

Does this story sound familiar?  For a long time this story somehow made it to the theology shelf in my brain, and I believed it to be an accurate picture of waiting on God. 

Today I was reading through several of the Psalms.  The waiting on the Lord that David talks about is totally different from this story.  God's plans aren't thwarted.  God is not so small that a simple human rejection would nullify his great and mighty plan.  Out of his mercy God rescues those who trust in Him.  This story is bogus.  

Two cool guys

PHX

• 34 Hours
• 364 Miles
• 7 hours of driving
• 60 ounces of coffee
• 15 ounces of ribeye
• 4 visits with friends

Judges

portrays Israel as really stupid.  They turn away, the Lord delivers with a judge, the judge redeems and rules justly for X-number of years, Israel turns away again, etc...  After a time of this it presents the picture of "there being no judge in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes."  Like a Levite priest throwing a concubine to a mob to be ravished, then cutting her into 12 pieces to send to the twelve tribes.  Whoa.  

Israel was commanded under Joshua to fully take the land and totally and utterly remove the foreigners, or else their pagan ideology would spread into Israel and it would be a snare to them.  Upon entering the promised land Israel saw it, claimed it, and cut there losses.  They hadn't totally removed the Philistines and Canaanites, but who cares?  They had more land then they've ever possessed before.  Manasseh, Gad and Reuben didn't even make it West of the Jordan before they claimed their inheritance.  

Hebrews 11 says:

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

C.S. Lewis says our problem isn't that the world and its pleasures are so wonderfully enticing that we are distracted from what God offers, but rather that we are far too easily pleased.  The world is not so good that it competes for the goodness of what God offers, but rather we are so fallen that we can't even imagine the greatness of God and thus settle for what the world offers, thinking it is true joy. 

So it is with Israel, and often times me.  Reading through Joshua I was getting the picture that the Promised Land was like a modern day equivalent of Heaven.  But I don't share that thought anymore. The Promised Land is good, but still not home.  Israel saw the beginnings of their inheritance and settled with just that.  They received the land, but not fully.  They did not rout the pagan nations left, and a century later in Judges Israel sees fully the consequences of that.  The Philistines enslave them.  They take other nations as wives and begin worshiping their deities.  The Law in the Torah is almost completely forgotten, Levi priests serve households rather than Israel and carved images instead of the Lord.

Regardless of how good this world ever is to me, I never want to lose sight that my true home is not here.  

Politics take 3 - N. Korea

Thanks Economist.  Great cartoon, once again.

My wife said in psych class they used him as a case study for "Narcissistic." 

The Prodigal Son Without Jesus

A certain man had a son.  And the son said to his Father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me."  So he divided his livelihood to him.

After many days journey the son arrived in a far country, and there wasted his possessions with wild living.  Having nothing left, he longing to fill his stomach with the same pods he saw pigs eating.  He said to himself, "Despite my wickedness I will return home to my Father and beg to be made a slave." So the son began the journey home.

While he was still a long way off, the Father saw the son and went to him and dragged him out to the city gates and said "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'  Then all the men of the city stoned him with stones, and he died.  And so the evil was put away from among the people.  And all the people heard and were afraid.

Deut. 21:18-21

True justice is a scary thing.  How easy it is to take grace for granted.

God in a box

just doesn't work.  I just finished Numbers and was beginning to kid myself into believing whatever the patriachs asked God would grant, and that he was a jokster who enjoyed doing things like listening to Israel complain simply so that He could watch them squirm from plegues and snakes.  Abram begged God to spare Sodom in 10 righteous men were found in the town.  Moses presuaded God to spare Aaron after he constructed the golden calf, to spare Israel after they were stupid, and to provide healing from the vipers in the desert.

But just when I think God can be fit in a box, along comes Balaam to curse Israel.  But he can only return to the King and say "Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?"  With local dieties it was popular to petition them again and again until they did what you wanted.  But not the Lord.  He makes up his own mind.  His mind doesn't change. 

I used to think prayer was simply a formula: righeousness + consistant prayer = request granted.

It's not as simple as that.

Leviticus

Be holy, for the Lord is Holy.

Leviticus and my ethnic friend

After a little over a week I'm in Leviticus in my "through the Bible in a Summer" expedition.  It's slow going...

