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