remember who you are

I recently learned that when Mormon girls go out on dates, their mothers will tell them "remember who you are" as they're leaving. Mormons believe that they are the literal spiritual children of God, so the reminder is for them to keep their identity as God's children at the forefront of their thoughts.

Now I have not even the slightest inkling of a desire to become Mormon, but I think it's really cool that these mothers will remind their daughters of their identity. How often and how easily do we forget our identity in the midst of all the chaos of life?

I think that as a Christian it is so important that I remember who I am. I am not my own. I was bought with a price. I have been adopted into God's family and am co-heirs with Christ. I am loved. I am forgiven. I am redeemed.

There are so many identities that we could each take on and portray to the world, but our true identity is in Christ. It's not a question of if I'm wealthy or impoverished, single or married, intelligent or not, successful or barely scraping by, a mother or barren, alone or surrounded by friends. The thing that matters is that I'm a child of the King. Remembering that makes all the difference.

Often in the epistles, the authors begin their letters by reminding their audience of God's faithfulness to fulfill his promises, of who Christ is and what he accomplished on the cross, and of who we are in Him. For even though "at one time you were darkness," because of who Christ is and who we are in him "now you are light in the Lord," so we are to "walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). We do not live, speak, think, or act in any particular way to gain our salvation, but we live, speak, think, and act because he is who he said he was and we are changed because of him.

So I would just encourage you to remember who you are.

working my way back out

So I realize it has been almost an entire year since my last post. I'm sorry about my long silence. I won't try to rewrite the entire past year for far too much has passed between then and now, but I will say it has been a very hard year. Trying in ways I never guessed it would be. God is faithful through it all, but it has not been a particularly easy year.

Right now I'm trying to declutter both physically and emotionally. It is a long process. Every weekend I tackle one part of my life and find myself with bags of trash and recycling to haul out to the dumpsters, both literal and metaphorical. Every time I think I'm nearing the end there's a new stash of stuff and more tears to shed that I didn't know were left behind. I think it will be a while longer before I get to the end of all the junk, but I believe there will be an end in sight eventually.

Ephesians 2:1-7
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

be my delight

I recently learned about the band Ascend the Hill and heard their version of the song "Be Thou My Vision." The song itself is not new. It's an Old Irish text from the 6th century that wasn't translated into English until 1905. I really love this arrangement of the song. My favorite part though is the bridge, which isn't in the original version. It goes...

Oh God be my everything, be my delight
Be Jesus, my glory, my soul satisfied

I just want to listen to that part of the song over and over again. I've included a link to the song below rather than embedding the clip because there's a bizarre deer head photo that's in the background. I can't look at it because it distracts me from the beauty of the song itself.

Ascend the Hill "Be Thou My Vision"

coram Deo

"God created us to live coram Deo. Coram Deo means to live "before the face of God" and was commonly used by John Calvin and others throughout church history to explain the Christian life. Practically speaking, we were created to live all of life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, by the Word of God, to the glory of God. We were created to live all of life before the face of God, knowing that nothing in our life is secular or separated from the sight of God because all of life is sacred. To live otherwise is sacrilege."

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe

he had sent a man ahead

Last night I was reading Psalm 105, which I came across these verses:

(16) When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, (17) he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

I have probably read that passage before, but it never really struck me until last night. The entire Psalm celebrates God's faithfulness in keeping his promises. It recalls God's covenant with Israel, their wanderings in Canaan, their journey into Egypt, the plagues in Egypt, and their deliverance out of Egypt with God's provision in the wilderness. These two verses tell just one piece of that story.

They stood out to me because they highlight God's purposefulness. It wasn't just that Joseph happened to be sold into slavery and God said, hey, that's convenient, maybe I can make that work for me. Rather Joseph was sold into slavery with a larger purpose in mind -- the preservation of God's people. Actually look at the wording; it says that "he had sent a man ahead of them." Joseph's enslavement was no accident. It was ordained for a particular purpose. What seems like a hateful, evil act to us was necessary for a much greater good and God's glory to be displayed.

As it says in Genesis 50 regarding the same events:

(19) But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? (20) As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (21) So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones."

His brothers meant to harm him out of jealousy, but God used the situation for His good purposes.

I think this stood out to me because so often we look at our own lives, the lives of friends and family, or the world around us, and we can easily feel overwhelmed by impossible and even evil circumstances that we live in on a sometimes daily basis. We begin to focus on the pain and confusion and take our eyes off the cross, when we need more than ever to cling to the cross at that moment, trusting that what may appear evil at the time can be used by God for good.

This was a good source of encouragement for me, and I pray that it will be for you as well.

all sorts of crazy

This is utterly ludicrous: Halloween Book Burning. Just what are they burning? Any version of the Bible that isn't the King James Version; a wide variety of music including country, rap, contemporary Christian, southern gospel, and soul; and "Satan's popular books written by heretics," including those by Billy Graham, James Dobson, John Piper, Mother Teresa, and Rob Bell. They even have scriptural "evidence" to justify the burning.

