The Gospel of John, Day 11: ch. 1, vv. 40-43

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Three things are happening in this passage:

1. People are following Jesus
2. People are telling about Jesus
3. Jesus is calling people to follow him

This is appropriate to the season we are in now: Christmas. As we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, these three things should be happening. Am I doing this in my life? What distracts me from these basic things? Is this what I am living for?

Think about these things as you have a merry Christmas!!

The Gospel of John, Day 10: ch. 1, vv. 35-39

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

I think there is an emphasis on concrete experience. Jesus invites the disciples to come and see where he is going and what he is doing. The disciples experience Jesus in person. We can experience his love, grace, action, and transformation in our lives also.

The first two disciples followed Jesus after John pointed out Jesus to them. No questions, conditions, or reservations. They didn't even know where Jesus was taking them, they just went. Should we be surprised if we don't know where He is taking us? Just follow. No one knows the future or the best way to get there. But He does.

The Gospel of John, Day 9: ch. 1, vv. 32-34

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

At the baptism of Jesus, the dove descends on him as a sign of the spirit of God coming down to rest upon him. This also accomplishes God's purpose for John's ministry of baptism: so that Jesus might be revealed to Israel (31). Since Jesus has the spirit of God remaining in him, he baptizes us not with water, but with the holy spirit. Water baptism is a physical sign that Christians are told to practice for many different reasons. However, I do not believe it is a requirement of salvation. Yet baptism of the holy spirit is something that all believers are given when they follow Jesus. What exactly the holy spirit gives us is expounded upon later in John 14-16.

Check out Mark 1:7 also for more about John's baptism and Jesus' baptism.  This is a tricky subject, but I think it is important.

The Gospel of John, Day 8: ch. 1, vv. 29-31

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

John repeats what he said before.  Jesus was before and after John so he has surpassed John.  Jesus is the lamb of God, so he can take away the sins o the whole world.  The whole reason why John was baptizing was so that Jesus might be revealed, might be magnified to Israel.

All John does is talk about Jesus. He baptizes and preaches to talk about Jesus and how he has surpassed and is greater than John. He even baptizes just to get people's attention so that he can talk about Jesus. One of the first Jesus freaks. And an example of what our life's purpose should be.

The Gospel of John, Day 7: ch. 1, vv. 24-28

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

Baptism seems to be a very important thing to the Pharisees. This was different than the traditional ritual cleansing that was performed by the Jews, so it was a notable practice done by John.

26 “I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Even though baptism is mentioned several times, we get the sense that it is not the most important thing. Jesus is greater than all this, even John the great prophet is unworthy to even untie this man's sandals.  Christ is worth more than anything.

Summary-John continues to baptize at the Jordan River. The pharisees have lots of questions about that (as do I). However, John keeps pointing back to the greatness of Jesus, the one to come after him. We are unworthy of Jesus' presence also. Yet we can come to him, because of the truth and grace that He brought us.

The Gospel of John, Day 6: ch. 1, vv. 19-23

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[c] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

The Jewish leaders are antithetical to Jesus; they ask John if he is the Messiah, but he freely admits that he is not.  John has humility, yet he also has boldness.

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

These leaders really want an answer.  There seems to be a hidden agenda for the pharisees.

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

John uses the words of Isaiah to tell who he is.  This is a bold statement, but a humble statement.  He is in essence challenging these leaders and telling them to make a path for the Lord. It is a great comeback.  John is asked loaded questions, so he returns with a loaded answer. Like the Pharisees, we need to make a straight path for the Lord in our own lives.

The Gospel of John, Day 5: ch. 1, vv. 16-18

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and  is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:16-18 NIV)

GRACE, GRACE, AND MORE GRACE!!!  Truth is, his grace is enough. His grace is enough to be free from accusation and the accuser.  His grace is enough to be freed from regrets and mistakes.  His grace is enough to be able to come to God in repentance.  His grace is enough to live as God intended and to be saved.  This Grace comes from Jesus, who makes known the Father and his love.

The Gospel of John, Day 4: ch. 1, vv. 14-15

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

By coming to earth, Jesus became something we can see with our own eyes, we perceive the glory of the father.  He lived among us, and gave us grace and truth.  The truth about who we are and who he is is scary, we love darkness, but Jesus also came with grace, so that we can be united to him and abide with him. That alone is glorious.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)

John saw the glory of Jesus with his own eyes.  Jesus was greater than John.  Jesus existed before John.

