I just made a public profile. I hope I don't get famous. But I do. But I don't.
Shoot. Jesus. I'm famous, huh?
Yeah. Well. Fame can't ruin me. Everybody will know who I am soon enough, because everyone who is anyone is family.
At any rate, fame is Jesus'. He started this whole thing, He's the ringmaster. And everything corruptible in me is dead on the cross. I'm not afraid of fame.
I wouldn't mind everyone seeing what's going on here though. Jesus, you're doing some great work. I won't be afraid to be earnest and sincere, even though that isn't very chic these days. I won't say whatever. I'm going to be...honest. I would love for every one to see this, see me, because I want to love more people and I want to be loved by more people. I won't be self-depreciating because it is hip. God said that when we love each other it is the full expression of Him, so I'm down for people to love me and I'm down to love others. More God!
5.30.2010
5.18.2010
Grateful x 100
1. Jesus' love for me
2. Freedom from sin
3. The ability to love fearlessly
4. Yellow shoes
5. Wisdom
6. Peace
7. Camping
8. Book bags
9. The Alexander Technique
10. "The Secret"
11. My cowboy wallet
12. My beard
13. Shantel Nichole Lockett
14. Cheesy sax solos
15. Guitar
16. Electric drum sets
17. Bike trips
18. Billy Bones
19. Computers
20. Blogs
21. My siblings
22. Children
23. Thai food
24. Sushi
25. Lists
26. Afros
27. Shantel's smile
28. The Artist's Way
29. Parents
30. Caleb Mitchell
31. Jimi Hendrix
32. Africa
33. Persian Food
34. 12 oz. Decaf Americanos with no room
35. The number 1
36. Surprises
37. Kept promises
38. The Holy Spirit
39. Epic Sagas
40. Moshe Feldenkrais
41. The Street Bean
42. Dreams
43. Simplicity
44. Wonder
45. Hands
46. My fingers
47. My teeth
48. My tattoos
49. My body
50. Lauren Overholt
51. My brown pants
52. Popping zits
53. Farting
54. The Bible
55. My blue sweater with the rip in the shoulder
56. New Horizons
57. Enemies
58. Swimming
59. Fish
60. Space
61. Forests
62. Bridges over creeks
63. Books
64. Reading in the woods
65. The stars
66. Running
67. Trampolines
68. Busking
69. Soccer
70. Ice skating
71. Brains
72. My intelligence
73. My life
74. My desires
75. The Beatles
76. Radiohead
77. Comfy chairs
78. Miracles
79. Marijuana
80. Cookies
81. Inventing
82. Lasers
83. Critical Mass
84. Pink gorilla suits
85. Billy in a pink gorilla suit
86. Gorillaz
87. Free association
88. Metacognition
89. Tracing my steps backward in thought
90. Diving boards
91. Elementary school band
92. Jake and Abby Grove
93. Being loved
94. Forgiveness
95. Traveling
96. Freedom
97. Triumphs
98. Ends
99. Beginnings
100. Mystery
2. Freedom from sin
3. The ability to love fearlessly
4. Yellow shoes
5. Wisdom
6. Peace
7. Camping
8. Book bags
9. The Alexander Technique
10. "The Secret"
11. My cowboy wallet
12. My beard
13. Shantel Nichole Lockett
14. Cheesy sax solos
15. Guitar
16. Electric drum sets
17. Bike trips
18. Billy Bones
19. Computers
20. Blogs
21. My siblings
22. Children
23. Thai food
24. Sushi
25. Lists
26. Afros
27. Shantel's smile
28. The Artist's Way
29. Parents
30. Caleb Mitchell
31. Jimi Hendrix
32. Africa
33. Persian Food
34. 12 oz. Decaf Americanos with no room
35. The number 1
36. Surprises
37. Kept promises
38. The Holy Spirit
39. Epic Sagas
40. Moshe Feldenkrais
41. The Street Bean
42. Dreams
43. Simplicity
44. Wonder
45. Hands
46. My fingers
47. My teeth
48. My tattoos
49. My body
50. Lauren Overholt
51. My brown pants
52. Popping zits
53. Farting
54. The Bible
55. My blue sweater with the rip in the shoulder
56. New Horizons
57. Enemies
58. Swimming
59. Fish
60. Space
61. Forests
62. Bridges over creeks
63. Books
64. Reading in the woods
65. The stars
66. Running
67. Trampolines
68. Busking
69. Soccer
70. Ice skating
71. Brains
72. My intelligence
73. My life
74. My desires
75. The Beatles
76. Radiohead
77. Comfy chairs
78. Miracles
79. Marijuana
80. Cookies
81. Inventing
82. Lasers
83. Critical Mass
84. Pink gorilla suits
85. Billy in a pink gorilla suit
86. Gorillaz
87. Free association
88. Metacognition
89. Tracing my steps backward in thought
90. Diving boards
91. Elementary school band
92. Jake and Abby Grove
93. Being loved
94. Forgiveness
95. Traveling
96. Freedom
97. Triumphs
98. Ends
99. Beginnings
100. Mystery
Wonder
God.
