no longer

i've been reading a commentary on the minor prophets, which of course begins with hosea. this week, Hosea 2:16 really caught my attention... (twice actually - which means that the first blog entry remains unwritten or actually has been included together with this one):

the first english version of the Bible that i had looked at translates the verse "you will call me 'My Husband'" and "no longer 'My Master." i was meditating and praying through that idea... how i long for myself and for the students to which i minister to react in our relationship with God based on the true nature of His covenant with us: a loving relationship, rather than one of duty... ie. not saying "well, i'll do it because i have to" or afraid of punishment but out of joy of relationship and a longing for the pleasure of God. (understanding that HIS pleasure is what brings me pleasure).

well, when i was getting ready to type that all out the other day, i was caught up short when i read the esv (and subsequently several other versions). rather than translating the word to english "master," - it leaves it as the proper name "baal." that can throw a whole new twist into it - not saying that the first thought is not a good meditating/prayer point, but that perhaps it is not necessarily the main point that is being addressed here.

rather (and it makes sense understanding the entire context of hosea), the prayer should be that we as the people of God would return to proper relationship with our covenant God as opposed to pursuing and crying after other lovers. speaking personally and corporately - it is SO EASY to be tempted to "chase the skirts" of so many baals.

oh God, may i, may we return to our first love! do a Hosea 2:17 work in us... "remove the names of the baals from [our] mouth[s]!"

baby it's COLD outside...

(though def not as cold as minn/wisc... we are soft!) so last night, i was a little reluctant to go out to the car to go home. i wound up following a little trail on the internet, that i will now lead you down. why, you ask? because the end results are a couple really cool things that i found!

(keep in mind, this is all occurring while i'm having a conversation with matt clutter on the facebook)

last week, rachel had commented on my blog that she had gotten my message to levi. however, when she asked me this week if i had seen her message, well, i had not. so i read it last night and then clicked to look if she had updated. seeing her profile, part of her "interests" intrigued me: bible quizzing. hmmmm, i thought, i wonder who all i might know of all the bloggers who are interested in bible quizzing. who did i happen to find? teens for Christ northwest! i read on their blog about an online practice quiz generator (i probably should have noticed that the entry was from 2004) which was located on their homepage. the generator's not there, but i DID find two gems: reftagger and wordle.

reftagger allows me to type in a reference such as my life verse, Hebrews 4:12, and as long as i capitalize it, the reader can scroll over the reference and see the verse! without me having to worry about linking to bible gateway or anything else...

wordle in simple terms makes word art. the input comes from your entered text OR from an rss or atom feed. what is really cool is that the words are sized by how often they occur. the really sweet art on tfc's site shows the gospel of luke, and which are the 400 words that most frequently occur (it can weed out common words like "the" and "a" and "and").
(oh, this one's actually only the top 300 words...)

i was like, COOL! so i experimented awhile. here are some of my creations:

Godspeed by mortal


dr. seuss's ABCs for my little cousin levi
(i removed the words "big", "little", and "begins" cause they dwarfed everything!)


some will seek forgiveness, others escape by underoath


sunday, bloody sunday by u2


running to stand still by u2


every new day by five iron frenzy


come thou fount of every blessing


Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)


stare at the sun by thrice

oh the irony

the other day i was listening to the radio and a guy was commenting on the somali pirates who had hijacked a saudi oil tanker. he was lamenting the fact that they had given in on their demands and accepted $3 million for its release rather than their initial $5 million ransom price. he was making a humorous point about the devaluing of the dollar, and that if they were gonna take such a risk they ought to get their money's worth. well, believe me, i was surprised to see this article a little later on. welcome to reality, boys, Jesus' words still ring true:

"for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"
Luke 9:25

oh the weather outside is frightful...

so a verse that i've been mulling over since sunday evening's sermon is Matthew 24:12: "and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." as i was meditating on it yesterday, another verse that came to mind was 2 Timothy 1:6: "for this reason, i remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

i've been getting a graphic illustration of this lately because of the cold weather and stoking my woodburner. i am also reminded that charles spurgeon referred to members of his congregation who would pray for him while he preached as the church's "boiler room."

so i am striving to be stoking my life daily with the Word of God (Psalm 39:3), adding the breath of prayer (Ephesians 6:18), praying for the spark of the Spirit (Luke 11:13), moving around in acts of service (1 Cor. 16:15) and seeking the warming friction of fellow believers (Prov 27:17). may my heart stay well warmed within me, O God!

