Hang in there....

Just wanted to throw out a blanket statement..... somebody who is reading this is going through something that they don't feel that they're going to be able to make it through. It's inevitable. Someone at sometime is going to read this blog and feel like the whole world is crashing around them.

So to that I say, take heart. I don't know what you're going through, or what your struggle is. I don't know the situations that you're facing in your life, but there is one thing that I do know. There is a Savior who says to come to Him, and to give Him your burden and exchange it for His. Your burden is cumbersome and heavy, His burden is light. Come to the cross, lay down your anxiety and fears, and take up the comfort that comes from losing your life ambitions, goals, and aspirations in the peace and rest that He gives.

Go, and preach saying, "The kingdom of God is near",
-Jeff

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-Jeff

The New Name...

So, after a few months, I've finally realized that "the musings of urban squirrels" was much too long of a name... I mean, who would've thought that having a title that's 26 letters long was too long for people to remember.

Anywho..... I've decided to change the name to Red's Reflections. I figure that this name should be much much easier to remember. So from now on... if you'd like to catch all of the madness that's running through my head, you can catch me at http://redsreflections.blogspot.com

-Jeff

Another oldie...."At the cross where I first saw the light"

Would it be so fragrant of an offering if I were as holy as your son?
My sacrifice could n'er attain the righteousness due to your name.

If my rags were robes, would they be acceptable as the curtains in your throne room?
Surely my riches are expended at the very thought of you.

If my possessions were that of a king, could they buy me but a moment with you?
Indeed, that minute were all too much for my kingly treasure.

No, in all of it, O God, I am depraved. A sinner's sinner is my decree. My name is marred with that of transgressions and iniquity. My righteousness is as filthy rags in the light of your glory.

But oh that I might bask in that glory! For it is here that my sin is laid barren. It is desolate before the mercy found in the cross. In that pain and anguish that should have been mine, I find the only propitiation for my wounded and hurting soul. It is here that mine eye has seen the glory of the Lord, who was before time and never ceasing. My every need is fulfilled with the last breath of my savior. Yes, it is in this, the greatest act of love, that I find my rest.

To you, O Lord, is my praise. For there is no one else worthy of exaltation. In your name will strength and power be found for the weak and downtrodden. Be glorified in all that you do my divine King. Let all the people of the earth praise the name of the Lord forever. May he make a footstool of the wicked, and lift up the humble with His mighty right hand. Be honored my God by the turning of the pagan to the salvation of his soul. It is here that I find my praise and adoration. In my depravation you have lifted my heart and spirit. Praise be to the Lord of Hosts for He is good to all the nations.

Three Words. Ten Definitions. One Constant.

Refine:

1. to bring to a fine or a pure state; free from impurities
2. to purify from what is coarse, vulgar, or debasing
3. to bring to a finer state or form by purifying
4. to make fine distinctions in thought or language
5. to improve by inserting finer distinctions, superior elements, etc.

Purge:

1. to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify
2. to clear of imputed guilt or ritual uncleanliness.
3. to clear away or wipe out legally (an offense, accusation, etc.) by atonement or other suitable action.

Purify:

1. to make pure; free from anything that debases, pollutes, adulterates, or contaminates
2. to free from guilt or evil

Three words. Ten definitions. One constant.

Removal of unwanted, undesirable, even at times toxic substances from a raw source by a third party for the greater value of the source being acted upon; often including the insertion of something not previously innate to the original source.

Often times, we go through these processes in our growth as human beings, but especially as Christians desiring a more intimate walk with God. Unfortunately, there are rarely times that this happens without spiritual surgery. Sometimes minor, sometimes major, but an undergoing all the same.

As I was reflecting on the first 24 years of my life, I realized something. There is a deep longing and desire inside of me to be wild and reckless. To not be tied down. To travel and see more of the world. To be free to pick up and move at any time to any place. Extravagance is not needed for these endeavors. Simple accommodations will do. But why not? Why not go through with these all too natural desires…

Three words. Ten definitions. One constant.
Refinement
Purging
Purification

Here it is here it is 14 months after moving to Texas. I’m in a great city, at a great school, have great friends, serving at a great church, and still I am constantly meandering through conscious daydreams of lands far away, distant, and removed. A land of a different language and culture and people; a land of beautiful mountains, woods, streams, and family; and a land of crystal blue oceans, raging seas, and friends. All three of which I have called home.

All too content to be constantly on the move, never content to be still. Worried of what might happen if I am still for too long. What will happen if the surgeon’s scalpel cuts too deep? To the things that I don’t want exposed, the things that only I know about.

Oh no, I do not want this refinement. I do not crave this purging. I do not desire this purification. For with these surgeries comes not only pain from the removal of dross, but also times to heal and be still. It is this stillness that I am so terrified of.

