BACK IN BLACK!!!!

Ok, so maybe today's color choice isn't quite Noir (more so blue and brown), but I am (finally) back at SWBTS. It's a pretty exciting time. Especially considering that the day has gotten off to a crazy start.

My schedule for the day is pretty packed....

Library at 7:30

Class from 9:25-10:45

Lunch with old college pastor from 11-1 (stoked about that one)

Class from 1:15-3:45

Work from 4:00-10:00

and a paper due by Midnight

But when I got to the library this morning, they didn't have one of the books I needed and the other one had been checked out. Convenient.

Now I don't have anything in the bank account, but I reckon that I can make it work to where I can get the two books from Lifeway. I figure that they don't open til 8, but decide to check it out. Sure enough, they're not open at 7:30...... or at 8:00 either. No, they open at 9. Which does me about as much good as knife in a gun fight.

Well, we'll see how it goes. Like Matthew used to say, "You gotta be flexible."

-Jeff

Zeus who?

Driving home this evening, I was treated to a magnificent display of firepower. Indeed, the pale black sky was ripped open by dozens of lightning bolts. Bolts of lightning that were so intense that the street lamps along the interstate cowered before their mighty fingers as they stretched across the Texas night. Streaks of brilliant white light, pure as the driven snow, etched their signature into the heavens.

Without a doubt, it was quite an awesome spectacle. And it was on my way home that I thought to myself, “Zeus my rear end… I serve the one who creates and sends these great streaks across the firmament.” Where is Zeus? Let him answer his accusers. Surely the Greeks are still prospering in their homeland, but where is their pantheon? For they were all wood and stubble, destined to burn against the great wrath of our God who sets out with terrible vengeance against that which should exalt itself against Him.

And as I thought of the awesome power of our mighty God, I was reminded of the Son who “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Indeed, it was the Light of God who calmed the raging seas.

And it is this Jesus whom we bow down to serve. It is by the might of his fingers that were stretched out on the cross on that the darkest day of all human history that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. It was there, on that day, that the creation moaned and ached at the death of her creator. And it was but three days later that the very same creation leapt with praise over the victorious Lamb. For it was with the same nail pierced hands that our savior reached out and took the keys of death from the adversary of the people of God.

Early Morning Sky

There was no golden sunshine in my early morning sky,

No soft rays of light to begin to illuminate my day.

The clouds of insecurity filled up the great bye & bye,

Thus causing my vast dismay.

 

Oh to know the true feelings coming from your heart,

These feelings of rapture sure to set me free.

In those feelings would my love find its start,

Kindled by a fire that is yet to be.

 

To take your velvet hand and place it in mine,

Instantly removing me from among the crowd.

The thought ere so sweet, so divine,

Of your love so rich and proud.

 

Let me be your protector, provider, & friend,

In this, you grant me my wings to fly.

And with this my journey can now begin,

With only you here by my side.

 

Hear the simple cries of this broken, defenseless man,

Whose love-scared heart, to you, now is shown.

Vulnerable, desperate is how I choose to make my stand,

Yearning to no longer be alone.

 

Scatter the clouds of doubt that ever block my way,

Lest my passion waste away & die.

Please grant to me but just one more day.

Won't you be the golden sunshine in my early morning sky?

-Jeff

3/26/06

I've always wanted to do this...

Whilst taking a break from my sermon prep, I came across a sticker in the library bathroom. The rest is self-explanatory:

Before:

After

I just couldn't resist. Enjoy!

-Jeff

Sweet Mother of Troy...

You know, people have come to me before and said that I was a fairly intelligent guy. (HA! Funny). But no one has ever accused me of being smart, unless there's a three letter word attached to the end. :) 

Anyway, as I was looking through my blog, I found one that I had never published. It was much too good to pass up. 

As many of you know, I don't always do the smartest things. This is one such story of my sheer brilliance at work.  

As all of you know, I live in Texas. And the best way that I can describe it for those of you who have never had the misfortune of visiting Texas on a sweltering summer day, is to relate a conversation that I had with my mom to you.

It was about midway through the beginning of the summer, and she asked me, "Is it hot down there?" And as I thought about it, I said, "Mama, it's hot.... Well.... Mama, it's hot as hell down here." Immediately I caught what I had said and apologized, "Mama, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be vulgar, but that's the only thing that I can think of at the moment." (I literally could not think of a better example… there was none.)