The Gospel of John, Day 3: ch. 1, vv. 9-13

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Jesus gives light to all of us.  Everyone.  However, those in darkness the light, they do not receive it.  As the darkness can not overcome or understand the light, those in darkness didn't receive or recognize Christ.  Darkness blinds our eyes from seeing the light.

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

If we receive Jesus as he is, that is we believe in Him, we are born again as a child of God.  This is totally different that natural birth, it is only something that can be wrought by God.

The Gospel of John, Day 2: ch. 1, vv. 6-8

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the

light; he came only as a witness to the light.

God sends us as witnesses to call others to believe the light.  John speaks these words humbly.  He is not himself the light, he himself is not the answer to life's problems,

but tells about the light.  If we are like John, we are not focused on self at all, but we say along with him that "He must become greater, and I must become less." (John 3:30).

 If we are like John, we can be instruments of God's salvation.  We testify to the reality of God's light on our lives.

The Gospel of John, Day 1: ch. 1, vv. 1-5

Hello all,

It's been a while.  In view of attempting to read and study my Bible more regularly, I decided to do a blog series on the Gospel of John, a book I am now going through in my devotional.  This is one of my favorite books of the Bible.  I do not know long this will take, but I like writing blogs, so I hope you all enjoy.

          In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the    
          beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life,
          and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

          a. John 1:5, or understood

My thoughts: Jesus, the word, is God. He is eternal, one with the father, yet with the father as a distinct person. God created the world by speaking it into existence, therefore, EVERYTHING was created through the Word. Jesus' essence is the first thing that was created through him-LIGHT. His essence is also life, another thing that was created through him. This life is the light of man, and darkness-dwellers cannot understand light, and therefore cannot overcome it.

James and Journey

The facts:

1.) I love the NBA.

2.) The Dallas Mavericks are my homeboys.

3.) The Heat is Dallas' biggest rival.

So about 9 days ago, why did I find myself starting to root for the Miami Heat during the 2012 NBA finals? Why wasn't my whole being pulling for the upstart Thunder, even though they swept the beloved Mavericks this year? Why wasn't I turned off by the Heat and LeBron's arrogant actions in the past?

One answer: journey.

That's why part of me was pulling for the Heat. Their story is our story.

LeBron, D-Wade, and the Boshosaur are human. They made a few mistakes. The decision. The pre-season celebration. The complacency based on the assumption that they were unstoppable. The isolation basketball.

Then the loss to the Mavericks happened (remember Dirk singing "We are the Champions"?).

According to every Miami Heat player, that Finals loss humiliated them. Ironically, that was exactly what needed to happen to the Miami Heat.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

All the talk was that Miami was a completely different team. Isolation basketball was no longer part of their offense.  Every single NBA analyst noticed it. The bench that was once criticized for not being deep exploded in the most important games. The whole team caught fire and blew the hot Oklahoma City Thunder out in five games.

So why is this all so captivating? Once again: it's the adventurous journey that makes up the story of our lives. You know the story: something happens and we feel like we're on top of the world. However, we become arrogant and forget about other people.

We play isolation basketball.

But that just doesn't work. Ask Carmelo Anthony. Sooner or later, life gives us a sucker punch.

Right in the face.

It humbles us, makes us realize what our real goals are. It gives us sight, the kind of sight that LeBron showed through his face the entire playoffs. We have the sober look of focus, determination, and fear. Fear that looking to the left or right will lead to failure.

When we are sober, don't take things for granted, and accept responsibility, things happen. Little victories lead to greater ones. They lead to greater joy, and joy that happens as part of the journey. Dwayne Wade said that going through the failure against the Mavs was a necessary event in the life of his team. They had to go through pain and suffering in order to get to their point of victory.

So yes, I was happy for LeBron to finally win one. I resonated with the whole NBA finals in these lessons about the core of our lives, truth that resonates down to our very soul.

Keep your eyes on the Prize. Don't look to the left or right. Stay sober. There are things so valuable that they need all of your strength.  Even strength in the midst of failure.

Days 3-4: Grandeur, Geology, and the Grand Canyon

Well, it took me a lot longer to post this than I had hoped, I apologize for those of you who were waiting earnestly for me to post again.

After our visit to the painted desert and petrified forest, we made our way to Bryce Canyon.  This was originally meant to be simply a travel day, but we made two impromptu stops (I might add, the best kinds).
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Our first stop was at Sunset Crater, the site of a dormant volcano and lava flow.  This was one of the coolest things for me.  As a kid, me and my brother watched tons of National Geographic earthquake and volcano videos.  To see this stuff in real life was really, really cool.  The lava flow above was a result of the volcano below, of which you can see the crater.

