jon price, tim keller and tony dinozzo

(it's been a hectic week... i'd meant to blog this much sooner)

jon price preached (or is it praught) at our church sunday morning from John 4:4-27 - talking about Jesus sharing the gospel with the samaritan woman and what our attitude is towards unbelievers... or as he was saying "those" people...

some of his points echoed tim keller from his book, the reason for God... which i highly recommend. (i on the other hand was quoting from the prodigal God on sunday evening, which i would ALSO recommend :) )

interestingly enough, my mind also went back to watching an episode of ncis with the mccoys and ramseys saturday evening(maggie and jeremy were in for the weekend and are in love with the show almost as much as my parents). in the episode, tony was undercover as an escaped convict in an attempt to get another convict to lead him to some stolen valuables. little did he know that the seemingly mild mannered prisoner was a serial killer! when he found out tony was a federal agent and was about to slit his throat from behind, he made this comment:

"Just so you know, when I said no one ever treated me like you did, I meant that."

now tony dinozzo is not someone that i would usually point to as a model for behavior. however, shouldn't that be the reaction of people around us to our attitude and witness... humble servants sharing the truth out of hearts compelled by the love of Christ!!!!

(the contrast of sinner/righteous stereotypes is also a major theme in the gospel of luke... maybe more on that later)

celebrating green

nah... not because it's st. patrick's day... because i noticed some of the first flowers popping up out of the ground this morning... a great reminder of new birth in Christ - life from death... i've been reading a really good book by john piper on that subject, you should check it out! me? now i'm excited to do yardwork! :)

i had to help pap put on his socks this morning

this past month, especially since gram got home from the hospital, i've been reflecting a lot on a lesson i first learned in tanzania in the spring of 2001. i had some really great alone time with God at the guest house we stayed at in dar es salaam. mike and i were doing seminars morning and evening, but in the afternoons i got to spend some precious time in study and prayer on a patio overlooking the indian ocean...

anyway, for several years, one of our key thoughts that we kept coming back to at Bible study was "pleasing God is a good thing" (originally springing from Hebrews 11:6... it was the answer i could always count on jen roberts to come up with)... as i was reading my Bible in tanzania, i came across Ephesians 5:10: "find out what pleases the Lord." hmmm - a command - i like straight forward commands. kinda like having a to do list, it gives direction.

now this was several years before i read "the pleasures of God," (i HIGHLY recommend it) and i didn't go nearly as in depth as john piper did... but, what i did do was to flip through my concordance and look for the words "this pleases the Lord." seemed pretty logical ;)

well, one of the first passages i came to was 1 Timothy 5:4 "if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing to God."

boom! smack in the face. i had to repent of the fact that i sometimes resented the "inconvenience" of going down the driveway to my grandmother's trailer to help her with things. this was a mirror into the selfishness of my sin nature... i want my own way and to control my own schedule... i need to constantly be reminded to humble myself before God's will, saying "USE ME! HOWEVER, WHEREVER, WHENEVER!"

little did i realize at the time, that i had less than a year to put this lesson into practice with gram... next week, it'll be 7 years she's been gone. but now, as i live next to my other grandparents, and as they struggle with failing health and many "difficult" days, may my service to them be a reflection of my gratitude to Jesus for His gracious sacrifice for me and of gratitude for godly grandparents who are in a large part responsible for who i am today! Lord, help me to serve you with JOY!

getting bogged down

"but watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. for it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. but stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:34-36

i'm a "right here, right now" type of person (no, not like jesus jones... though i CAN do the falsetto). more like, i can get very focused on the place that i am, the people i'm around, the task at hand or even the current distraction. this can be a good thing in some instances (such as not getting homesick when traveling or pushing to finish a task), but it can also become a tunnel vision that keeps me from thinking ahead. i miss the big picture and need reminding.

as i read this passage today, it was a big picture reminder. "watch" - i tend to notice this word a lot. i don't think that Jesus would say "watch," if there wasn't a danger.

as i was meditating on this idea of dangers that could bog me down and take my mind off of the reality of Christ's impending return, i realized that i wasn't coming up with a good mental definition of "dissipation." so i looked it up. of course, the first one in the list wasn't really all that helpful:

1. the act of dissipating.

duh. but then it got thought provoking:

2. the state of being dissipated; dispersion; disintegration.
3. a wasting by misuse: the dissipation of a fortune.
4. mental distraction; amusement; diversion.
5. dissolute way of living, esp. excessive drinking of liquor; intemperance.
6. Physics, Mechanics. a process in which energy is used or lost without accomplishing useful work, as friction causing loss of mechanical energy.

how do i keep from wasting what i have, just muddling through the day? i need to heed Jesus' commands: watch, stay awake, pray... be aware of His impending return, because someday i will stand before the Son of Man.

instead...

when i turned on the radio this morning, this song was playing. it's been awhile since i've heard it, but it made me sad to listen - especially the line, "my daddy gave me a name, then he walked away."



i've spent some time meditating this morning on Ephesians 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5-9 and Luke 11:2-13. how very important it is that we raise up a generation who understands the true nature of our Heavenly Father and who live out their relationships in light of that knowledge and relationship!