Providence

Piper writes a great blog about God's control over everything. I love this aspect of God and no one has helped me see it more than JP.

New Books to Read

Thanks to those who offered insight into what books for me to take on next. Here's what I decided to read:

First = Of Mice and Men
Second = The Idiot
Soon = Religious Affections

Penitence

I was helped by this this morning

O Lord of grace, I have been hasty and short in private prayer,O quicken my conscience to feel this folly, to bewail this ingratitude;My first sin of the day leads into others, and it is just that thou shouldst withdrawthy presence from one who waited carelessly on thee.

Keep me at all times from robbing thee, and from depriving my soul of thy due worship; Let me never forget that I have an eternal duty to love, honour and obey thee, that thou art infinitely worthy of such; that if I fail to glorify thee I am guilty of infinite evil that merits infinite punishment, for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.

O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee, Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,and open an intercourse of love. When the fire of thy compassion warms my inward man, and the outpourings of thy Spirit fill my soul, then I feelingly wonder at my own depravity, and deeply abhor myself; then thy grace is a powerful incentive to repentance, and an irresistible motive to inward holiness.

May I never forget that thou hast my heart in thy hands. Apply to it the merits of Christ’s atoning blood whenever I sin. Let thy mercies draw me to thyself. Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world, and make me ready for my departure hence animated by the humiliations of penitential love. My soul is often a chariot without wheels, clogged and hindered in sin’s miry clay; Mount it on eagle’s wings and cause it to soar upward to thyself.

from the Valley of Vision

Preaching to myself

One of the most valuable things I have been taught in the last couple of years comes from a book I read two years ago by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones called Spiritual Depression. The idea is that we should be preaching Truth to ourselves rather than passively listening to ourselves. After having conversations with people, it's so easy for me to run off in my head and continue a made up conversation. And often I can get upset at a situation or a person because of this made up conversation. This also happens in my spiritual life. I often forget the promises that God has given to me in the Word and merely rely on worldly insight.

One of my biggest struggles is in the area of seeking the approval of others. I want everyone to like me. I want everyone to think I'm cool. I want everyone to think I'm smart, handsome, funny, etc. So, when it comes to this struggle, I am constantly trying to remind myself of promises that I am "approved by God...[speaking] not to please men, but God" (1 Thess. 2:4) and that I am "loved with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3) through Christ, not needing any other approval. Also, when I feel the weight of this sin or any other I need Truth to keep me from being crushed. I love the line in the famous hymn that says "When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin." That is preaching to yourself.

The psalmist does this in Psalm 42, which is where Lloyd Jones basically gets this idea. He asks the question "Why are you cast down, O my soul?" And then tells himself to "hope in God." Here's how Lloyd Jones talks about preaching to yourself:

"Have you ever realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking you you then bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking you you. Now the [psalmist in Psalm 42]'s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.'...The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself...then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do."

Right on. By the way I was stirred by all of this a couple of days ago, when listening to a Piper sermon from a couple of weeks ago. Click here to read it, or choose to watch it or download it. It's really good.

Our Prayers Being Taken Into Account

This is an encouragement to me as I often wrestle with God's sovereignty and my praying to Him. It comes from Letters to Malcolm by C.S. Lewis.

“To think of our prayers as just ‘causes’ would suggest that the whole importance of petitionary prayer lay in the achievement of the thing asked for. But really, for our spiritual life as a whole, the ‘being taken into account,’ or ‘considered,’ matters more than the being granted.”

As I lay in my bed last night, I was humbled by this fact: that the great and holy God of the universe actually listens to what this sin-stained heart speaks. Pretty cool.

Evan's wedding

This past weekend was good times as my roommate Evan got married. We had a poker night Friday night, rehearsal dinner Saturday night, and the wedding Sunday night. It was action packed. And since Sunday was Father's Day, I got to grab lunch with dad and the family before I headed off to the rehearsal. Here are some pics:

the familyEvan and Becca at the Rehearsal dinnermy good friends...the ur-shursJamie and I tearing up the dance floor
The rest of the pics are here and here

Oh, what to read...

I'm having a little difficulty picking out the next book/books I want to read. I've got too many too count on the to-read queue, and don't know what to read next. So, I thought I'd open up to my readers out there and let you help me. Below I'll post several book titles and if you could, in the comment section, put down your choice. By this weekend, as I should be done with my current book by then, I'll choose the winner/winners. Thanks.