Now, having this awareness of the atrocious Texas heat, you would think that I would stay away from it. That I would run away from it like a fat kid getting chased by a dietician (is that wrong?). However, like I said, I'm definitely not the smartest kid in class. (and definitely not the most PC)

So what did I decide to do? I've got an idea; let's go run. Now, I'm eating dinner with my next-door neighbors at 7pm later that night, so I should probably go ahead and ignore the fact that it's 1 in the afternoon and it just so happens to be the hottest part of the day as well. And you know, there's absolutely no cloud cover either. Things are looking on the up and up!

So I decide to go running. But that's not the end of it, oh no! I decide that running on flat ground or on a treadmill is boring (which it is). So I decide to go run 3 miles down by TCU. Now, for our purposes, let's just say that there's 4 sides to the campus (which there pretty much are). Now two of them are flat, one has a slight incline, and the other one has the only steep hill in all of Ft Worth. So which did I choose? Yep... the steep side. And on top of all this, I hadn't trained to run at all. I mean, nothing. There was no preparation whatsoever. My friends, I thought that I was going to die.

I was just about at the end of my rope, when I decided to push on just a tad bit farther. I knew that there was a small park about .2 mile further down the road, so instead of stopping and turning around, I decide that I'd make it to the park and to the shade of it's trees. And that's just what I did.

Much to my elation, what did I see but a grungy old water fountain. You know the one…. it had green corrosion all around the drinking spigot, and leaves from the trees had fallen in it and clogged the drain. And the only thing that I could think of was, “SWEET MOTHER OF TROY, THE LORD HAS LOOKED DOWN ON MY AFFLICTION AND HEARD MY CRY FOR HELP!!!” (ok, that may be a tad bit much, but you get what I’m saying) I had never, nor have I ever since, been so excited about drinking out of a nasty faucet.

I returned to my car after a long and tedious climb up what seemed like Everest herself with the Saharan sun beating me mercilessly as if I was tied to it’s whipping post. It was on that day that I vowed never to do such a stupid thing again.

But before I let you go, humor me this and allow me to probe the heart of my readers…

Is this just a funny story about an idiot running at the completely wrong time of day in Texas, and justly getting what he deserved, or does it reach further than that?

I paralleled this to my own spiritual life, and the results where somewhat disturbing. Often times, I decide to jump into things without consulting the Lord, and His guidance. I fail to take note of the “spiritual climate” all around me and find myself parched and strung out on my journey of sanctification.

However, looking back, I notice all those many times when the Lord provided the water that my spirit needed to continue on.

It is by the mercy of God that He grants us these oases when often times we are strung out due to our own brash choices.

Consider the times when He has provided an oasis that He didn’t have to, and take a minute to thank Him for it.

-Jeff

So you're single on V-day... consider this: Part 1

Valentines Day: 

For a couple, it is a great time to snuggle up on the couch, light some candles and enjoy your favorite movie together. Or maybe you've decided to go to your favorite fancy restaurant down town. Or perhaps you're the adventurous type and refuse to be tied down by the Valentine's Day box. But whatever it is you're doing, I'd be willing to bet that flowers and chocolate are involved somehow. 

For a single person, ugghhh. How much do we dread this blasted day? Why is it that all of our couple friends have to flaunt their coupleness in our face? All their chocolate and roses and kisses and lovey-dovey hand-holding PDA... It's enough to drive a person insane! 

It seems to me that what is supposedly one of the happiest times of the year for people who are madly in love with their significant other, is often times the most heart wrenching season for those who would count themselves accursed by the plague of singleness.

It's this observation that would bring me out of what has seemed like blogging retirement. 

I've never really understood the anti-Valentine's day sentiment that's held by a lot single people. "Well Jeff, apparently, you just don't understand what it's like to be single on Valentine's Day." Oh, I'd beg to differ. 

I've been single almost all of my life. In fact, when it comes to Valentine's Day, 23 of my 24 have been spent as a single guy.  So I can empathize with all of those out there who feel like the whole world is crashing in on them b/c they're single. I just don't get why some people get so worked up about being single. 

God has put inside of us all a desire to be with someone. If you're feeling that pull, and find yourself longing to be held in the arms of the one who fills in the gaps of your heart, you are perfectly ok. Take a listen to this song. It may help. Please understand that singleness is not a plague or a sickness. In fact, most of the time, it can easily be viewed as a gift.

If you're not single, do all of us single folks a favor. Love the person you're with, with all of the passion and creativity that you can muster. Consider that you have what so many people long for, and make the most of it. Love that person with Christ's love. Any other love will be lacking and incomplete. 