He's real.
Inside of me.
I love. Words are so inadequate. I just love.
He is living in me.
Praise God, Jesus, Lord of All.
He has given me all.
Praise the Lord!
He's real.
Inside of me.
I love. Words are so inadequate. I just love.
He is living in me.
Praise God, Jesus, Lord of All.
He has given me all.
Praise the Lord!
5.16.2010
Near
The time is coming...the time is here.
The time of what? I was about to write the time that I would move out of my apartment and embark on a journey of homelessness and living in full dependence on God....but that wouldn't be true.
The time is here. Today I live in the bounty of God's goodness. He has given all I need today. And He will give me everything I need, want and desire in Christ, eventually.
So, knowing that He is faithful, and he has made such grand promises, I will live as though I have already the promises He's given me. He is the great I Am. Not the Great I Will, or the Great I Did. Yes, He will, and yes He did, but primarily He is. So I will take Him primarily on that basis. He lives inside me. He breathes life into this mortal body. I do all things through him.
Jesus turned blind eyes into seeing eyes. Jesus made crooked legs straight. Jesus materialized bread and fish and wine. Jesus walked on liquid as though it was a solid. Jesus told a dead man to live and he obeyed. Jesus's died and then started living again. Jesus flew into heaven on a cloud. For real.
I claim to believe that this very person is occupying my being. And yet I don't expect to see him acting the way he did in the only story I have ever heard about him when he had his own body? Hmmmm......disconnect.
It's time to start believing that the God, the Master, the Owner, The Controller of the Universe and things even greater really lives in me. What is it he can't do? Nothing. Time to reckon with the power that I have been given, and expect in faith the results.
The time of what? I was about to write the time that I would move out of my apartment and embark on a journey of homelessness and living in full dependence on God....but that wouldn't be true.
The time is here. Today I live in the bounty of God's goodness. He has given all I need today. And He will give me everything I need, want and desire in Christ, eventually.
So, knowing that He is faithful, and he has made such grand promises, I will live as though I have already the promises He's given me. He is the great I Am. Not the Great I Will, or the Great I Did. Yes, He will, and yes He did, but primarily He is. So I will take Him primarily on that basis. He lives inside me. He breathes life into this mortal body. I do all things through him.
Jesus turned blind eyes into seeing eyes. Jesus made crooked legs straight. Jesus materialized bread and fish and wine. Jesus walked on liquid as though it was a solid. Jesus told a dead man to live and he obeyed. Jesus's died and then started living again. Jesus flew into heaven on a cloud. For real.
I claim to believe that this very person is occupying my being. And yet I don't expect to see him acting the way he did in the only story I have ever heard about him when he had his own body? Hmmmm......disconnect.
It's time to start believing that the God, the Master, the Owner, The Controller of the Universe and things even greater really lives in me. What is it he can't do? Nothing. Time to reckon with the power that I have been given, and expect in faith the results.
5.11.2010
5.09.2010
Rescue
I am in love because I look and see that I am loved.
I am holy because I look and I see holiness.
I read the book "Alive" some time ago and it moved me. Something about the story gripped me so tightly, and stuck in my heart.
