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Archive for January, 2010

luke deserves hell

after thinking about my post yesterday, i felt really convicted to follow it up with this one.

my brother luke, who i raved about yesterday, deserves hell.

my brother miles, who i often rave about, deserves hell.

i deserve hell.

mark driscoll put it this way…

anything short of hell, is grace.

we have free will,

that is limited by what we know.

we only know evil.

no one is good.

sin entered this world,

& now is very present in every breathing persons life via nature & decision.

we deserve eternal darkness,

separation from God,

death.

but Jesus came.

and lived a flawless life.

and died the death i deserved.

as propitiation,

as a payment for the warranted wrath of God.

i deserve hell & i end up with a reconciled relationship with God, a marriage to Ashley, & a Christ-exalting family?

that, my friends, rattles me to the very core every time i think about it.

that is wildly unreasonable.

that is God and God is love.

i felt like i needed to bring this up so that nobody out there starts idolizing anything or anybody other than Jesus Christ,

and i felt like yesterdays post could have easily been a foundation for an idol if not understood.

by the grace of God and act of the Holy Spirit,

luke has been the source of a lot of my deepest life change in some of the most profound ways.

but that wasn’t luke…remember, he only knows evil…it was God, working through luke.

this post might be as much for me as it is for everybody out there,

and the only reason i say this is because it is true,

it is straight from the Word.

after Noah survived the flood, he made some burnt offerings to God & this is what the Lord said:

“never again will i curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood…”

Genesis 8:21

let’s start destroying the idols in our lives and recognizing God’s grace for what it is, all around us, all the time, everything short of hell.

do we (or some) deserve something else? what? and who?

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me++

got some really cool news to share with you all:

my brother luke has agreed to be a guest author on the blog.

a couple of reasons that you should be excited about this:

  1. luke loves Jesus more than anything or anybody
  2. he has the gift of counseling – flesh & soul smile
  3. he also has a gift of calling out sin – flesh scowl; soul smile
  4. more authors=more perspectives=more challenges=more growth

there are a ton more, but i have realized that there is a very negative correlation between # of seminary courses taken & time for blogging;

more-so, i have realized that the things the Holy Spirit does to me through luke, need to be done to the world…

(you’ll understand later)

i believe this change will benefit us all.

transparentfreedom now = seminary student + musician + law student

…all just wanting to spread His name, while knowing that even if we don’t…

the stones will cry out

luke 19:40

got any cool news?

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momma

**i thought i had scheduled this post to automatically send on the 20th & just realized it did not, so here you go momma-happy b-day again

she was born today, some years ago

her life, marked with trials and joys,

continues to live;

like Phil. 2 calls us to.

love-the kind that is always concerned with my eternal well-being,

seems to be all that she knows;

oh, how much my flesh hates & my soul rejoices in this reality.

thank you.

happy birthday momma-i would be no where near the person i am today without you.

i love you.

what does my momma mean to you?  how about your momma?

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26.26th

luke means bringer of light,

and i love how God works because if there was one description i would use to describe luke, it would likely be: bringer of light.

my brother luke celebrates his golden birthday today:

26 on the 26th.

he has been & continues to be a great source of light in my life through his unwavering commitment to serving Jesus.

his presence boggles my mind without fail in a wonderful way.

happy birthday bro – i love you.

any birthday shoutouts?

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lava lamps are life

i just completed my first assignment at seminary.

the assignment was to come up with a metaphor that relates to life.

there were many “life is like a marathon race”

and “life is like juggling.”

here is mine, i hope you enjoy (& hope i get invited back for day two):

The lava lamp only works when the light is on.

The entire process is fascinating (in very different ways).

The highs & lows are never permanent.

The big bubbles (thoughts, beliefs, ideas) sometimes split into little separate bubbles.

The new little bubbles (thoughts, beliefs, ideas) often combine to create a new big bubble.

The cycle (refining) never stops.

At times, the “lava” (my spiritual life) is uniform & connected.

Other times, the “lava” is completely chaotic, but never remains in this state for long because the light brings together & separates, as there is a time for everything.

The process is not an immediate, fast changing one-it takes time & sometimes a number of trials before the shape you are hoping for forms “perfectly.”

Some bubbles (parts of my spiritual life) don’t need as much refining, correcting, proving, changing, and shaping as others.

The bubbles, big or small, flat or round, change their shape almost primarily, and definitely most effectively, in the light.

what about the lava lamp resembles your life?

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