Stayed tune for my blog tomorrow. I'll tell you about two particular Valentine's Days that went horribly wrong. 

-Jeff

Favorite Quotes...

These are some of my favorite quotes. This one's gonna be pretty long cuz I'll continue to put new quotes as I find them, but here's the first batch:

"We need to stop trying to figure out God, and instead just draw close to him."
-Ken Martin (my dad)

"More today, Lord, than yesterday. More tomorrow than today."
-Voddie Baucham

"What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; what higher, more exalting and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?"
-J.I. Packer

"For defending the truth in our day, we are called proud and obstinate hypocrites. We are not ashamed of these titles. The cause we are called to defend, is not Peter's cause, or the cause of our parents, or that of the government, or that of the world, but the cause of God. In defense of that cause we must be firm and unyielding."
-Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians 2:11

"Perhaps one reason our preaching about the love of God has such little resonance in the world today is that there is such meager evidence of the holiness of God in our walk and ways."
-Timothy George: "A Theology for the Church" p. 225

"The cross is the place where God's righteousness and mercy embrace, where the holy one of Israel was made to become sin on behalf of and instead of lost sinners. This is the basis of our reconciliation with God and also of our concern to maintain standards of justice and equity in society. We affirm the goodness of creation, the sanctity of human life, and the integrity of marriage not out of humanistic concerns but because we are accountable to a holy God who calls us to seek justice, love mercy, and work for peace in the world that this great God has made and will one day judge.
-Timothy George: "A Theology for the Church" p. 225

"Jesus gives the world the right to decide whether those who bear his name truly belong to him based upon their observable love for one another (John 13:35)... such observable love as the "untried apologetic" the world is waiting to see demonstrated with in the church. Such love is the mark of genuine Christianity."
-Timothy George: "A Theology for the Church" p. 228

"The incarnation and passion of Christ therefore are set forth for our contemplation, in order above all that we may behold and know the love of God toward us. So John 3 says: "God so loved the world," etc. Here God pours our not sun and moon, nor heaven and earth, but his own heart and his dearest Son, and even suffers him to shed his blood and die the most shameful of all deaths for us. Shameful, wicked, ungrateful people. How can we here say anything else but that God is nothing but an abyss of eternal love. We have received from God naught but love and favor, for Christ has pledged and given us his righteousness and everything that he has, has poured out upon us all his treasures, which no man can measure and no angel can understand or fathom, for God is a glowing furnace of love, reaching even from the earth to the heavens."
-Martin Luther as quoted in Philip S. Watson's "Let God Be God"

If our lives and ministries are expressions of what we actually believe, and if what we believe is off center and yet so pervasive that it is seldom even brought to conscious discussion, much less debated, then this explains why our impact on the world is so paltry compared to our numbers.
-J. P. Moreland
Love Your God With All Your Mind: Ch1

It may, perhaps, be pleasant to be able to impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin freely - a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.
- Jane Austen
Pride & Prejudice: Ch. 6

Be careful what you shoot at Ryan. Things in here don't react well to bullets.
-Sean Connery
The Hunt For Red October

For now,
Jeff (12/27/08)

NEW QUOTE (3/23/09)

(Biblical preachers are) "in a line of great succession. The reformers, the Puritans, the pastors of the Pilgrim fathers were essentially expositors. They did not announce their own particular opinions, which might be a matter of private interpretation or doubtful disposition, but taking their stand on Scripture, drove home their message with irresistible effect with 'Thus saith the Lord.' "

-F. B. Meyer

"Thinking is difficult, but it stands as our essential work. Make no mistake about the difficulty of the task. It is often slow, discouraging, overwhelming. But when God calls us to preach, He calls us to love Him with our minds. God deserves that kind of love and so do the people whom we minister."

-Haddon W. Robinson

"Biblical Preaching" Ch. 2 p. 46

New Quote (9/16/09)

"A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around her so much. But she sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, 'You're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way.' This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, 'You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired."

-Unknown

New Quote (12/11/09)

"There are two different senses in which a number of people can have a good in common. In the weak sense, the common good is whatever is good for each other irrespective of whether there is any bond between them. You do not have to know that Tom is married to Rosemary to know that having shoes that fit is good for both. But in the strong sense, the common good is what pertains to there partnership in a good life. Marital love is a good for Tom and Rosemary in a wholly different way than having shoes that fit; apart from their bond it cannot be understood."

J. Budziszewski on Aristotle's view of the common good