I believe the span of life can be compared to the time that the survivors on the mountainside heard the helicopters in the distance. It seems like such a short moment between the time that they first saw signs of their rescue and the time that they were back in their homes, especially compared to the seemingly eternal 72 days of waning hope. But even as it was such a short moment, it was big enough to encompass all of this life, in the light of who Jesus Christ is.
We have heard the report of our imminent rescue. The way their hearts lifted from the doom of the harsh mountains, even at the sound, is what the Good News is capable of. They were already in their loved ones' arms at the sound; they were already feasting; they were already free from the clutches of death though they still sat in the same dirty fuselage in the Andes that was to be their tomb. All at the sound of rescue. All the force of hope came barrelling down like an avalanche at a single sound.
We are that avalanche waiting to be released by a shiver of sound. Every human heart is prepared by the work of Jesus to come crashing down with the force of the Spirit, all it needs is the triggering of a sound.
The Good News.
I am holy because I look and I see holiness.
I read the book "Alive" some time ago and it moved me. Something about the story gripped me so tightly, and stuck in my heart.
I believe the span of life can be compared to the time that the survivors on the mountainside heard the helicopters in the distance. It seems like such a short moment between the time that they first saw signs of their rescue and the time that they were back in their homes, especially compared to the seemingly eternal 72 days of waning hope. But even as it was such a short moment, it was big enough to encompass all of this life, in the light of who Jesus Christ is.
We have heard the report of our imminent rescue. The way their hearts lifted from the doom of the harsh mountains, even at the sound, is what the Good News is capable of. They were already in their loved ones' arms at the sound; they were already feasting; they were already free from the clutches of death though they still sat in the same dirty fuselage in the Andes that was to be their tomb. All at the sound of rescue. All the force of hope came barrelling down like an avalanche at a single sound.
We are that avalanche waiting to be released by a shiver of sound. Every human heart is prepared by the work of Jesus to come crashing down with the force of the Spirit, all it needs is the triggering of a sound.
The Good News.
Jesus
Another post. I was afraid for a second that if I write too much no one will read my posts. But that isn't why I write is it? Nope.
Today. Jesus.
Tomorrow. Jesus.
The day after tomorrow. Jesus.
The day I die. Jesus.
The day that I fail. Jesus.
The day that I succeed. Jesus.
The day that I live. Jesus.
Today. Jesus.
Today. Jesus.
Tomorrow. Jesus.
The day after tomorrow. Jesus.
The day I die. Jesus.
The day that I fail. Jesus.
The day that I succeed. Jesus.
The day that I live. Jesus.
Today. Jesus.
5.07.2010
Walk On
101 blog posts.
101 moods.
101 views.
101 primal screams.
101 reverent whispers.
101 dichotomies.
101 memories.
101 doubts.
101 miracles.
101 heartbreaks.
The poetry to be created in every moment of every human life is the voice of God. From losing yourself in passion to deep contemplative self inspection, God ranges in the human field.
Jesus, my lord. I am unsure again. I have sinned against you. I've looked at porn. I masturbated. I struggle at this moment to claim your faithfulness. Was it ever anything more than your faithfulness that kept me sane? No. Of course not. Yet I wince with sorrow at my drift from the truth. Why, Lord, do I keep on slipping into the denial of your faithfulness? Why do I continue to act out of a fear that you won't be enough, good enough, fun enough, happy enough, loving enough, gentle enough, patient enough, generous enough?
I don't want to masturbate any more. I don't want to lust any more. I want to be secure in you, and know it so deeply that I am not motivated out of fearful deceptions to sin. Let me be confident forever more that you are in me, and that I am free from condemnation, that I don't need to degrade myself with unworthy behavior, with self punishment. Let me know that I am worthy to do good, and that it is right for me to be righteous for who you are in me.