There were several other interesting sights in this park showing geological processes, including some geological buckling of the lava flow, as you can see to the right.

Note: just seeing these pictures on the internet does not do justice to the actual sight.  Every single sight captured in these photos, in one way or another, was breathtaking in real life.

After our stop at Sunset Crater, we also passed the Glen Canyon dam.  This dam is along the Colorado River, the same one that passes through and carves the Grand Canyon.  It is north of the Grand Canyon, and provides some spectacular desert views.

Apart from the breathtaking landscape, the Glen Canyon Dam is certainly an engineering marvel.  As someone who is studying Civil Engineering, I found the dam to be a marvelous sight.

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After making these two stops, we continued our journey north into Bryce Canyon in Utah, our first major stop.  Bryce Canyon is known for its signature red rocks, which make beautiful structures known as hoodoos.  These hoodoos make Bryce Canyon a very interesting visit.

Bryce Canyon is known for several landmarks in particular.  The first of these is Thor's Hammer, as you can see below.  You may have seen this momentous rock in pictures at one time or another.

Another cool sight in Bryce Canyon is this arch, which is created by many years of erosion.
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While spending our day in Bryce Canyon, we hiked in the morning and visited several overlooks in the afternoon.  Talk about eye candy: these sights were amazing.  The hoodoo lined horizon was quite captivating; more so than could ever be taken with a picture.  Under normal conditions, I am not a huge hiking fan (or Viking fan for that matter).  However, due to the amazing views, this was the best hiking I had ever experienced.

When looking over the red and pink rocks, one notices something very interesting: along the top of every hoodoo, there is a layer of white rock that runs across every hoodoo at approximately the same elevation everywhere.  This layer of white rock is called dolomite.  It has special minerals inside of it that make it more resistant to erosion than the red rock underneath.  Because of this, it acts as a 'hard hat' to the hoodoo.  You can see the top white rocks below.

As rain and snow slowly erode at the rock, waves begin to emerge as the layers of harder rock protrude beyond the softer rock.  Eventually, a layer of soft rock will completely erode, leaving the rocks above it to topple over, including the dolomite.  From there, without a dolomite 'hard hat', the hoodoo will erode and disappear fairly quickly.
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OK, it's book time.

I mentioned in my last post that each of these three books had one unifying theme, and that was Christianity as a lifestyle instead of simply a collection of religious beliefs.  To be more specific, I would say that each of these three books develop this Biblical theme: faith without works is dead.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Cost of Discipleship, develops this theme with a distinction between cheap grace and costly grace.  Bonhoeffer notes that churches often promote cheap grace.  This type of grace, when accepted, does not have any bearing on one's actions in life.  This cheap grace is commonly promoted as fire insurance and a 'get out of hell free' card.  Or it may be promoted as a way to achieve all of your financial or emotional goals.  Most of all, it says that you have a chance to go to heaven while only having to go to a special building on Sunday for a couple hours a week!  How easy?  Who wouldn't buy into this idea?

However, according to Bonhoeffer, grace is informed by 1 Corinthians 9:16: "you were bought at a price".  The fact is, our renewed relationship with God cost a great deal to God, including the death of his own son.   Do we really grasp that?  You know that means?  It is going to cost you a lot.  There is a lot at stake.  This deal is pretty pricey.

But you get what you pay for.

And more.

When grace is seen in this Biblical way, it becomes more than a doctrine.  It becomes a way of life, an all-encompassing motivation based on a real life event in history.  It's a grace that demands our full attention because of its momentous impact.  Additionally, Bonhoeffer notes, the wonderful part about this grace is that it gives us the grace to serve Jesus, instead of the unfulfilling idols of fame, and money.  Even the grace is gracious.

Amazing, grandeurous, grace.

Day 1-2: Grandeur, Geology, and the Grand Canyon

Our family trip to the Grand Canyon began with a ten-hour ride through the flat lands of Texas.  For those of you who know the landscape of Texas, this is not a very exciting drive, at least until you get close to New Mexico.  By the time we arrived in New Mexico, I was already excited, even ecstatic, at the change in scenery.  It was as if we suddenly entered a land inhabited by gigantic burrowing creatures.


