My Fathers Passing and God's Faithfulness

When my father passed away on March 1st, I quickly realized that not many men my age have lost a parent. It is a frightening and sobering feeling to be 26 and to know that you have many years of life experiences that will not be shared with a parent who you know would have been so proud. The realizations were difficult because: I am the only one of five kids who does not have children yet; I just purchased my first house; I just got my first dog; I bought my first brand new car. Things like this, as insignificant as it may seem in life, are the kind of experiences that one wants to share with parents.

Yet, regardless of the fact that in this life, my father will not be there to experience these things with me, I have been brought to one more realization: that my grief is replaced with the truth that my father is surrounded by God's glory. Any joy that could have been shared with him on this earth is but a mere glimpse of the everlasting joy and "pleasures evermore" (Psalm 16:11) that my father experiences every day for the rest of eternity. Of course I miss him, but Jesus said that "if you love me you would be happy that I am going to the Father". And, I could not be happier in knowing that my father, despite severe suffering on this earth, is without pain and sorrow and is in the presence of God Almighty in worship, praise, and adoration of the risen King. He can walk the streets of gold with His saviour and talk. And he can fall prostrate before Jesus in the beautiful fields in worship of Him who saved him.

So, with that in mind, it is true: My father may not have had the opportunity to see me raise a family, but I know that one day we will experience the family of God in complete joy and pleasure for eternity; He may not have had the opportunity to see my new house, but one day, we will sit in one of the "many rooms" that Jesus has prepared for His children, and talk about the glories of God and how God painted the sky with stars and how He knows every one of them by name; he may not have had the opportunity to live a healthy, pain-free life, but he is now completely healed by Jesus’ stripes--healed from the sickness of a sinful heart and healed of the devastation that sin causes in ones body.

What is amazing to me is how God comforts His children during these times. Let me preface by saying that for almost 10 years, through church after church, God has used John Piper as a mentor for me. When true Christianity has been absent, Desiring God Ministries brought the reality of God to my heart. When I was downcast, I was reminded of the joy that can be found in Christ. And when I question doctrines and grasped to understand God’s sovereignty, it was John Piper that helped me to fine tune my faith and understanding. I owe a great debt to Desiring God ministries for their faithfulness to God and His word.

That being said, when John Piper’s father died on March 6^th, just five days after my father died, I was amazed at how God comforts His children. My father had been sick for a few years and God’s timing was amazing to me. God did not abandon me, yet He showed me how a Christian man should grieve and rejoice at the passing of a saint. He brought comfort and understanding during something I had never experienced before through John Piper’s sermon and writings during that time. For a man that I have respected and been changed by to experience the same thing at nearly the exact time, I knew that God was just so gracious to comfort me during that time. And for that I am so thankful.

Don't ever miss the lessons and comforts that God provides when doors seem that they have been shut. God is always doing a thousand things with every one thing that happens in our life. And He promises His children that every one of those thousand things that He orchestrates will work for our good. Don't miss what God is doing and don't despair when it seems like God is doing nothing. He is doing a mighty work, and HAS done a mighty work. Don't miss God's faithfulness to His children and His kindness when we are suffering. He is there, working everything together for good for His children.

Some Updates

I am sure by now you can see that there have been many updates made to this page over the past few weeks. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a series of major updates to make my blog more attractive and appealing to the outside world! (Hey, if no one wants to read what I have to say, at least it will look nice!!!) The plan, however, is not so much to make it look attractive, but rather fulfill a challenge to myself that I hope proves rewarding to everyone.

Quite honestly, I have become quite sick and tired of people who have "blogs" just for the sake of having one. All of us know at LEAST a handful of people who just have blogs so they can send a link to their friends. I was one of them. But there is so much value to truly using them to document our thoughts and interactions with the world. How many blogs exist in the world right now? This web site documents that 4.12 million blogs have been created on the eight popular blog-hosting services alone: Blog-City, BlogSpot, Diaryland, LiveJournal, Pitas, TypePad, Weblogger and Xanga. How many of them are truly valuable or taken seriously is probably only a fraction, but then again, I am sure that it is relative to who is reading them. I do not want to be in that fraction.

On the other hand, I don't know if my frustration is warranted. There is something very rewarding about documenting thoughts and opinions on the happenings in today's world. Whether it is clarity of our own mind on topics or a sincere offering of opinions to the world concerning day to day events at any given time, I have tremendous respect for those who dedicate their time to the written word. There is so much of God that can be talked about and explored; So much about God's Word that can be cherished and expounded; So much in world right now that has shaped what our future holds; And so much happens every day in our lives that speaks so many valuable lessons that people can relate to. I want to be the type of person who looks at everything in this world and sees so much to learn from it, whether good or bad, and understand how God's Word relates to it. It is there that my challenge begins.