I tell you Lord, though I know you already know,(it's more for my sake) I have felt that it is so much harder to do good for fear that someone may think I'm not worthy of it, though I have longed to do a good work many a time and not acted. I fear people being offended at my selflessness. I fear they look at me and hate me for the conviction goodness brings to them. I fear their jealous hatred of my taking the good portion you have given me. I'm scared God. I don't want them to hurt me. I don't want them to abandon me if I strive to do your work. I don't want them to think me a prude. I don't want to be called a square. I don't want them to leave me out. I don't want to be a loser to them. Yet, over and over I fall into sin because I am too scared to claim the fullness of Christ in me, so I continue to act out a different identity: that of a sinner, of a godless, empty vessel. Help me believe that I am set from the lie, and from the sin, and that no darkness is in me as I am in you.
Make me know always that I am in you and worthy to be your servant, that I am adequate as I am in Christ, perfect, perfectly equipped for a holy and righteous life, without blemish, just as you are without blemish.
I will confess my sin and bear no shame for the things I have done, for I believe that they are entirely absolved by you. I will fear no rejection, because I long for you above all.
Thank you for the peace and the assurance that I have in you, Jesus. Thank you that you erase the debt of sin, the hanging over debt that would crush me. I will grieve with joy. The sorrow that I have missed the mark will be tempered with the certainty I cannot miss The Mark, because he lives with in, and steadies my aim on you.
What can your servant say, now? I just want to talk to you. I'm addicted to words. I could go on and on. I just love you so much and I wish that I could just pour my heart out without incessant talking. I could just spew forever. Would I say anything that really captured the prey my hearts hunts? No. Probably not. Even so I feel compelled to talk, or write, as in I can't stop.
God. I love all you have taught me, yet I struggle not to let it cloud the simple truth and function of the Good News. You are faithful, Jesus proved it. You don't give up, and you have paid the full price. All I have to do is believe that, in every situation, no matter how irrelevant it seems, it is the most effective work, and the only work. It is the truth of your faithfulness that over arches all other activity.
You will take care of me, make me perfect, and you have done it all in the Cross, by dying and rising. Okay. Rest. No worries. You have got me. I've got you. Good News. Good Night.
101 moods.
101 views.
101 primal screams.
101 reverent whispers.
101 dichotomies.
101 memories.
101 doubts.
101 miracles.
101 heartbreaks.
The poetry to be created in every moment of every human life is the voice of God. From losing yourself in passion to deep contemplative self inspection, God ranges in the human field.
Jesus, my lord. I am unsure again. I have sinned against you. I've looked at porn. I masturbated. I struggle at this moment to claim your faithfulness. Was it ever anything more than your faithfulness that kept me sane? No. Of course not. Yet I wince with sorrow at my drift from the truth. Why, Lord, do I keep on slipping into the denial of your faithfulness? Why do I continue to act out of a fear that you won't be enough, good enough, fun enough, happy enough, loving enough, gentle enough, patient enough, generous enough?
I don't want to masturbate any more. I don't want to lust any more. I want to be secure in you, and know it so deeply that I am not motivated out of fearful deceptions to sin. Let me be confident forever more that you are in me, and that I am free from condemnation, that I don't need to degrade myself with unworthy behavior, with self punishment. Let me know that I am worthy to do good, and that it is right for me to be righteous for who you are in me.
I tell you Lord, though I know you already know,(it's more for my sake) I have felt that it is so much harder to do good for fear that someone may think I'm not worthy of it, though I have longed to do a good work many a time and not acted. I fear people being offended at my selflessness. I fear they look at me and hate me for the conviction goodness brings to them. I fear their jealous hatred of my taking the good portion you have given me. I'm scared God. I don't want them to hurt me. I don't want them to abandon me if I strive to do your work. I don't want them to think me a prude. I don't want to be called a square. I don't want them to leave me out. I don't want to be a loser to them. Yet, over and over I fall into sin because I am too scared to claim the fullness of Christ in me, so I continue to act out a different identity: that of a sinner, of a godless, empty vessel. Help me believe that I am set from the lie, and from the sin, and that no darkness is in me as I am in you.
Make me know always that I am in you and worthy to be your servant, that I am adequate as I am in Christ, perfect, perfectly equipped for a holy and righteous life, without blemish, just as you are without blemish.
I will confess my sin and bear no shame for the things I have done, for I believe that they are entirely absolved by you. I will fear no rejection, because I long for you above all.