OK, maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but it was seriously a welcome break from the incredibly monotonous geography of Texas.  The first campsite that we stopped at was set next to a lake in the middle of a desert.  It was a pretty cool landscape.  Of course, this was only a night stop in the beginning of our trip, but there was one nice thing about this campsite: we had electricity.  :)

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The focus of our second day was the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.  All of our sights for that day were located in Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona. 

The painted desert gets its name from the appearance of the rocks in what is called the Chinle Formation.  The rock varies from red to white and every color in between.  The layers differentiate because of past volcanic eruptions, which provide the white volcanic ash in between the red siltstone and shale.  All of these layers erode fairly easily, forming what is called the badlands topography.  The combination of these factors creates this beautiful landscape.

The south end of the National Park contains the majority of the petrified wood.  These old colorful trees are scattered throughout the landscape at many different places.  In order for wood to crystallize and petrify, it needs a high concentration of Silica, which is contained in the layers of volcanic ash.  Once again, the petrified wood was a really cool sight to see.

This was when I really started to get into all of the science, which I found fascinating.  During pretty much every stop, I was the one reading every board and ogling over all of the amazing sights.

After stopping here, we traveled a few hours to our second campsite.  And as I laid my head down to sleep, I got to look at all of the stars out of my window.  I could actually see stars.  Thousands of them, actually.

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During the trip, I read several books at the same time (a daunting task, I know).  The three books I read were The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology by Eugene Peterson.  I only got about halfway through each of these books, but so far, each of these books has been phenomenal.  Bonhoeffer was a new author for me; one of my Bible professors introduced him to me in a Bible class last semester.  I had read Rob Bell before, but decided to reread his most popular book once more.  In the fall of 2011, I had read a book by Eugene Peterson, and really enjoyed it, so I decided to read another book of his.

Throughout the rest of my blog posts, I will tell you a little bit about each of the books I read.  Before I do that though, I need to tell you about a common thread through all of them that surprised me.  Each of these authors, in their own contexts, are not satisfied with Christianity as simply a system of beliefs.  Sure, they value belief and doctrine, but according them, the doctrine found in scripture is meant to shape and guide our lives.  In other words, faith without works is dead.  Belief and obedience go hand in hand.  Christianity should lead us to a revolutionary and transforming way of life.  As I read these authors simultaneously, I found this truth quite refreshing. 

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So now, time for a little geology lesson.  I thought this stuff was fascinating, and I hope to explain it as simply as possible.  The reason why there are all of these cool things in Arizona and Utah is because of the Colorado Plateau.  Sometime in the past, this vast region of land was uplifted due to plate tectonics.  It is partially because of this that there are so many natural wonders in this region.

In this region, many rock layers are exposed in different parts of the region due to erosion and other natural forces.  As I continue in my account, you will recognize different layers depending on the elevation we are in.  For this first stop in the painted desert, we were in the Chinle formation, which you can see here in the many layers of the grand staircase.

Introduction: Grandeur, Geology, and the Grand Canyon.

Grandeur: the best way to describe the trip of a lifetime.

West on the interstate: every American's dream vacation in the summer.  For my family and especially myself, it was a trip from the tame flat lands of Texas to the wild, untamed landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.

Geology: a class that I was preparing for next fall.  Normally not something to celebrate and drool over, even though the subject was going to be part of a schedule that only included math and science classes.  Which means good things for me.  Little did I know that I was going to be plunged into a landscape dominated by rocks; I was going to get a head start.  Well that's boring, no one wants to think about studying until the semester starts.  Do you?  I thought so.  But this wasn't studying.

This was engaging in something larger than myself.

This was making the most out of an all-expense paid trip to some of the greatest natural wonders in America.

This was standing in wonder at one part of an amazing planet we all live in.


This was grandeur.


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You can see my entire photo collection at the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150867983294234.412842.782104233&type=1&l=a72f6bd2ba


I will upload more pictures as I continue to write blog posts.

Souvenirs

So I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately.  As I've been going through Facebook posts, photos, and messages, deleting emails, and cleaning up all of the junk I brought home, I can't help but think about my wonderful experience at my first year of college.