1. The Idiot by Dostoevsky
2. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by D.A. Carson
3. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. He is there and He is not silent by Francis Schaeffer
5. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
6. Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
7. Praying: Finding our way from duty to delight by J.I. Packer
8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Back from the land of smiles

I made it back Sunday night from Bangkok, Thailand. It was about a 24 hour travel experience, and I was pretty worn out by it all. But, it was very refreshing to JY waiting on me in the airport. Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough. I was constantly tired and wasn't getting much sleep at night. But by Wednesday, I think I was finally back to normal.

The trip itself was great. I actually had some anxiety the week before the trip about some of the discomfort that I would probably experience while over there, namely the heat, food, and just not being in my normal comfortable setting. So, excitement wasn't much of what I was feeling, until I actually arrived in Bangkok.

After stepping off the plane, and having an encouraging ride to our hotel with a Canadian missionary from the Thai church, I knew I was finally excited to be there. The next day, we wanted to get out and about around the city, both to experience the city as well as to get over some of the jet lag. We visited the reclining Buddha, rode on a water taxi, walked through the smelly fish markets, rode on a motorized rickshaw called a took-took, ate some authentic Thai cuisine (for only $1), and finally visited one of the massive malls right near our hotel.

The next day we went to a university campus nicknamed Ram U. It has the most amount of students enrolled in the world, with something like 450,000 enrolled! Basically what we did that day (Wednesday) and when we went back on Friday, was to spend time with the very small Christian club there. We had some good prayer time with them and assisted with them in their goal to get more people to join. The successful, and highly exciting time for me, was when we went out to all the different students hanging around the campus, and just talked to them. But we tried some things at first that were...a little awkward. In order to try and attract people to the group, we were told that we should sing or play a game or something. So, in sight of a couple hundred Thai students, we first sang "Jesus loves me" while dancing to the Electric Slide, while following that up with a little game of "Hokie-Pokie"!! Needless to say, I'm glad everyone agreed after that that we should go out and try to meet people.

The next day we went to a Buddhist school and got taught how to "why" people. This is the traditional way of greeting someone in Thailand, as opposed to the handshake, high-five, head nod, etc. To the left is a picture of Brianna being taught how to "why." We also had some Q & A time between us as we shared about life as an American. We also went to a Christian school Friday morning, where we did a lot of the same thing, but talked more specifically about life as a Christian in America. Here's a picture or our team with some of the students.Saturday, we went to a very poor area of town and dialogued with some kids (8-16 years old). We talked some about sex and the influence of the media on us, but then moved on to some more personal dialogue telling them about our interests and hearing from them about theirs. They all gave us Thai names and my name means "one who has gold," I guess because I told them I work at a bank. I then played a miniture game of soccer with a few of the kids. Then we walked through some of the poorest areas I've ever been in contact with. One of the girls that we were talking with wanted us to show us her home. It was small and only had one bedroom for maybe 4-5 people. To get there, you go through narrow alleys that are paved with concrete but are directly over an open sewer system. It was a very humbling time. It helped us all remember how much "stuff" we have as Americans. Here's a picture with one of the boys I played soccer with, and then of everyone there from that morning.Overall, it was truly a great experience. One of the many highlights for me was getting to know all of the high school students that were on the trip. They all were really fun and had such cool, unique stories. I hope to remain connected with them. Also, the Thai Christians were an encouragemnt to us in many ways, and I do believe we were an encouragement to them in a few ways. We serve a big God, with a big heart for the world. It was a blessing to be able to see among the millions lost in Buddhism over there, that he is really working through a select few to impact that country for Christ. Thanks again to all who supported me on this trip and to all who were praying for us.

You can check out the rest of the pictures here.

I'm here...

...and I'm a little tired. Check out our blog here to hear from our team throughout the trip. That's all for now.

Thailand

Many of you know by now that I'll be headed to Thailand this Sunday, June 1st, and getting back the following Sunday. I'm going over there with 7 of the high schoolers from Perimeter Church along with a guy and girl my age, as well as my dad. We'll be staying in Bangkok and doing a lot of high school and college ministry, as well as ESL classes a couple different nights. Having never been to Asia, I'm looking forward to experiencing the many culture differences, especially regarding the Buddhist worldview that is predominant over there. Thank you to all who are supporting me this on this trip both financially and through prayer. Check back in for updates and pictures later on next week.