Thank you for the peace and the assurance that I have in you, Jesus. Thank you that you erase the debt of sin, the hanging over debt that would crush me. I will grieve with joy. The sorrow that I have missed the mark will be tempered with the certainty I cannot miss The Mark, because he lives with in, and steadies my aim on you.
What can your servant say, now? I just want to talk to you. I'm addicted to words. I could go on and on. I just love you so much and I wish that I could just pour my heart out without incessant talking. I could just spew forever. Would I say anything that really captured the prey my hearts hunts? No. Probably not. Even so I feel compelled to talk, or write, as in I can't stop.
God. I love all you have taught me, yet I struggle not to let it cloud the simple truth and function of the Good News. You are faithful, Jesus proved it. You don't give up, and you have paid the full price. All I have to do is believe that, in every situation, no matter how irrelevant it seems, it is the most effective work, and the only work. It is the truth of your faithfulness that over arches all other activity.
You will take care of me, make me perfect, and you have done it all in the Cross, by dying and rising. Okay. Rest. No worries. You have got me. I've got you. Good News. Good Night.
5.05.2010
Love Has No Limit
Tight.
I can love people and not be compelled to react to hate. I have the power in Christ to love without ceasing. I don't have to judge anyone. I can look for Jesus in every single eye I meet, and love regardless of the reaction or reception.
No one can stop me. No ill-tempered response can deter me. No one can steal the joy of love from me. No matter how hard they abuse me, no matter how hard they hate, I have the ultimate power of the universe residing inside me. Love. Jesus had the spirit of God in him, allowing him to love without fear, and he has given it me.
I can love every one as I love Jesus, because I believe that he has really made peace with the entire world through his own sacrifice for us.
I can look at every person as though I know them, because I know that Christ is in all, whether they believe or not. I can be so bold and so fearless. I trust him. He is that strong.
I can respond to hate with love, real genuine love. Love that searches for a root of good even when there isn't one apparent. Love that really cherishes God in all of his creation, even those who don't yet believe. Even in those that hurt me. It used to seem an enormous sacrifice to love and hate those that would hurt and condemn me. Now it seems mostly selfish because I am only refuse to let them cause me to hate and judge, refusing to let them cause me to hate and judge myself with them. I choose to keep on loving, because loving feels better, even when it hurts.
If they recieve my love when they hate me, then I have a friend! If they refuse then I am avenged, punished by their own pride and inability to recieve grace. I simply cannot lose since God is for me. Love is the ultimate weapon, because it creates unity and drives away those opposed to it to destroy themselves.
Wooo!
It's all because of Jesus.
I can love people and not be compelled to react to hate. I have the power in Christ to love without ceasing. I don't have to judge anyone. I can look for Jesus in every single eye I meet, and love regardless of the reaction or reception.
No one can stop me. No ill-tempered response can deter me. No one can steal the joy of love from me. No matter how hard they abuse me, no matter how hard they hate, I have the ultimate power of the universe residing inside me. Love. Jesus had the spirit of God in him, allowing him to love without fear, and he has given it me.
I can love every one as I love Jesus, because I believe that he has really made peace with the entire world through his own sacrifice for us.
I can look at every person as though I know them, because I know that Christ is in all, whether they believe or not. I can be so bold and so fearless. I trust him. He is that strong.
I can respond to hate with love, real genuine love. Love that searches for a root of good even when there isn't one apparent. Love that really cherishes God in all of his creation, even those who don't yet believe. Even in those that hurt me. It used to seem an enormous sacrifice to love and hate those that would hurt and condemn me. Now it seems mostly selfish because I am only refuse to let them cause me to hate and judge, refusing to let them cause me to hate and judge myself with them. I choose to keep on loving, because loving feels better, even when it hurts.
If they recieve my love when they hate me, then I have a friend! If they refuse then I am avenged, punished by their own pride and inability to recieve grace. I simply cannot lose since God is for me. Love is the ultimate weapon, because it creates unity and drives away those opposed to it to destroy themselves.
Wooo!
It's all because of Jesus.
5.03.2010
Hallelujah
Praise. Pure and simple. By choice. By compulsion. By existing.