I recently bought Switchfoot's new CD, Vice Verses.  Track number 9 is my favorite song by far.  It's called Souvenirs, have a listen:

Here's to the twilight; Here's to the memories; These are my souvenirs; My mental pictures of everything 
Here's to the late nights; Here's to the fire light; These are my souvenirs; My souvenirs 
I close my eyes and go back in time; I can see you smiling, you're so alive; We were so young, we had no fear 
We were so young, we had no idea that life was just happening; Life was just happening 
Here's to your bright eyes; Shining like fireflies; These are my souvenirs; The memory of a lifetime 
We were wide eyed with everything; Everything around us; We were enlightened by everything; Everything 
So I close my eyes and go back in time; I can see you smiling, you're so alive 
I close my eyes and go back in time; You were just a child then, and so was I 
We were so young, we had no fear; We were so young, we had no idea; That nothing lasts forever 
That nothing lasts forever; Nothing lasts, nothing lasts; You and me together; Were always now or never 
Can you hear me? Can you hear me? 
I close my eyes and go back in time; I can see you smiling, you're so alive 
I close my eyes and go back in time; You were wide eyed, you were wide eyed 
We were so young, we had no fear; We were so young, we had just begun 
A song we knew but had never sung; It burned like fire inside our lungs 
And life was just happening(nothing lasts, nothing lasts forever) 
And life was just happening(nothing lasts, nothing lasts forever) 
I wouldn't trade it for anything; My souvenirs

The best part of being home is getting the chance to sit down and reflect on the things that happened to me over my first year of college.  For the first time in a while, things are not flying past me at 100 miles per hour.  I've had time to close my eyes and think back over the last semester and wonder, what are my souvenirs?  For sure, my mental pictures are plentiful:

-Waiting for the frisbee to come down into my hands

-Attempting not to get juked out by that basketball player

-Staring at my engineering project waiting for it to work

-Waiting for that green box to show up on Lon Capa (online physics homework)

-Picking up all of the jelly beans, corn seeds, and pine cone remnants off of my floor

-Being entranced by Freecell or Angry Birds in a split-second of free time

-Looking into the face of a good friend

-Smiling into the loving face of my bed after being apart for way too long

-Turning in my last final

The song is true.  There were many late nights, too many in fact.  It seems like I was often such a child trying to find my way around, wide-eyed and enlightened at every turn.  I like to think of myself as seasoned and experienced, but I am still young as life happens around me.

One thing is for sure: 

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Waiting

Hey guys, how is it going?  I know you haven't heard from me through my blog for a while, so you may be wondering what Has been going on in my life. I have been super-dee-duper busy, like never before.  This is not due to homework, but to job applications, resumes, and student leadership positions for next year.  At this point, I have a possible position at a private engineering firm/contracting company and applied for summer employment at TXDOT.  I never knew how much time these things take up, but I am glad that I finished them.  Over the last couple of weeks, I also had to do several things in order to apply for IMPACT positions at LeTourneau, which included several applications and interviews.  I applied for Chaplain Intern and Peer Adviser, and ended up getting chaplain; I am really excited.  This means that next semester I get to lead devotionals on Wednesday and be a spiritual leader on my floor. Because of my busy schedule, this was the most I had ever looked forward to spring break.  I did not go home but took a missions trip to San Isidro, Texas.  I went with twenty one other people, which made up two teams.  My team was the construction team, and we helped to build a house for a family; the other team put on a sports camp for the kids in San Isidro.  We stayed in a small baptist church in San Isidro, who's lead pastor and youth pastor worked for Buckner.  We worked very hard building the house, including a fourteen hour Friday.  It definitely was an oasis for my brain though, even if it wasn't an oasis for my body.  It was so nice to get away from LeTourneau and go to a little town in the middle of nowhere.  I also had the privilege to worship in a bilingual church, which was a great experience. More than anything, spring break was a chance for me to get away from everything and reflect on what I had gone through in my life.  God has definitely been working in my life, and teaching me many things through my circumstances, especially the lesson of patience (something you had to put in to practice while waiting for me to write another blog post).     God chose to teach me this lesson in a very clear way this week.  At the church in San Isidro, there were some small devotional booklets that happened to be on the subject of patience.  They contained some very important advice for me that was very helpful.  However, the divine providence did not stop there.  The Sunday morning after I visited a new church with some of my friends, and they sang Everlasting God.  The words of the chorus go like this: "strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord".  I know God was speaking to me through this song. In today's culture of instant self-gratification, waiting on God is not something that is easy to talk about.  However, if we truly want to follow God's will for our lives, patience is something we HAVE to have.  This applies especially to college students.  My present concerns include job opportunities, educational choices, relationships, and friendships.  It is easy to find one plan that you think will work and latch onto it, thinking that it has to happen a certain way.  However, waiting on God to guide your path in His direction is what we are called to do as Christians.