I was very much inspired by Tim Challies' (www.challies.com) challenge that he made to himself to write a post on his blog once a day for a year. This was the genesis of a very valuable blog and I have found so much reward in reading his posts daily. My challenge is not as dedicated as his was, but my challenge is to post at least every week for a year. I do have a tendency to be lazy and avoid serious thought. Serious thought and consideration takes a lot of time and energy and it is easy to take the world at face value without looking deeper into the heart of the issues. My challenge is to conquer that laziness and be a man of deep thought and consideration. The world needs it and God commands it:
Psalm 119:15 "I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways."Psalm 119:23 "Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes."Psalm 119:27 "Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works."Psalm 119:48 "I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes." Psalm 143:5 "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands."Psalm 145:5 "On the glorious splendor of your majesty,and on your wondrous works, I will meditate." Needless to say, every Christian should take the time to meditate on God's Word. This is something that I have been VERY lazy in doing. I have always loved to write and it is my sincere hope to combine meditation on God's Word and all that He is done with writing.Here is to a year of combining the two!

The Thorn

The Thorn
I stood a mendicant* of God before His royal throne
And begged Him for a priceless gift, which I could call my own.

I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart

I cried, “But Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.

This is a strange, a hurtful gift that Thou hast given me.

He said, “My child, I give good gifts and give my best to thee.”

I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore;

As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.

I learned He never gives a thorn without this added Grace.

He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
--by Martha Snell Nicholson
* “mendicant”= beggar

No further explanation is necessary...

Worship & Social Justice

This video clip summarizes a good portion of what has been on my heart. All of who God is pours over into our hearts; We worship Him; Missions exists because worship doesn't; Worship pours into love for others because we desire to see them worship the one true, amazing God. May we be mobilized to do as this group does! Also, pay attention to the music itself. I will be posting more about my thoughts on Worship and Social Justice. This video explains alot of what is in my heart.

Beer, Repentance, and the Self-Righteous

Tonight, I repented after 25 years of legalism and self-righteousness: I had my first sip of alcohol. I had a sip a "Cancun Cocktail" (which I must say, was pretty darn good!) and I ordered my first beer, a Sam Adams.

Why is this so important to me? A few reasons come to mind. Let me explain. I became a Christian in 1996, and since then, to me alcohol has always been associated with the "wrong". God didn't want his people to drink the "devil's juice" and to me, drinking equaled drunkeness, which was most definitely forbidden in scripture.

My father, who considers himself a Christian, took pride in the fact that he never had a sip of alcohol. He prided himself on the fact that he could be the life of the party without drinking. I envied that, and took his pride as righteousness. My grandfather on my mother's side, who unfortunately never came to know Christ before dying in 1996, never had a sip of alcohol in his life either. Again, I mistook his pride for righteousness. Both paraded this fact through my years growing up. It became righteous to not drink. Plain and simple.

So, in 1996 I came to know Christ at the age of 15 and never had an interest in drinking. (Especially before age 21!) But it was then that my legalistic and self-righteous mindset grew.

From then until now, secretly, in the back of mind, any Christian who drank alcohol was in some way backslidden. They were in the wrong and obviously missed the scriptures that stated "Thou shall not drink alcohol."

So why now?? Why after 25 years of believing that I was better than any person who drank alcohol amd I now repenting?

*Well, for starters, it came from a book. Mark Driscoll spent an entire chapter in his book "Radical Reformission" disputing this mindset of how evil and demonic people who drink alcohol are. Let's just say I was pretty convicted.

*Second, it came from a desire to be able to fellowship with my brothers and sisters and Christ who can enjoy a nice drink without getting drunk and can enjoy an awesome time of joy and fellowship talking about how amazingly wonderful our Creator is.

*Third, I can think of more times than I can count when co-workers have asked me to go out for drinks with them, and because, of course, I was better then them, I denied their request to fellowship with them. In doing so, I denied an opporunity to be "Christ" to them in that time.

*Fourth, Jesus drank wine at a wedding. He didn't turn the water into more water; he didn't turn it into juice; he turned it into wine. More wine. Why in the world then, should I believe that in me not drinking alcohol, that I could be more righteous then my Lord. Was my abstention from alcohol making me more holy than Him? Certainly not.

Fifth, and finally, I learned that have been sinning more by my self-righteousness than I was by drinking alcohol, which isn't even sin to begin with.

Unfortunately, the fact that I have not drank in 25 years never gave me that "life of the party" personality that my father has. That plan failed. And not drinking never made me better than anyone else. Plan B failed too. And of course, it certainly didn't help my witness by saying "Hey I am a Christian and I don't drink!! Sounds like fun huh?". Plan A, B, C... all failures. Plan D was the most important failure, yet the least important motive for me to not drink: it never brought me closer to God and never helped me realize what an amazing God I have. All plans failed.... time to abort the mission!

Lord, forgive me for my self-righteousness. May I pray more, love You more, seek You more, and speak about You more. Thank you for the gift of wine, ale, beer, and whatever others names their are for it. You have created it and what you created is good. You say in your word in Psalm 104:15 that you have made wine to make man's heart glad. May I rejoice in You and in Your creation and may I learn the truth behind this scripture! In Jesus Name, AMEN!