So why? Why do I stay? Why do I not take flight and run to pleasures untamed?

Three words. Ten definitions. One Constant.
Refinement
Purging
Purification

It is the reason why we all must learn to submit to the surgeon’s knife. My Constant is the Great Physician who forms and molds the clay of His earthen vessels for His will and His purpose, and their good.

We all have ambitions, desires, wants, and needs. These are not unknown to our Father. He does not turn a deaf ear to His children, but He stretches them and conforms them to Himself.

We do not declare that we are martyrs for a cause. We are not unlovingly sacrificed upon the alter of a malicious, distant, apathetic god. No. We are refined, purged, and purified because of who we were, who He is, and who we have been redeemed to be.

We were:

• Haters of good
• Doers of evil
• Opponents of truth
• Enemies of God

He is:

• The source of all that is good
• Righteousness incarnate
• The true light that has revealed Himself
• The gracious redeemer of those who opposed Him.

Make no mistake about it. We were those things, but we are no longer so. We are no longer simply clay in the ground, but now sculpted vessels in the Palace. We have been given finer qualities by the superior Spirit. We have been made rid of whatever is impure and undesirable by the blood of the humble Servant. We have been freed from guilt by the righteous Judge.

We do not sacrifice our lives for pity or for sympathy. No. Our sacrifice of ambitions, goals, aspirations, and even the rights to control our own lives is for the Kingdom of our Holy God. That is what we do. That is who we are. We are servants of the Most High God who is worthy of all that we have, and we refuse to give Him any less.

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.

-Mark 8:34-35

OOO-WWWEE!!! THANK YA JESUS!

Here it is, a month-month and a half down the road from my last post, and I finally have time to not only gather some thoughts together, but to post them as well. For about the last week or so, I've been wanting to write something, but I haven't had a clue what it would be about. That was up until tonight in my Old Testament class.

It seems funny to me that it would be my OT class of all my classes that would give me fuel for the creative fire of my blogging, but there you go....

You see, I don't know if you've noticed yet, whether by my previous writings, or my profile pics, or by my personality, but I am a 23, almost 24 year old DUDE; a GUY; an HOMBRE... I am a MAN! And I love it. Now with that in mind, here's the question: What is the difference in the thought patterns of a 14 year old boy and a 24 year old man....

Well, believe it or not, there are some, albeit probably not too too many, differences. But there is one thing that has not changed. GIRLS. You know I don't know if we ever get over that. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mean that when we get married that it's ok for our attention to be directed to any other woman other than our wife. And know this is for sure....... I ain't never gonna get over that girl that the LORD's got for me, and that's dang skippy! OOO-WWEE!!! THANK YA JESUS!

Here's what I'm getting at... We have been talking for the last two weeks in my OT class about the Patriarchs in the book of Genesis, and it all started with a discussion of Adam.

And it begins (the inspiration for this blog, not the creation account), not with the forming of Adam, but with the bringing forth of Eve from Adam. If there's one thing that Adam's response was not, it was him being lackluster about the entrance of Eve into his world. Adam was STOKED when he saw Eve for the first time. I'm tellin you, that boy was happier than a bird dog on the opening day of hunting season. If he would've had a tail, it would've been waggin. Look at what he says when the LORD shows him Eve for the very first time... Genesis chapter 2, verse 23:

And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Now, I really wish that I could do the passage justice, but because it's written down for us and we don't have a video of it, we can't really get the full depth of what he's actually saying here in English. Now, I'm not a Hebrew scholar (in fact, I haven't even taken Hebrew yet), but it is my understanding that in the original language Adam is just about to jump out of his skin. My unauthorized Jeff Martin interpretation would be something like this....

Hallelujah! God, You are way to good to me! You were able to take something out of me and make that beautiful creature.... OOO-WWEEE!!! THANK YA LORD! WOW! In fact, that's what I'm gonna call her, WOMAN, cause she came out of Man, but then again, she ain't no man, and for that God, I praise you! You do excellent work!"

Now, I can already tell that this blog is going to go way too long, but I don't give a rip cuz I've got a lot to say.

If you skip a couple of chapters ahead, you move past Abraham and Sarah (who was SMOKIN by the way), and Isaac and Rebekah, and you come to Jacob and Rachel. So check it out, I'm gonna try and give you the abridged version (It's in Genesis 29; go look it up.)