Frustration

I am frustrated.  I don't usually vent my feelings, so this post will be a little different.  Now this doesn't really have anything to do with school itself, so far, in fact, the classes are going well and the homework is easy.  However, this second semester has started off very differently from the first.  The excitement of meeting new friends has been replaced with the comfort of coming back to good friends; the blind embracing of others as the greatest people in the world has been replaced with the knowledge of the lives of others, both the acts characteristic of a saint and those characteristic of a sinner.  The cohesiveness of a floor due to the unfamiliarity of others has turned into smaller groups of friends who share certain personalities, ways of thinking, and leniency on certain types of faults (dare I say sins?).

None of these differences between this semester and last are due to an unnatural progression.  But why do I feel so much tension?  To be unfortunately negative again, why do I feel like I am personally experiencing such theological doctrines such as the ultimate depravity of man and motivated to create new doctrines like the inherent laziness of man?  Why do I feel so much tension, and why am I so negative?

Maybe it's because I hate conflict.  I know my Dad also has this characteristic.  When people disagree, both he and I tend to shy away from the situation and find a more amiable conversation.

Maybe it's because I was homeschooled.  Maybe attending a public or private school for the majority of your life prepares you for the messiness of life in a community.  Maybe these events that I am experiencing in college are normal, and it just took me until college to experience them.

Maybe it's because I have never had friends close enough to now their deep faults.  Maybe, with smaller numbers of possible close friends around me, and friendships mostly set up because of our parents' friendships, I never got the true opportunity to start in a new situation and truly choose my friends among a plethora of people.

While I really do not know exactly what is causing my frustration, I do know one thing.  I am losing my faith in human beings.  Even Christian ones at a Christian college.  Of course in principle, I know faith is supposed to be in God, but I have shown faith in human beings through my actions.

Surely the great moral person I see myself as could not be guilty of a sin like idolatry?

Yes, I could be guilty.

This sin of having faith in people is not excluded to just me.  Sometimes I think even Christians put some of their faith in people, especially the great theologians of the past.  People like Martin Luther and John Calvin have been put on a very high pedestal by some Christians.  Since they were so awesome, it only makes sense to conclude that they were right on every single doctrinal issue.  Yet, according to what I know, Luther seemed to believe in a form of baptismal regeneration and John Calvin believed in what is called 'double predestination', two views that many find repulsive and/or contrary to scripture.  On the internet, I have seen people mention these negative aspects about these two men, and proceed to discredit much of their other work just because of one fault in their doctrine.  Does this come out of an assumption that theologians must be perfect?  It makes me wonder: did God allow even these men to have faults?  What if their faults were supposed to imply that even Christians are not perfect, no matter how great?

No one is good - truly perfect - but God alone.

So why do I feel depressed when people seem to be someone worse than I thought they were?  Do I have too much faith in humans; namely, the ones who have the special label of Christian?

The Bible says we should only hope, trust, believe, and have faith in the Savior and only the Savior.  There is no other name or person under heaven, on the whole earth, who will save us from our sin, malice, greed, and depression.  I have come to realize that there is only one solution to humanity's problem: Christ IN us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Listen to this song by Peter Furler to understand what I am talking about.

When I first listened to this album by Furler, this song really stuck out to me.  It has a simple message, and a simple tune, yet it really proves that scripture best speaks to us.

Scripture also speaks to us through our brothers and sisters in Christ.  To provide a case in point, right after I finished the previous paragraph, I had to leave to go to lunch and then class.  In my Intro to Engineering Class, my professor also used Colossians 1:27 in his devotional.  Obviously, God was trying to teach me a lesson through that Bible verse.  Let me share that lesson with you.

My observations about the faults and sins of the people around me are in no way invalid.  This is not some issue about my close friends or the people that I do not get along with or the people that irritate me sometimes.  This is a human issue, an issue that, as I said earlier, frustrated and continues to frustrate me.  As I have come to find, it is a massively practical issue.  There is often nothing glorious in the natural man of humanity.  That is why the Bible states that it is not us, but Christ in us that is man's only hope for glory, that is, splendor in the way we act and treat other people.  Colossians is filled with references to the power we have that makes us able to bear fruit and do good works.  This power only comes through the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of our sins and allows us to work for the Kingdom of God.

Don't put your trust in humanity like I do.  Put your trust in the One who gives humanity the power that they need.  This power motivates us to hard work and encourages us to look beyond our feelings to the things that need to be done in this world.  And this power cannot be overcome.

GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN US, THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD