I just realized I could title these blog posts whatever I liked, then when I type, not refer to the title or imply the title at all. That would be interesting. Just to hook you in and make you think I'm going one way, then BANG! Left turn.
Well, this title is pretty true. I am far from ordinary. And there are days that I look at my life and wish it was ordinary. But I am so glad for where I am and where I've been, because it shapes so radically where I am going. And one day I can look back on the journey and see how God has directed me there. Basically, the walk that you walk is like hallway that is closed in on all sides, and goes uphill. It's only when you get to the top and see the light that you truly realize the path you took.
That was kinda cool! Anyways, I wanna just post a song for your listening enjoyment.
I just discovered this song today, and it's amazing. Just soak it up.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 5:14-16 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
In word or deed
Well, football season is officially wrapped. Woohoo! Something one of my friends posted on Facebook intrigued me. He said that shortly after their win, a Packers player was interviewed and some of the first words out of his mouth were "Glory to God." My friend and I wonder, are the Steelers who claim to be Christ followers doing the same? That brought me to Colossians 3:17. "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
Makes me think. Whatever I do. The conversations I have with friends, the attitude I have at work. The mindset I have. All should glorify my Creator. Creator God, You gave me breath so I could praise Your great and matchless name all my days. Such an awesome song. Glory to God Forever by Steve Fee.
Anyways, that is definitely an area I struggle with. Giving glory to God in everything. I have no doubt the sin in my life does not glorify Him. And I firmly believe that glorifying Him is a learning process. I will never fully grasp how to. But I just pray that He teaches me along the way.
Tonight was short. Just a blurb on something that sparked my interest. I'm really starting to enjoy this blogging. I want to start Vlogging, video blogging, but that's too hard. I'd rather just type what I want to say. Maybe one day.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Makes me think. Whatever I do. The conversations I have with friends, the attitude I have at work. The mindset I have. All should glorify my Creator. Creator God, You gave me breath so I could praise Your great and matchless name all my days. Such an awesome song. Glory to God Forever by Steve Fee.
Anyways, that is definitely an area I struggle with. Giving glory to God in everything. I have no doubt the sin in my life does not glorify Him. And I firmly believe that glorifying Him is a learning process. I will never fully grasp how to. But I just pray that He teaches me along the way.
Tonight was short. Just a blurb on something that sparked my interest. I'm really starting to enjoy this blogging. I want to start Vlogging, video blogging, but that's too hard. I'd rather just type what I want to say. Maybe one day.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Saturday, February 5, 2011
God, where are we going?
That's a thought that has been nagging at me for a little while. It's just like, so much different stuff is going on in my life right now that I don't know which direction is the one God has laid out for me. I mean, I want so desperately to find out and adjust my life accordingly. Not to get there and find out I've wasted time.
But part of the journey to where I need to be is to shed the unnecessary baggage now. Because I don't want to reach the destination with more than I can carry. Though I know that I will end up having more than I can along the way, my Jesus carries what I cannot. I just, don't know where to begin.
One thing that need to happen, is the idols in life need to be destroyed, and the hole that they tried to fill needs to be filled by the One who designed me. Ross King said it best in one of my favorite songs, "Clear the Stage." The premise is we as Christians have lost our way in worshiping our Creator. We are too focused on the distractions of modern day to really realize who has given us all that we have. The first line of the song sums it up. "Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze if that's the measure you must take to crush the idols. Jerk the pews and all the decorations too, until the congregation's few then have revival." The next line is powerful, because it speaks to what church has started to become, a social event. "Tell your friends that this is where the party ends. Until you're broken for your sins, you can't be social. Then seek the Lord and wait for what He has in store, and know that great is your reward, so just be hopeful."
It's such a powerful message. I for sure am one that needs to live it out. It isn't easy to let go of everything that I cling to and give myself up to Jesus. But, to truly worship Him, and be one of His disciples, that's what we are called to do. He never said it would be easy, in fact He often scared people away by what He preached. But great is the reward.
So, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I'm tired of living in this rut I'm in. I look back to what camps do. Remove the distractions, clear the stage, and soon you see the brokenness for sin. Why does it take a camp to do that? I guess my prayer is that God would break me of my sins, right here and now. And through my brokenness, rebuild me and raise me up in His light, so that I can live as a shining light for Him.
I guess now I just pray that God leads me in His direction, that everything I do is for His glory.
This verse is so overused... Because you always just hear this part. Never the back story. Basically, God's people were in great turmoil, and were going through some just, junk. God has sent His people into exile, and they are not happy about it. In fact, there's a 70 year wait to get out. But there is still hope.
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
(Jeremiah 29:10)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
(Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV)
Philos, Justin
But part of the journey to where I need to be is to shed the unnecessary baggage now. Because I don't want to reach the destination with more than I can carry. Though I know that I will end up having more than I can along the way, my Jesus carries what I cannot. I just, don't know where to begin.
One thing that need to happen, is the idols in life need to be destroyed, and the hole that they tried to fill needs to be filled by the One who designed me. Ross King said it best in one of my favorite songs, "Clear the Stage." The premise is we as Christians have lost our way in worshiping our Creator. We are too focused on the distractions of modern day to really realize who has given us all that we have. The first line of the song sums it up. "Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze if that's the measure you must take to crush the idols. Jerk the pews and all the decorations too, until the congregation's few then have revival." The next line is powerful, because it speaks to what church has started to become, a social event. "Tell your friends that this is where the party ends. Until you're broken for your sins, you can't be social. Then seek the Lord and wait for what He has in store, and know that great is your reward, so just be hopeful."
It's such a powerful message. I for sure am one that needs to live it out. It isn't easy to let go of everything that I cling to and give myself up to Jesus. But, to truly worship Him, and be one of His disciples, that's what we are called to do. He never said it would be easy, in fact He often scared people away by what He preached. But great is the reward.
So, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I'm tired of living in this rut I'm in. I look back to what camps do. Remove the distractions, clear the stage, and soon you see the brokenness for sin. Why does it take a camp to do that? I guess my prayer is that God would break me of my sins, right here and now. And through my brokenness, rebuild me and raise me up in His light, so that I can live as a shining light for Him.
I guess now I just pray that God leads me in His direction, that everything I do is for His glory.
This verse is so overused... Because you always just hear this part. Never the back story. Basically, God's people were in great turmoil, and were going through some just, junk. God has sent His people into exile, and they are not happy about it. In fact, there's a 70 year wait to get out. But there is still hope.
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
(Jeremiah 29:10)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
(Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Friday, February 4, 2011
I keep reminding myself that I should do this.
Is that a bad thing? I love blogging, just never get around to making a habit of it. It's always a thought process. "Oh, well I should probably update the ole' Blogger."
Tonight is just some thoughts about whatever. This week, today, life, stock market quotes...nah I probably won't get to that.
Anyways, today ends possibly one of the longest school weeks of my life, because there hasn't been a whole lot of school this week! I mean, I've had fun, just, I'm ready to go back to school. (10 year old me just slapped 19 year old me for saying that.) I mean, as a kid, we relished the thought of school being cancelled. And the first day it was this year, I did! It was heaven on earth Monday night, knowing I could sleep in the next morning. Wednesday was less of a thrill, more of an acceptance. Oh, cool, no school tomorrow either. Thursday was kind of a joke. Like, wow, really? No school today? And then we get to today. It was kinda eh. Today felt like a Saturday. If you have been on Facebook, you've undoubtedly seen the pics I posted. Yes, those are my little sister's cheerleading shorts. No, I will never do that again. That was too much. I still laughed my face off as I made a snow angel wearing those, despite the loss of feelings in my feet. I love my socks even more now.
I was gonna start this paragraph with Anyways, but I do that a lot. I don't want it to sound repetitive. But, anyways... Hahaha, I thought you'd enjoy that.
We watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice tonight. It's an awesome Disney movie, with a great storyline. There is a song in it, written by OneRepublic for the release of the movie, called Secrets. Basically, how I interpret it as, the singer is telling of how he is stumped at writing a new song, sick of people being fake in their lyrics. So now, he decides to give all of his secrets away. Tell me what you want to hear. Something that will light those ears. I'm sick of all the insincere. I'm gonna give all my secrets away. This time, I don't need another perfect line. Don't care if critics ever jump in line, I'm gonna give all my secrets away.
It's just a stinking cool song. Well, that about wraps it up for me tonight. Nothing really profound, just ramblings. I'm gonna play some Call of Duty now, till I pass out. Shouldn't take long.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Tonight is just some thoughts about whatever. This week, today, life, stock market quotes...nah I probably won't get to that.
Anyways, today ends possibly one of the longest school weeks of my life, because there hasn't been a whole lot of school this week! I mean, I've had fun, just, I'm ready to go back to school. (10 year old me just slapped 19 year old me for saying that.) I mean, as a kid, we relished the thought of school being cancelled. And the first day it was this year, I did! It was heaven on earth Monday night, knowing I could sleep in the next morning. Wednesday was less of a thrill, more of an acceptance. Oh, cool, no school tomorrow either. Thursday was kind of a joke. Like, wow, really? No school today? And then we get to today. It was kinda eh. Today felt like a Saturday. If you have been on Facebook, you've undoubtedly seen the pics I posted. Yes, those are my little sister's cheerleading shorts. No, I will never do that again. That was too much. I still laughed my face off as I made a snow angel wearing those, despite the loss of feelings in my feet. I love my socks even more now.
I was gonna start this paragraph with Anyways, but I do that a lot. I don't want it to sound repetitive. But, anyways... Hahaha, I thought you'd enjoy that.
We watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice tonight. It's an awesome Disney movie, with a great storyline. There is a song in it, written by OneRepublic for the release of the movie, called Secrets. Basically, how I interpret it as, the singer is telling of how he is stumped at writing a new song, sick of people being fake in their lyrics. So now, he decides to give all of his secrets away. Tell me what you want to hear. Something that will light those ears. I'm sick of all the insincere. I'm gonna give all my secrets away. This time, I don't need another perfect line. Don't care if critics ever jump in line, I'm gonna give all my secrets away.
It's just a stinking cool song. Well, that about wraps it up for me tonight. Nothing really profound, just ramblings. I'm gonna play some Call of Duty now, till I pass out. Shouldn't take long.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Thursday, February 3, 2011
One more for the road
I think I will double post today.
Tonight has been pretty interesting. Played some Black Ops, nothing new there, we ordered Pizza Hut, Ally had some friends over to spend the night, because none of us have school tomorrow. And I finally got to watch an episode of An Idiot Abroad. I had it recorded for over a week before I finally sat down to watch it.
Anyways, this show has this guy Karl, who's basically dumb. He travels all over the world, egged on by his friends. He travels to China, basically walking in with the mindset that they do everything backwards and he is too afraid to step out of his comfort zone to enjoy the trip. I'm not gonna ruin what happens in the show for you, but at the very end, something he said kinda stuck with me.
He tells about a Chinese proverb, or as we Americans would call it, a fable. He only explained part of it, but I researched the rest. Here's my rendition of it.
There was once a frog who lived down in a well. Every day he would wake up and look at the circle of sky he saw at the top of the well. To him, that was all there was in the world. A dark shaft with a circle of light at the top. One day a turtle came by and crossed over the opening at the top of the well. The frog introduced himself, as did the turtle. After they talked, the frog invited the turtle down to his well. "You'd like it down here! There's a little patch of sky I get to watch change every day!"
The turtle looked down and laughed. "Frog, do you even know what's up here? I've seen the oceans! Vast bodies of water, as far as the eye can see! I've seen your circle of sky, but I've seen so much more! Why in the world would you live in that hole when you could be doing amazing things up here?"
That's how a lot of American are with their faith, myself included. We are so complacent being in our little wells, that we have no idea how big the world is outside of it. We'd much rather sit in our church services, sing some songs played by a band on stage, hear a message preached, then go home to the rest of the week that isn't consumed by one hour of social fellowship. Maybe, if we're lucky, in that one hour of "Jesus time," the Holy Spirit will move and something will happen. However, that is not how our faith is meant to be lived! We are meant to go, get out to the world. Your faith should not be lived inside the walls of a church building. That's the wrong crowd to be preaching to. I believe we are called. Jesus calls us to go. Go to all the world.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
(Psalm 46:10 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Tonight has been pretty interesting. Played some Black Ops, nothing new there, we ordered Pizza Hut, Ally had some friends over to spend the night, because none of us have school tomorrow. And I finally got to watch an episode of An Idiot Abroad. I had it recorded for over a week before I finally sat down to watch it.
Anyways, this show has this guy Karl, who's basically dumb. He travels all over the world, egged on by his friends. He travels to China, basically walking in with the mindset that they do everything backwards and he is too afraid to step out of his comfort zone to enjoy the trip. I'm not gonna ruin what happens in the show for you, but at the very end, something he said kinda stuck with me.
He tells about a Chinese proverb, or as we Americans would call it, a fable. He only explained part of it, but I researched the rest. Here's my rendition of it.
There was once a frog who lived down in a well. Every day he would wake up and look at the circle of sky he saw at the top of the well. To him, that was all there was in the world. A dark shaft with a circle of light at the top. One day a turtle came by and crossed over the opening at the top of the well. The frog introduced himself, as did the turtle. After they talked, the frog invited the turtle down to his well. "You'd like it down here! There's a little patch of sky I get to watch change every day!"
The turtle looked down and laughed. "Frog, do you even know what's up here? I've seen the oceans! Vast bodies of water, as far as the eye can see! I've seen your circle of sky, but I've seen so much more! Why in the world would you live in that hole when you could be doing amazing things up here?"
That's how a lot of American are with their faith, myself included. We are so complacent being in our little wells, that we have no idea how big the world is outside of it. We'd much rather sit in our church services, sing some songs played by a band on stage, hear a message preached, then go home to the rest of the week that isn't consumed by one hour of social fellowship. Maybe, if we're lucky, in that one hour of "Jesus time," the Holy Spirit will move and something will happen. However, that is not how our faith is meant to be lived! We are meant to go, get out to the world. Your faith should not be lived inside the walls of a church building. That's the wrong crowd to be preaching to. I believe we are called. Jesus calls us to go. Go to all the world.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
(Psalm 46:10 ESV)
Philos, Justin
Here comes the sun, eventually...
Day 4 of no school happens tomorrow. I can't call it a snow day anymore, because that implies playing outside in the snow. There is some forecast, but we will see...
Being cooped up this long isn't fun. I think I get cabin fever. I'm being short with everybody and just a grumpy person today. It's not worth it. It's really dumb. For real. Lol, I just smiled at that, thinking about that stupid song.
Anyways, this post is short. Nothing profound for right now. I might get on later and post again. Until then, my friends.
Here's an awesome couple of verses. They don't directly speak of snow and ice and cold temperatures, but I think it is implied. :)
"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 8:38-39 ESV)
Being cooped up this long isn't fun. I think I get cabin fever. I'm being short with everybody and just a grumpy person today. It's not worth it. It's really dumb. For real. Lol, I just smiled at that, thinking about that stupid song.
Anyways, this post is short. Nothing profound for right now. I might get on later and post again. Until then, my friends.
Here's an awesome couple of verses. They don't directly speak of snow and ice and cold temperatures, but I think it is implied. :)
"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 8:38-39 ESV)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Snow Day
Today, classes at UTA and in Fort Worth ISD were cancelled. Mom and dad stayed home from work, so the whole family was home! It was pretty fun, considering we are never all home for more than a couple of hours at a time, if we're lucky. Tomorrow's classes are cancelled too, and the parents will still be home. Day two should be pretty interesting. Mom predicts that by day three, if we are all still iced in, we are going to be at each other's throats. I kinda believe her.
Anyway, tonight is another song-to-sermon kind of night. Here's the song, Arms Open Wide by Hillsong United.
There are a few verses this song is based off of, but they all don't directly tie in, at least in my opinion.
Song of Solomon 6:3 says that "I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine." This verse was written in the only book of the Bible that talks about man's relationship with the woman he loves. Basically, Biblical relationship 101. This verse is the bride of Solomon professing her love for him, giving him all of her in return for all of Him. As Christians, we are called to do the same. We, the church, will one day be the bride of Jesus, and His desire is for us to give all we have to Him, as He did for us.
The overarching message in this song is we stand at the foot of the cross, with our arms spread. Spreading your arms is a universal symbol of relinquishing control. I give up. That's what the song says. Here I stand, arms open wide.
The song later sings, My whole life is Yours, I give it all, surrenederred to Your name. And forever I will pray "Have Your way." That should be our desire. To have the faith to give everything up, and pray to our Lord to have His way with our lives. This isn't easy, and He never said it would be. The road to salvation is narrow and treacherous, but the reward at the end is worth every risk we take.
That song is so amazing, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite worship songs. Because that's what it is; a pure worship song. In my opinion.
I think this song is so cool in that it is one that can be best heard through the ears of someone who is finally broken for their sins. We as humans try to conceal and bandage our sins ourselves, but it isn't what is required. When this is finally realized, we fall flat on our faces. That's what this song is. We can sing praises to the God who saves us, with our arms open wide at His throne of grace.
Anyway, just something to chew on.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV) Alas, that's another song to cover.
Philos, Justin
Anyway, tonight is another song-to-sermon kind of night. Here's the song, Arms Open Wide by Hillsong United.
There are a few verses this song is based off of, but they all don't directly tie in, at least in my opinion.
Song of Solomon 6:3 says that "I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine." This verse was written in the only book of the Bible that talks about man's relationship with the woman he loves. Basically, Biblical relationship 101. This verse is the bride of Solomon professing her love for him, giving him all of her in return for all of Him. As Christians, we are called to do the same. We, the church, will one day be the bride of Jesus, and His desire is for us to give all we have to Him, as He did for us.
The overarching message in this song is we stand at the foot of the cross, with our arms spread. Spreading your arms is a universal symbol of relinquishing control. I give up. That's what the song says. Here I stand, arms open wide.
The song later sings, My whole life is Yours, I give it all, surrenederred to Your name. And forever I will pray "Have Your way." That should be our desire. To have the faith to give everything up, and pray to our Lord to have His way with our lives. This isn't easy, and He never said it would be. The road to salvation is narrow and treacherous, but the reward at the end is worth every risk we take.
That song is so amazing, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite worship songs. Because that's what it is; a pure worship song. In my opinion.
I think this song is so cool in that it is one that can be best heard through the ears of someone who is finally broken for their sins. We as humans try to conceal and bandage our sins ourselves, but it isn't what is required. When this is finally realized, we fall flat on our faces. That's what this song is. We can sing praises to the God who saves us, with our arms open wide at His throne of grace.
Anyway, just something to chew on.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV) Alas, that's another song to cover.
Philos, Justin
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