In other news, here's a pic of a friend of mine who on an impulse decided to raise money to fly to Hawaii by singing on University.  He made $42.

Thomas More

"Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at right nought, for the winning of Christ."

~A Godly Meditaiton

Al the Repair Guy

90-some years old. wicked tattoo on his arm.  Retired police cheif.  Blue-tooth headset savvy. Does good work fixing windows.

When I was messing with my curtains the other day I slipped on the couch and put my shoulder through the window.  The temp fix was cardboard.  Whoops...

Still not as bad as the vertical blinds episode...

The Gospel in Joseph

The effect of guilt: there is always something to fear.  God will realize the guilty one and execute judgement.  At the end of every conversation with Joseph the brothers bring it back to "We have killed our brother now our evil deed has caught up to us!  Surely God has found our iniquity and will bring justice."   Justice is Joseph killing the brothers who sold him into slavery when he first saw them.  Or when they returned for the second time.  Or when the cup was found in Ben's bag.  But Joseph instead spares them, loves them, and eventually feasts with them.

The situation: they are fearful that their actions a decade ago would be found out and punished by God.  They go to Egypt thinking their doomed.  Simeon, the second oldest and most influential outside of Reuben the oldest, probably played a major role in the plot to kill Joseph.  Reuben tries to save Joseph but fails.  Judah suggests to sell his own brother into slavery, even going so far to make money off him.  And the result?  Simeon is imprisoned for a time.  They narrowly escape Egypt a second time (or so the brothers think).  A cup is found in Ben's bag and he, the only innocent one among them, is sentenced to death.  Judah realizes he is the one who is guilty.  He sold Joseph, not Benjamin.  Something inside of him changed when he realized one who was innocent is taking the death he rightfully deserves.  He offers to take Ben's place.  

An innocent man died for me too.  That's why I love the Gospel.

And the climax?  Joseph weeps with joy over his brothers when he has every right to kill them.  

Gen 45:7 "And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So now it was not you who sent me here, but God..."

In God's mercy he always spared a remnant of wicked, undeserving Israel.  Jesus came to redeem the lives of others by a "great deliverance."  Not by His will did he endure the Cross, but because God said this is the way it must be.

My buddy Scraw has been writing posts about a guy who asks several influential Christians what they would write if they were told to Twitter the Gospel.  Though incomplete, this would be my answer:

I should die.  But instead I'm blessed.

Spring Break (finally...?)

mmm.  I like the beach.

Summer Goals

To read through the Bible over the Summer.

Aprox. pages: 1430

Pages needed to be read per day: 16

Pages I've read over the past 2 days: 26

...I'm already behind...

Unmanly List #86

Big dude walking small dog.

politics, take-2

~The Economist, KALs cartoon

I remember Bush looking quite similar as he progressed through his presidency.  All I can say is I'm glad I'm not president.  That's a tough job.  

Pray for morality and wisdom for the president.

I Peter 1:3-9 Unpacked

Demetri Martin recently wrote a 224 palindrome poem--one which says the same things both ways you read it.  I think the guys kind of weird.  

On a totally unrelated note, here's I Peter 1:3-9 backwards:

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

-------

The goal of our faith is our Salvation.  As a result of faith in our salvation--demonstrated through loving and believing in Him though we do not see him--we are given inexpressible and glorious joy; further, if we keep faith through trials we will be given honor, glory, and praise.  Our faith is worth far more than gold because it shields us from doubt and enables us to receive this Salvation, in which we have an eternal inheritance because of the resurrection of Christ, in whom we are enabled to place hope in because of the Lord's great mercy on us.

As I Thess 1:3 says:

...Your work is prompted by FAITH--witnessing about the God I've neither tangibly seen or heard but only know of through faith.

...labor is prompted by LOVE--Love the Lord first

...endurance is prompted by HOPE--Life is hard, but the inheritance given in our new life is worth these comparatively short trials.

John Newton on Acts 3:19-21

Alas! I knew not what I did,

But now my tears are vain;

Where shall my trembling soul be hid?

For I my Lord have slain.

A second look He gave, which said:

"I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom shed;

I die, that thou mayest live

Thus, while His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue;

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief and mourning joy

My spirit now is filled,

That I should such a life destroy,

Yet live through Him I killed.

snow

On good friday Mt. Lemmon was dumped on by a bunch of snow.

