Thoughts of the week

1. Shell shock.

2. Seminary seems to be more about developing a good root than about fancy words & big books.

3. "To be a son or daughter of Abraham you have to have the faith of Abraham." -Greenham

4. In America we call it ministry; internationally we call it missions; in reality they're both apart of the Mission. We must not separate the idea mission from our culture.

5. Classes started, gonna be good stuff.

6. Sometimes it's better to be ignorant of a situation when the alternative of knowing means sinning.

7. It's regular for my wife & I to work our way through 3 mugs a day.

8. Ever had to do too many grown-up things in a week? #buildafort

9. The order of words in a sentence shows the order of loves in one's heart.

10. "Amidst all our pursuits & designs, let us stop & ask ourselves, For what end is all this? At what am I doing? Can the gross & muddy pleasures of sense, or a heap of white & yellow earth, or that esteem & affection of silly creatures, like myself, satisfy a rational & immortal soul? Have I not tried these things already? Will they have a higher relish, & yield me more contentment tomorrow than yesterday, or the next year than they did the last? There may be some little difference betwixt that which I enjoyed before; but sure, my former enjoyments did show as pleasant, & promised as fair, before I attained the,; like the rainbow they looked very glorious at a distance, but when I approached, I found nothing but emptiness & vapor. Oh! What a poor thing would the life of man be, if it were capable of no higher enjoyment." ~Scougal 

Simple.

We can't fight for the last word, just what's right.

If our King suffered, so shall we. We will suffer while watching children die on the altar selfishness. We'll suffer while watching friends run into folly. We'll suffer while the world around us runs from the one Person that can save it. Our God was aquatinted with grief, so too shall we be.

Thoughts

1. It's been way too long since I last did one of these

2. I preach in Peachland, NC last Sunday. I had an ominous feeling when my barber - who is 75ish & lived in NC his whole life - said, "Never heard of Peachland." 

3. Foggy mornings are the best. So much adventure, and dinosaurs.

4. Started a new blog to keep things I've written for seminary, in readable post o-course

5. Andrew Peterson's, "Light for the Lost Boy," album is killer good.

6. Semester starts next Tuesday. This is like the weekend of the deep breath before the plunge. #LOTRreference.

7. I have to read "Knowing God," for class. This is the worst possible thing ever (sarcasm).

8. Working my way through Harry Potter... again.

9. After living in a new place for almost 9 months, it's starting to feel more home-like.

10. Fun fact: In Eph 1:6 the word "blessed" in the ESV is the same word in Greek as in Luke 1:28 when Mary is described as "highly favored." The word means: to grace; i.e. indue with special honor; - make acceptable, be highly favored." So, Eph 1:6 literally reads, "To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has made us highly favored, imbued with special honor, made acceptable in the Beloved. 

A Moment to Write

My professor, Dr. Greenham, spoke well against reincarnation. He said, “We are made to go on.”

Lewis says something similar. Something of how time is an odd thing and that because we view time as odd that this points to our not being made for the temporal but the eternal. That our terms of how, “Time has flown,” or how, “Time has slowed down to a crawl,” are hints at our eternality. We are not made for reflection or the entropy of reliving parts of life, no, we’re made to go on. Now and now and now, we’re made to go on and on and on, but never made to go back to how things once were. God himself will not return us to the Garden, he, rather, will create a city for our dwelling. Lewis does well to say, “Further up and further in.” For indeed this is what we are created for.

Something of this is freeing. Nostalgia seems such a happy place until compared to reality, then we spiral into the hope of how things were, never thinking of how things are let alone how things will be. But if creation longs to be made new (Rom 8) then ought’n we too? Should we not long for the consummation of all things in the enveloping arms of Christ the King? Yet here Lewis’ voice plays in my ears once more, “News from a country you’ve never visited… echoes of a tune you’ve not heard… the scent of a flower I’ve never smelled.” Indeed our longing for completion is evident in our nostalgia, but we cannot go backward to gain it, we must go on.

I’m finding more and more that I truly only know two things, that I am a great sinner and Jesus is a greater Savior (as Newton would say it). My feelings betray me. My heart is deceitful. My mind is a labyrinth of these's and those's, this’s and that’s. Even reality holds little to know, because I’m certain that just behind it’s frail curtain a war rages - a war of cherubim and seraphim fighting devils and demons - of light defeating darkness for the Dawn has come. There is comfort in seeing my ignorance.

Andrew Peterson has a song that has been capturing me, “Carry the Fire.” He sings, “We dream at night of city descending with the Son in the middle and a peace unending… Where joy writes the song and the innocent sing them…” The more I learn, the more those same two things are all I know. In some form or fashion all things are tied to the sinfulness of my soul and Christ’s redemption.

Parts, Portions & Pieces

I've started another blog.

Let me lay out a few things here. This blog, Aspiring Spurgeon, is my blog about my thoughts on things. There are few posts on here that are formal in nature. The new blog will be, literally, parts, portions, and pieces of seminary writings.

On a personal note, I love having this blog – Aspiring Spurgeon – it’s been a great blog for personal notes, thoughts and whatevers. I hope to keep it that way. Thus the new blog.

So, at the top just under the picture there are 2 pages, “Posts,” and, “Parts, Portions & Pieces,” all you have to do to get to the new blog is click that title and bam you be there. (Same goes for the new blog, same thing ‘cept replace “Parts, Portions, & Pieces,” with, “Aspiring Spurgeon.”)

That’s what’s up dawg.