• Jacob has already not only stolen Esau's birthright, but also his blessing, and Esau is beyond pissed at Jacob and wants to kill him.
• So Jacob ends up fleeing from his brother and sets off to Paddan-aram.
• On his way, he has a dream at Bethel, and then he ends up at this field with a well in it and sees three flocks waiting to be watered.
• Now, the shepherds are chillin because they've got to wait for everybody else to get there so that they can all remove the stone that's on top of the well. This is a big #*&#% stone. That's how they keep just anybody from using it. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that water in a desert = super valuable.
• Jacob starts chattin with the guys and he's like, "What's goin on? So you guys know some dude by the name Laban? You do, cool. Is he doin alright?"
• The shepherds are like, "Yeah, we know Laban, in fact here comes his daughter"

And here's where we pick up. Jacob sees Rachel coming and immediately he realizes that not only is he supposed to choose his wife from the house of Laban, which she is, but that this girl is SLAMMIN! Dawg, this girl is F.I.N.E.- FINE! So what's he do? What every other brother on the face of the Earth would do... "Hey guys, don't ya'll have something to do with these sheep.... Go on, water them and get them out in the field." AKA... "Go on dawg, get outta here. Ya'll are playin with the business and need to get to steppin."

The shepherds respond that they've got to wait for everybody to get there so that they can move the stone together. But Jacob ain't havin it. You see, by this time, Rachel's gotten to the well and so the brother has got to take some initiative. He rolls the stone out of the way on his own, and then goes on to water her flock.

He then proceeds to strike up a conversation with her and he's like, "Oh you're from the house of Bethuel, check it out... ME TOO!!! Yeah! Oh girl, I'd love to meet your father. Yeah, tell him his nephew's in town."

So Jacob stays with Laban, his uncle, for a month, and Laban tells him that he should name his wages so that he'd stay and would work for him. Now, Laban has two daughters:

1. Leah - the oldest who's not bad looking, but she's not all that good looking either. The Bible uses a Hebrew idiom, "And Leah's eyes were weak" meaning that she was just so-so to look at.
2. Rachel - the second of the two who is Miss Middle East. Jacob is already head over heels for this girl.

So Jacob says, "I'll work for you seven years, and you'll give me Rachel." Laban agrees, and the deals done. It turns out that Laban deceives Jacob (hmm, the one who supplants (Jacob) is deceived by Laban), and the story goes one for another 20 chapters until Jacob (now Israel) dies in Egypt.

But here's what I want to pull out of Jacob and Rachel's story:

1. Rachel is just doing what she does on a normal basis and going about her life being faithful to her task.
2. Jacob is running from his own family because he's a lying thief, and only agrees to serve God if God will protect him on his journey to and fro. And yet, God's grace is not contingent upon Jacob's attitude, but God's nature.
3. Jacob gets Rachel by serving her. He removes the stone from the well and waters her flock. When he's deceived and given Leah as his bride, he works another seven years to get Rachel. Jacob is not the most outstanding and upright man at this point in his life, but one thing is for sure, he is vigilant and determined to get this girl.
4. Just as Eve was a gift to Adam, Rachel is a gift from God to Jacob. We already know that Jacob wasn't exactly the stereotypical guy that you'd want chasing you, but God was gracious to him all the same so that His divine plan would come to pass.

Here's the deal, this blog has been written with mainly other guys in mind. And this is the kicker:

Fellas, sometimes we have to go looking for the girl of our dreams. And you know what, she may very well end up looking like Leah or Rachel. That doesn't really matter. What matters is that when we do find her, we see that she is a woman who is not only faithfully going about what she's supposed to be doing, but she is respecting her father, and being submissive to his will. I don't believe for a moment that Rachel was not impressed by Jacob offering to work 7 years in her father's house in order to win her hand in marriage. If it would have been me, I would've been like, how's 7 months sound? Sound ok? So when it came time for her to marry Jacob, I don't think that she was too happy to watch her sister be given to Jacob instead of her. Then she had to wait 7 more years to be with Jacob. Let me tell you, 14 years is a long time. Our response to such a woman should be that we understand that she is indeed a gift from God to us who don't always deserve her. And because of that, we are to serve her, pursue her, fight for her, and cherish her all the days of our life.

Now I know that there are a lot of cultural differences between this story and our own cultural constructs. Incest, polygamy, and arranged marriages to name a few. But here's the deal: This is the inspired, infallible Word of the Living God, and it's message doesn't loose any potency when it doesn't match up exactly to our culture.

Go out and find that Eve, that Rachel who captures your eye, makes you want to serve her, who forces you to draw closer to the Lord, and who is submissive to the authority in her life. I didn't say subversive, that's a-whole-nother story. After all, Rachel was a little firecracker herself. I don't know about you, but I don't want just a ho-hum kind of girl. I need a girl with personality and wit and who fiercely challenges me to not only be a better man, but a better man of God.

This girl is not going to be easy to find. But she is findable. Search for her, serve her, love her, and lead her. Be more than what Jacob was to Rachel. Be so wonderful to her that you fulfill the example to the world of the relationship between Christ and His church set out in Ephesians 5. Do this and never forget the moment that God brought her into your life and you said, "OOO-WWWEE!!! THANK YA JESUS!"