And for those who are interested, I've compiled a few stats about the country. Much of the info comes from the Joshua Project:

- The establishment of the Thai kingdom came in the 13th century AD
- Population = 63.5 million people
- 112 people groups
- 51 are Buddhist (50 million people)
- 9 are Muslim (5.8 million people)
- 7 are Christian (142,000 people)
- 76 people groups have less than 2% Christians (47 million people)
- 10 people groups are completely unreached (694,000 people)

Chesterton created a happy Calvinist

John Piper writes an excellent article here regarding G.K. Chesterton, one of C.S. Lewis's mentors. Piper explains how Chesterton, though Catholic and very opposed to the doctrine of predestination and other such Calvinistic doctrine, created in him a love for the mysterious paradoxes found within Christianity.

Having read Orthodoxy within the last year myself, I'd say this book did a similar thing for me as well. I doubly recommend reading this book.

Here's how Piper's article starts:

"May 29 is G. K. Chesterton’s 134th birthday. He was a British journalist and brilliant writer. Nobody exploits the power of paradox like Chesterton.

I celebrate his birthday by recommending his book Orthodoxy.

The title gives no clue as to what you will find inside. It had a huge influence on me forty years ago in ways that would have exasperated Chesterton. He did all he could to keep me from becoming a Calvinist, and instead made me a romantic one—a happy one."

Keller's thoughts on the Gospel

Tim Keller writes about the gospel in this article in Christianity Today. He speaks to the wide range of answers we might give when someone asks us to explain the gospel. He says there is only one gospel (Gal. 2:7), but many forms of presenting it. Having listened to him a good bit over the last several years, I think he does a very good job at biblically giving more of a big story version of the gospel. I would suggest you read the whole article, but here's an exerpt that shows the basic way Keller presents the gospel:

"I use both a 'kingdom' and an 'eternal life' gospel. I find that many of my younger listeners are struggling to make choices in a world of endless consumer options and are confused about their own identities in a culture of self-creation and self-promotion. These are the people who are engaged well by the more individually-focused presentation of the gospel as free grace not works. This is a lot like the "eternal life gospel" of John. However, I have found many highly secular people over the age of 40 are not reached very well with any emphasis on personal problems. Many of them think they are doing very well, thank you. They are much more concerned about the problems of the world—war, racism, poverty, and injustice. And they respond well to a synoptic-like "kingdom gospel."

Instead of going into, say, one of the epistles and speaking of the gospel in terms of God, sin, Christ, and faith, I point out the story-arc of the Bible and speak of the gospel in terms of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. We once had the world we all wanted—a world of peace and justice, without death, disease, or conflict. But by turning from God we lost that world. Our sin unleashed forces of evil and destruction so that now "things fall apart" and everything is characterized by physical, social, and personal disintegration. Jesus Christ, however, came into the world, died as a victim of injustice and as our substitute, bearing the penalty of our evil and sin on himself. This will enable him to some day judge the world and destroy all death and evil without destroying us."

(HT:Justin Taylor)

Attention spans

Al Mohler comments on an interesting article about attention spans in this digital age. Here's a snippet from the original writer, Courtney Martin. (She made these observations after visiting her alma mater, Columbia University)

"Take those Facebook-surfing students, missing out on a potentially life-changing lecture about war and courage. Their diffused attention isn't criminal, but it certainly doesn't do justice to professor Dalton's lectures, their own potential for learning, or the $51,976 they or their parents are paying for a year of Ivy League education. They mirror something very real in most peoples' lives--the sense that your life is happening 'to you,' instead of feeling truly intentional about how, with whom, and on what you spend your time."

As easy as it is to point fingers to others, I realize that I've become increasingly vulnerable to all of this. I find myself more and more distracted by different "things."

Congrats to Justin and Paisley

Review of The Shack

Having not read the book yet, Tim Challies provides an excellent review on what the book is all about. Having read the review, I doubt I will venture into reading the book. I suppose you'll see why...

The Fleeting Pleasures of Sin

I've been reading The Great Divorce. It's a very interesting allegory written by C.S. Lewis. In it we meet Ghosts and Solid People. The Ghosts take a bus ride up to heaven and take a look around. Most of them end up prefering where they came from and want to leave. However, the Solid People try and help the Ghosts understand that this place is what they were made for. Here's one of the Solid People, George MacDonald, explaining how sin works.

"The sensualist...begins by pursuing a real pleasure, though a small one. His sin is the less. But the time comes on when, though the pleasure becomes less and less and the craving fiercer and fiercer, and though he knows that joy can never come that way, yet he prefers to joy the mere fondling of unappeasable lust and would not have it taken from him. He'd fight to the death to keep it. He'd like well to be able to scratch; but even when he can scratch no more he'd rather itch than not."