Snow in April... who would've thought...

two verses

have been on my mind lately:

"My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
jer 2:13

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
jn 4:14

for never like the Well Illustration, it sure comes to mind a lot...

I jn 5:3

"Go make disciples of all Nations..."

"You will be my witnesses..."

"I give you this charge: preach the word..."

"You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen..."

and the kicker...

"This is love for God: to obey his commands..."

-------

I find witnessing terrifying.  And frankly, i simply don't want to do it.  I'm praying the Lord will change this.

Conflicting Interests

As I open my web browser (Google Chrome over Mozilla by a landslide.  And don't think I even considered opening Internet Explorer) and my homepage of Economist.com loaded I scanned, as usual, through the headlines.  

Heading in the same Direction: America wants Europe to offer more than words of support for the new battle against the Taliban

G-Force: The G20 outcome is better than nothing, but can the IMF save the world?

India's election: Congress's great dynastic hope:

Rahul Gandhi kicks off his campaign for India's general election

and finally...

Madonna and No Child: International adoptions are not always for the best

Ready? Pop quiz. Which headline looks out of place?

Second quesiton - Out of the 4 which one story do you think I actually read?  Sad, huh...  There is something greatly appealing about personal, individual stories that I don't think I realize.

Spring Break long overdue

I'll post picture soon

Around the world and back again

Like Kmomo's post about recalling all the memories that come from balancing your check book over the course of a few months, so it is with laying to rest my trusted Nalgeine that I've had since High School.  For fear of cancer it was tossed out and replaced with Nalgeine 2.0.  But before it's last breath, let's review all the places its gone...

First time out of the country it ventured to Uganda.  This was in fact the purpose of the Nalgeine, which it fulfilled excellently.  It even suvived rapids on the Nile River.  

Next was several trips to Mexico, namely Ensinada and Nogalas.  It met the onion-field working nomads outside of Ensinada, which was pretty exciting to say the least. 

Stateside, it visited the coasts of CA ( a handful spanning from San Diego to LA, to Irvine and back again).  Experiencing chocolate covered frozen bananas on Balboa Island, and the luxurious Hotel de Cornado, though not in the fashion one might have preferred.  It visited the beaches of Japan and 14K mountains, ski slopes and sand dunes, the atlantic, pacific, gulf of mexico and sea of Japan, Rocky Mountains and the Appalatian, historic castles and hot springs, blizzards and dust storms, Big Ben and Buckingham, weddings and funerals; refueling at Coffee shops on four continents and over a dozen states.  Stickers were used to record its journies, but the harsh environments stripped the bottle of these mementos. 

I wonder what the future holds for my next water bottle... 

Paul Washer

is really intense.  Sometimes I close my eyes and think I'm listening to John Piper fuesed with Steven Crawford with a side of steroids.

However, he treats the Word with a lot of respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncEhCvrVgQ&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=F09DE12C53FFEEA7&playnext=1&index=99

Crossing

There was a showing of a movie called Crossing by an organization called www.linkglobal.org at our school yesterday about a North Korean who escaped into Chine in hopes of bringing back medicine and food for his child and wife with TB.  They organization showing the movie said it was created from hearing the testimonies of over 100 N. Korean refugees.   

I'd highly recommend anyone to see it.  And if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

http://insidework.net/resources/articles/meditation-for-christian-dummies4

Crockpot goodness

Hopefully this will be dinner.  Usually I follow at least some sort of recepie, but not today!  Chicked with Mango Curry Maranade, pinapples, mangos, green onions and some seasonings.  I'll know whether it's edible in about 5 hours...

Paul, the fundraiser...?

I've recently been spending my quiet times going through passages in the Bible on giving and receiving.  Paul has some interesting things to say about the subject that are difficult for me to understand...

Paul is master of being anyone to everyone.  He believes the two basic principles that "you should not mussel an ox while its treading grain," and "A worker is worth his wages."  Yet for the Corinthians he makes it crystal clear that he has not come for their money, but rather for  them.  He instructs the church it is good to be generous, and though Paul has every right to demand wages from them ("For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." Rom 15:27), but instead Paul took no more than what he absolutely needed.  

Thessalonians are a different story though.  I don't know what historically was going on with that church, but Paul urges them to keep to themselves, mind their own business, and work with there hands.  Later he tells how he ate nothing while with them without paying for it himself.  He worked night and day.  He gave them the rule "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."  And he urged them not to be busybodies, but rather efficient and devoted laborers.