Part of me wants to laugh at how crazy this is, but then the rest of me is saddened by how blind and ignorant their actions will be. This level of fundamentalism is soul crushing and in no way reflects who Christ is and why He died for us.

can't get enough of this song

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

"What Do I Know of Holy?" by Addison Road

Jesus wants the rose

A friend linked to this video on Facebook earlier today, and I've watched it several times since. It's an excerpt from a sermon that Matt Chandler gave at the Desiring God Conference earlier this year. It's not a terribly long clip at just under 4 minutes and is definitely worth watching.

I need to think more about what it really means for Jesus to want the rose. It's one of the most mind-blowing things about the Christian faith. Cryptic? Watch the clip ;)

a faith of your own

This morning while Stacey and I were driving up to Tahoe, we began discussing faith and falling away. We talked about how many people (ourselves included) who were raised in the Christian faith and have claimed it as their own fall away or go through a period of rebellion, often after leaving their parents' homes and moving out on their own. At some point, each of these individuals will be faced with the question of belief. What do I really believe? Is this my faith or my parents' faith?

This seems to be a crucial moment. One of two things seems to happen. 1) They may come to the conclusion that they do not really believe and will walk away from the faith. God may choose to bring them back at some point, but right then and there, they make a conscious choice not to believe. 2) They will turn from their rebellion and embrace Christ for who He is. And if they choose the second option, this is the moment where their faith is not because of family or tradition or culture. At this moment, faith becomes real, personal, relational. This is the point where real growth and maturation in their relationship with Christ begins.

As we came to this point in the conversation, goose bumps covered my body. I glanced over to Stacey to see that she was covered with goose bumps too. Like Stacey said, it's as though the Spirit was affirming in each of us that we had just said something true.

Immanuel

A book I've been reading posed the following question:

How would your life be different if you began and ended each day with the firm belief that God is with you?*

The book takes 26 of the names of Jesus and discusses them, the first of which is Immanuel: God with us. I was excited that Immanuel was the first name in the book because I've thought a lot about the notion of God with us in the past couple years. In a sermon Harvey give once at Living Stones, he talked about how all throughout the Bible there are passages that mention God not only being with us but desiring to be with us.

He was there in the beginning before creation (Genesis 1:1).
He was there walking with Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:8).
He was there as a pillar of smoke and fire leading the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (Exodus 13: 21-22).
He was there in the Ark of the Covenant with the Israelites (Exodus 25:8).
He was there in the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chronicles 7:1-3).
He was there with us in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1-18).
He is here, dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4; 38).

These are just a few examples. Over a period of about 18 months, I read through the entire Bible. As I read I could not help but notice that all throughout the scriptures--both Old and New Testaments--there are references to God with us. In just about every story, the idea was implicitly implied, if not explicitly stated, all pointing to God with us. I would love to go back through and jot down all the references.

So I ask myself, and I challenge you to ask yourself, how would my life be different if I lived like I really believed that God is with me? Would it change anything?

* Spangler, Ann. Praying the Names of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006. 17.

divine appointment?

I woke up really late this morning. I blame the medicine I took around midnight. Anyway, I didn't drag myself out of bed more than 15 minutes before church was supposed to start. Normally if I had gotten up that late, I would just skip, but I really felt like I should go. So I got ready and went. I was only 15-20 minutes late, and the sermon hadn't even started yet.

At the end of the service, a couple that had recently emigrated from Baghdad wanted to speak to the congregation. They thanked us for the kindness that the church had shown them since they moved here and asked for our prayers. I'm fairly certain that they're Muslim.

I spoke to them briefly after the service to thank them for coming and welcome them. One thing led to another, and now I'll be tutoring the wife in English on Monday nights. I think this is going to be a really neat opportunity. And to think that if I had decided to be lazy and stay home, I would have never met them. I'm glad things worked out like they did :)

reassurance

From this morning's sermon...

You don't have enough power to mess up God's plan for your life. You cannot sink the ship. You also do not have enough power to keep it afloat.

grace flows down

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
Amazing love, now flowing down
From hands and feet that were nailed to a tree
Grace flows down and covers me

And covers me
And covers me
And covers me
And covers me
~ "Grace Flows Down," David E. Bell, Louie Giglio, and Rod Padget

Tonight my friend Kristy was baptized along with 7 other people from Connexion. It was so beautiful. Up until a couple years ago, I don't think I really appreciated what baptism is. I didn't see it as a personal testimony to God's grace in a person's life, nor did I see it as a public commitment of one's life to God. Before I viewed baptism more as something that Christians were supposed to do out of a sense of duty.

I was baptized as a baby, but since that's a commitment by the parents and not the child, I don't believe that really counts. My mom says I was voluntarily water baptized when I was a kid, but I honestly have no memory of it. I remember my older brother being baptized but not me. So either my memory or my mom's memory is faulty. I would at some point like to be baptized (or re-baptized depending on whose memory is correct), but when I do so, I want to be baptized at Grace because that's where I really came to understand the significance of baptism.