Thank you Jesus, for giving me the proof in deed that the world is redeemed, and the hand of your Father reaches throughout.
Let there be no darkness in me, no thought of impurity. Let me not consider the evil deceptions of this world, and devote my mind to the contemplation of your perfect truth that consumes all.
Let me not waste time trying to understand the problem when you have already solved it.
Let me loose wildly indiscriminate strokes of love, full of passion like a child. Let me be consumed by the needs of the world around me to be renewed in your infinite power. Let my desire to spread the light of the truth crash like waves on the landscape, being broken only to come again with another swell of love.
I have fallen apart so many times, and you have raised me from the ashes every time. Every time.
The flow of this story is being narrowed and refined, as the scope broadens. The possibilities of my life flood the plain as the dry patches of doubt and barren fields of fear are squelched.
The model, the metaphor is the only thing adequate to encompass the undefined truth of the promises you have given me. Yet with my blind eye I see the future, I feel its warm outline in the ever lengthening rays of events passed. The past creates an image of the future, and the beginning belies the end. I Am.
I am, too. I am. I am. In. I Am.
Like riding on the tail of a comet, I follow I Am into being, into all, always.
I wonder if, since it started when He started it, I have always been a part of it. He crafted me in my mother's womb, a statement of the past, for every being to ever hear it. He died for me while yet a sinner. Past. He lives in me now. Present, always, even when the present was the past, and so shall it be in the future, as he promised. The promise: Eternity. The future, which is a present yet to be. Are we eternal even now? When time stops and the movement of the universe comes to an end, will we cease to quiver with joy?
So we are. The Kingdom of Heaven is near. The time for those who believe to experience the joy of salvation is now, for it is finished, perhaps even as it started.
I will go now to my home. I will lay in my bed. Perhaps another night will pass, and another sunrise will occur. Even so, I will sing in Heaven this very moment. I am here. The future is simply the glory of God, as yet to be revealed, but fully revealed from the beginning.
Yet, I still hear my own heart whispering with an uncontainable grin,"I can't wait."
Thank you Jesus, for giving me the proof in deed that the world is redeemed, and the hand of your Father reaches throughout.
Let there be no darkness in me, no thought of impurity. Let me not consider the evil deceptions of this world, and devote my mind to the contemplation of your perfect truth that consumes all.
Let me not waste time trying to understand the problem when you have already solved it.
Let me loose wildly indiscriminate strokes of love, full of passion like a child. Let me be consumed by the needs of the world around me to be renewed in your infinite power. Let my desire to spread the light of the truth crash like waves on the landscape, being broken only to come again with another swell of love.
I have fallen apart so many times, and you have raised me from the ashes every time. Every time.
The flow of this story is being narrowed and refined, as the scope broadens. The possibilities of my life flood the plain as the dry patches of doubt and barren fields of fear are squelched.
The model, the metaphor is the only thing adequate to encompass the undefined truth of the promises you have given me. Yet with my blind eye I see the future, I feel its warm outline in the ever lengthening rays of events passed. The past creates an image of the future, and the beginning belies the end. I Am.
I am, too. I am. I am. In. I Am.
Like riding on the tail of a comet, I follow I Am into being, into all, always.
I wonder if, since it started when He started it, I have always been a part of it. He crafted me in my mother's womb, a statement of the past, for every being to ever hear it. He died for me while yet a sinner. Past. He lives in me now. Present, always, even when the present was the past, and so shall it be in the future, as he promised. The promise: Eternity. The future, which is a present yet to be. Are we eternal even now? When time stops and the movement of the universe comes to an end, will we cease to quiver with joy?
So we are. The Kingdom of Heaven is near. The time for those who believe to experience the joy of salvation is now, for it is finished, perhaps even as it started.
I will go now to my home. I will lay in my bed. Perhaps another night will pass, and another sunrise will occur. Even so, I will sing in Heaven this very moment. I am here. The future is simply the glory of God, as yet to be revealed, but fully revealed from the beginning.
Yet, I still hear my own heart whispering with an uncontainable grin,"I can't wait."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)