oh the memories...

as i was leaving fca at the christian school today, one of the guys stopped me to show me a devotion he had written based on 1 Timothy 4:12. (it's really cool - a group of students there is staying everyday after school for devotions and prayer!)

well, i was mentally transported back to the days of the 4-1-2 fellowship that began by asking the question: "if the entire body of Christ looked like me in how they talked, lived, loved, believed and were pure, what would the body of Christ look like?"

with those days in mind, when i got back to the office, i started looking back over some of my old "daily verse" emails that i used to send to that group in pre-facebook, blogging and even im-ing days. it was a real blessing to reread some of the stuff. (this kind of encouragement is a great reason to journal!!!) they are mostly just scripture and a few thoughts. some of them i have reposted previously at http://timmy5jack.tripod.com/dailyverses/, but i thought that i'd go ahead and put some of them here over the coming days. God's truth doesn't change, and i pray that He would continually enable me to communicate it!

here's one from august 7, 2000 that fits in perfectly with this year's quiz material:

faithful?

1 Corinthians 4:1-5
"So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN GIVEN A TRUST MUST PROVE FAITHFUL. I care very little if i am judged my you or by any human court; indeed i do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He WILL BRING TO LIGHT what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God."

***check out 1 John 1 to go along with this......

make mine a willing heart

the other morning, i reached the beginning of jonah in the commentary on the minor prophets that i've been reading. shortly thereafter, my ipod (set on random) played the song "hold fast hope" by thrice (which just happens to be based on the story of jonah)...



so i guess the place that leaves me is saying, "o God show me who is my ninevah today, and make mine a willing heart!"

chisel me

picked up "entermission" by dj official... this is definitely the one that's getting the most play:

chisel me, holy God
break me down with Your love
don't spare Your holy rod
though this pain will be tough
chisel me, Lord
mold me to look like You
this isn't easy but...
do what You gotta do!

a helpful analogy

a quote from g.i. williamson:

"the fact of the matter is that the Bible cannot possibly be proved to be God's word by anything external to God Himself. this does not mean that the testimony of the church is useless. a guide who points out various masterpieces in an art gallery is of use. he does not make doubtful paintings into masterpieces. he does not even prove masterpieces to be such. but he may be the instrument by which we are brought to see the intrinsic qualities which make them to be masterpieces. so the church may point out that the Bible is the word of God. but this is possible only because it is God's word - because it already displays everywhere within itself the excellencies which belong to word-divinity. it must be there in order to be seen to be there."

It must be getting closer...

last night, i dreamt that i was emceeing the opening rally for nationals. i was introducing the various ministries that were there but realized that some were still arriving - the auditorium was only about half full. in order to kill some time, i decided to just walk around the crowd and ask random questions. i stuck the microphone (a long sticklike one - kinda like price is right) in kyle keeney's face and asked, "to kill a mockingbird. yes or no?" kyle answered, "yes," and then my alarm went off to wake me up. i found myself very curious as to what the crowd response would have been.