"when you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn!" john wesley

HOLD FAST HOPE!

so today i sandwiched attending a funeral in between calling to wish joey a happy birthday in the morning and calling to wish jason a happy birthday at noon. (being a pacific coaster, i figured he'd rather me not call him at 4:45 am his time...) but as i was getting ready for the day and also thinking about the impending birth of ryan and sarah's baby... i found myself meditating on this passage in Ecclesiastes 7:

"a good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. it is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools..."

the other night at men's bible study, we were talking about the complacency of normalcy, (say that 5 times fast) and the stunning nature of Revelation 9:20-21. 1/3 of mankind is destroyed, but the living DO NOT repent. they just keep on going...

i'd also been listening quite a bit to the new thrice "live at the house of blues cd" (and watching the dvd). some lyrics have really been sticking out at me... from "broken lungs": "A fire burns beneath Manhattan still we breathe with broken lungs we act like none of this matters is that what we meant when we said that we'd sing what must be sung?" yeah, it's totally possible to be shocked and then to go back to life as normal...

i found myself writing in the margin of my bible, "God, may i not be as obstinate!" and being humbled by the fact that He has opened my eyes to the reality of the gospel!

today, i have come face to face with birth and death; life temporal and life eternal. may my living in the one be always grounded with an eye towards the other!

self examination

i've been reading a book called Death by Love: Letters from the Cross by Mark Driscoll. in the chapter on reconciliation, he had some good stuff about bitterness... its source and some good questions to check ourselves for it:

"bitterness is often unrelated to the magnitude of a sin but is instead correlated to the emotional proximity of the offender. it is also often tied to betrayal. what i mean is this: if a stranger sins against you in a big way, you are unlikely to get bitter. but if a beloved family member or friend sins against you in a little way, you are likely to get bitter because you have opened your heart to that person and have high expectations for the relationship. therefore, those whom you love the most are most likely to provoke your bitterness because their sin rises to the level of betrayal."

am i bitter? questions:

"1. do you continually replay in your mind with great detail a negative past event and dislike for the person(s) involved?
2. do you find yourself continually referring to someone in a pejorative fashion because of some past hurt?
3. do you intentionally avoid certain person(s) because you find yourself becoming continually annoyed or angry in their presence?
4. do you find that your dislike of someone is growing over time?"

*** why is any of this important? remember the words of Hebrews 12:15 "see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" bitterness can cause us to miss God's grace and keeps us from living out of it towards others. bitterness causes trouble. bitterness defiles others.

"for He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility" Ephesians 2:14

raising the harvest song

with it being thanksgiving time, we of course have been practicing a couple of "thankful" numbers for choir. the one for sunday morning is an arrangement of "come, ye thankful people, come." well, the arranger must have had some sort of issues that he wanted to take out on the tenors and basses, because after not singing for the first page and a half, we then sing DOUBLE TIME to try to catch up with the ladies. and not just double time... sometimes it's double time with a stutter!

however, redemption comes in the final verse, as we come back to sing together and "more broadly." every week as we finish the song, i find this verse becoming my prayer and all hardships that i had with the arranger long forgotten (fittingly enough, my Bible reading had me at matthew 9:37-38 yesterday as well!). sing it with gusto!!!

even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring Thy final harvest home;
gather Thou Thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in Thy presence to abide;
come, with all Thine angels come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

amen. come Lord Jesus.