Finally he reminds Timothy about the Ox and of what Jesus said about the worker being worth his wages.

As I continue fundraising to work full time with Navs, I have been thinking through these things more.  I know I believe all this, but being so long in the fuunding process it is really seperating my simple beliefs from my solid convictions.  

God's economy is so different from this world.

Biblical Masculinity

Steven gave a great talk on Biblical Masculinity during the regional conference this past weekend.  Despite hearing much of it in Noblemen before, I loved being reminded of principles I either forgot or are still working through.

He talked about how God created Adam and gave him the purpose of honoring/obeying Him.  In addition to the command to not eat from the tree, God gave Adam two tasks: Tend the garden, and protect the women.  He failed at both.  The serpant was a creature Adam was given authority over, and Adam stood and watched as the serpant subverted God's command and God's natrual creation order.  Adam should have put the serpant back in line, but instead remained silent. 

Secondly, and the issue I've been putting a lot of thought to lately, is how Adam should have protected the woman in this situation.  C.S. Lewis in his scifi book Perleandra seems to think Adam should have simply killed the snake, or else even if Eve had said "no" to eating from the tree, the snake would tempt her again the next day, and the next, and the next...  

What does it look like practically for a husband to protect his wife?  Where is the line between guarding her vs. allowing God to use pain and hardships as an instrument for refinement?

Irreducible Mins

A few years ago our campus director and staff came up with 12 qualities they wanted to see in every student graduating from the UofA who was enrolled in Navs.  Bryce talked about them a lot, but after four years I still couldn't name more than 2...  

Here they are in no particular order

1. Devotion to Jesus
   
2. Servanthood
   
3. sharing their life with the lost
   
4. Identity
   
5. A Vision for Multiplication
   
6. Grasping the need for the body
   
7. Scripture Memory
   
8. Prayer
   
9. Money (Biblical view and wise stewardship)
   
10. Authority and sufficiency of the Word
    
11. Devotional Life
    
12. A Heart for the World
    

Reading back through them, they're actually pretty profound.  

A big prayer of mine towards my sophmore study this semester has been "Grasping the need for the body."  Unity seems to be a big issue on nearly everyone's hearts.  The majority of nav nights have been talks about unity.  We're studying through Philippeans, which largely is about conducting oneself in a manner worthy of a Gospel, with the predominent way being, you guessed it, unity.  

One of the biggest lies I believe about unity is that it's ok to simply tolerate someone now at this time of my life.  Sure it'll effect the Nav body a little, but then again we're not trying to advance the "Navigators Gospel."  This is stupid thinking.  There is no such thing as being a "lone-ranger" for the Gospel.  Skip Gray says "you can't make it in the Gospel for the long haul if you don't have a wingman."  I believe that.  

Would you join me in praying this semester in particular my study and the whole of navs grows in understanding the importance of the body of Christ and living together in unity with it.  So that rather than being the cynical voice which bounces from church to church always discoving the flaws, we can be a blessing to any body or group we come in contact with throughout our lives.  And further, so that we can remain followers of Christ for the long run and not be picked off the Enemy twenty, forty, or sixty years down the road.

I've never done a political/economical posting before...

And I guess this changes that.

I saw this cartoon in the Economist and thought it funny, sad, and remarkably true. 

One of my goal's in this new year is to stay more up to date with what's going on in the economy, presidency, and world in light of politics.

Biblically Funding the Work of God

is a Bible Study I'm going through [again] on biblical fundraising that Navigators provided.  It's been extremely helpful and I'm very grateful to feel shepharded by the Navs through this.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is what it takes to keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord.  Such verses as "Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith," the disciple who took his eyes of Jesus during the storm and started sinking, and "Those who look to the Lord are radient, their faces are never covered with shame" have been in my mind.

Qualities of one who fixes their eyes upon the Lord:

- Extol the Lord at all times

- His praise is always on my lips

- His soul boasts in the Lord

- Gethers others to glorify the Lord with him

- Desires to exalt His name forever

The constant battle seems to be between believing the Lord is good, and focusing on Him while the waves of anxiety, despair, life in general, difficulties, and uncertainties constantly distract my focus.