-Jeff

Looking For Sparks: Lessons from a "Modern Day Drifter" - Lesson 2a

Have you ever known a lone-wolf Christian? I'm sure you have. Now here's an even more pertinent question, have you ever known an effective lone-wolf Christian? I’m going to say that you have not. And if you have, please, introduce this person to me. I truly want to meet them.

Why do I, with a great degree of certainty, say that you have never met an effective lone-wolf Christian? Well, in a nut shell, the very idea of a lone-wolf Christian is antithetical to the nature of Christianity. Christianity is, and always has been, a relationship based belief system that is structured around dependency. Most notably on our dependency as fallen beings on an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving Creator God who has, for the purpose of redeeming His helpless creation (us), revealed himself through

• Primarily: His inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word
• Secondary: His natural revelation in His creation, specifically through: nature and the commonality of the human condition expressed in the need of a redeemer

Even the Old Testament Jews were known by God through a relationship. Don’t believe me? Well, they were God’s chosen people (Ex 19) for one. In fact, the very word for "lovingkindness" used in the Old Testament is often times the Hebrew word that evokes the image of a covenantal relationship between God and his chosen people.

Therefore, our dependence upon God is paramount in our Christian life. However, to say that our dependency upon God is the only kind of fellowship necessary in the Christian life is preposterous.

If I have learned one thing in all of my travels, it is the need to surround myself with believers who have, what I call, that special “spark”. Notice that I didn’t stop at the need to surround myself with believers. If you walk away from this blog with the notion that you merely need to surround yourself with believers, you’ve missed the point. Surrounding ourselves with fellow believers is a given (Heb 10:23-25). But so is being in the midst of nonbelievers (Matt 28:18-20).

What I’m speaking of, is surrounding yourselves with people who are so in love with Jesus, that they are just about glowing with the radiance of God. (Example A: Moses and God Mono y Mono) (Example B: Stephen’s Appology)

These guys were literally glowing (well, Moses was at least) from the Glory of God. Think about it... It got to the point that Moses actually started wearing a veil (backfired later) because he freaked out the assembly when they saw him. I mean, they couldn't say, "Moses, have you been standing too close to the nuclear reactor again?", now could they? Nope, they were like, "Yo dude, you're kinda freakin us out here with the whole shining face deal." Now, I don't know anyone who is so close to the Lord that they actually glow. I'm not gonna lie, that'd freak me out to.

But there is another kind of spark inside of us. That is the life that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Check out Jeremiah 20:9. Even though the Holy Spirit had not yet been given at that time, I think that he illustrates quite well what I'm talking about.

You need to look for those people who have that "burning fire" inside of them that is uncontrollable. AND YOU NEED TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET THEM TO BE APART OF YOUR LIFE!!! I'm going to speak about the various kinds of examples that the Bible gives us as far as what these relationships might look like in my next post, but I can not impress upon you how important it is to get these kind of people in your life.

Find people who have something different about their personality, character, love for the Lord, and even about how they carry and present themselves to others.

Here's some things that you may consider when trying to get involved in the life of people who you think have that special spark:

• Ask them to dinner to get to know them better: Guys, it is perfectly ok for you to ask another guy out to dinner (for this purpose). Probably don't want to phrase it like that, but you already know that. And if it's someone of the opposite sex, be casual and upfront. For Pete's sake, you're trying to get to know them, not ask them out on a date. If you're afraid that your intentions may be skewed or misinterpreted for some reason or another, let them know up front that you would just like to get to know them.
• Find out what their interests are and ask them to help you with whatever that interest may be: But only do this if you happen to at least somewhat share this interest. I love golf, so I may ask someone to go play golf... two stepping, etc.
• Engage in conversation with them... AND LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY! This is probably not that big of an issue. I mean, if you've asked a person to hang out with you because you believe that there is something different about them, you're more than likely going to want to hear what the person has to say.
• Invite them over to watch the big game/fight/whatever: Here's a shoe-in for all the guys out there that aren't quite comfortable asking some dude we don't really know to have dinner at IHop with us. (Girls don't seem to have this problem) Have a grill out and smoke some dogs on the grill and invite them to come over for the game. If your in Texas, its an automatic yes.

Here's an all around good rule for doing whatever it takes to get these certain people as apart of your life. Be friendly. If for some reason they are too busy or can't sew into your life for some various reason or another, move on. That sucks, but you can't force companionship. Some people you hit it off with, and some you don't. I just want to reassure you that you are not going to develop relationships by being a stalker.

Remember that your relationship with Christ is of chief importance, and that your relationship to fellow believers is secondary, albeit vital. Seek after the Lord with the entirety of your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), seek Him and His kingdom first (Matt 6:33), and delight yourself in Him (Ps 37:4) and He will put these kinds of people in your path.

-Jeff