Nicholas Alan

My friend and former roommate Nick has a new website/blog. He's a musician living in LA and is writing some good music and posting some interesting things. Check him out.

Radiohead

Roy and I went to see Radiohead last night. In short, it was an incredible show. But, there's a great story from the night that should be told. (This will a little longer than most of my posts...if you're into the quick version, check Roy's blog)

About a week ago, I bought two tickets via a third party internet site, for Roy and I to go to the show. Radiohead is one of Roy's favorite bands, and it worked out to be a birthday present for him. So, I get the tickets in the mail Monday. There are four sheets of paper in the envelope I received, and two of the sheets are the tickets (this will become important very soon).

Fast forward to last night. I grab two sheets of paper from my cluttered dresser right before we're heading out. The top copy is definitely a ticket and I see that I'm holding two sheets of paper, so the other must be the ticket (nope). I'm not really sure why I didn't take the extra half second effort to indeed confirm it was the ticket...I just didn't.

Roy asks me in the car, "Do you have the tickets?" And of course I reply confidently that I do. After getting down there, parking, and getting about 50 feet from the gate, I pull out my two sheets of paper...and my heart sank. The second sheet of paper was merely a receipt of some kind that does us NO good. I begin thinking I have absolutely ruined our night, just becuase I wasn't a little more careful. It was not a fun feeling. After standing there for about five minutes completely bewildered that I could have been so careless as to not double check myself, we moved toward the box office to see what our options were.

After confirming with a lady at the ticket window that she couldn't track my order that I had actually purchased two tickets, Roy and I stood there and contemplated our options. It looked like Iron Man was going to be our evening activity. And I remember praying and asking God to help me not freak out and just trust His sovereignty in this situation. And sure enough, one of the next voices I hear is from the ticket window: "...ever since this morning I haven't really wanted to go...could you just mark that I picked it up and just give it away to someone..." Roy and I looked at each other, and five minutes later we had the ticket! Thank you ticket lady, wherever you are.

My ticket was maybe 40-50 rows back on the very right side. It turns out that Roy's new ticket is dead center, maybe 15 rows back! And because there were a bunch of empty seats around him, five songs into the show, we were both rockin' out not 30 yards from Thom Yorke himself. The lights were great, the music was fun, and Thom was very querky. Even the people around us were really nice. One nice young gentlemen offered us some weed : )...to which we politely declined.

The phrase of the evening was "Happy Providence." If I had never have left the extra ticket on my dresser, we would have had mediocre seats and would have been without a cool story. Instead, we got to see God at work in the most random of ways, and allow us to have incredible seats to an incredible show. I don't think it was accident at all that I prayed yesterday that I would be able to worship God in the midst of a Radiohead show. He is in control of every dice that's rolled and every single atom floating around and every situation going on in our lives. And He showed me that last night. He didn't have to. He still would have been sovereign. But He chose to, and I was able to worship Him for His sovereignty. I thank Him for this bit of happy providence.

Anyway, here are some pics:

Evan McHugh at Smith's

Clear your calendars for Friday, May 23rd. Evan McHugh, good friend and current roommate, will be headlining at one of Atlanta's best musical venues, Smith's Olde Bar. And as a bonus, you'll get to hear Matthew Perryman Jones open up for him. Check them both out on Itunes or on their myspace pages.

Here's what CDBaby has to say about Evan:

Evan McHugh is poised to take the singer-songwriter genre and elevate its every aspect. Upon listening, it is clear that his songwriting sets him far apart from the current influx of mediocre peers. Though never one to discount the current music landscape, Evan has a gift that has already shown itself to be ahead of the curve.

With a background in graphic design, Evan's efforts have turned to the pursuit of the song, his voice, and his message. Learning a thing or three or four from his sister, Eryn, a passion for songwriting has motivated Evan from the first time he picked up a guitar at 17. He now stands at the onset of an unfamiliar yet skilled pursuit.

His debut LP, "From the Second Chair" welds together pieces of his person, his fiction, and his imaginative word smithing to create a captivating sound scape that is equaled only by his live performances. It was produced by Glenn Matullo (Shawn Mullins, Indigo Girls, John Mayer) at Orphan Studio in Atlanta, GA and will certainly be remembered as Evan's ground-breaking first effort at the end of his should be promising career.

You can find Evan touring in support of this debut around the East Coast; soon to be country.

thoughts about atheists

I think Arnold has some interesting thoughts concerning atheists, specifically coming from some of the atheist blogs he keeps up with.