Grassroots Vol. 2

Over the last year or so I have been a huge fan of Lamp Mode Recordings.  For those of you who don’t know about Lamp Mode, it is an independent Christian rap label.  Their mission is to bring the gospel to the world through the medium of hip-hop in a manner that is God glorifying.  Lamp Mode releases all of their music independently so that it can stay intact and not be subject change based on someone’s desire to make money and dilute the message of God.  Just a couple weeks ago they released their newest album called Grassroots Vol. 2.  I would strongly recommend downloading it from their website!  It’s a free download and they want everyone to pass it along to their friends!  Here’s the link to the download if you’re interested, http://www.lampmode.com/resources/free-music/grass-roots-2/ check it out and pass it along!  Grassroots Vol. 1 is also available for free download on their website too!

h’our dourves

The best part about going to a party at someone’s house, let’s say for New Year’s Eve, is usually the food!  The Super Bowl also is usually a great time with food and friends (that is if the Steelers don’t win).  The finger foods and h’our dourves are usually delicious and get you in the mood to socialize and have fun.  Good food at a party is often the warm up to having a fun time and a preview of good times to come.  God’s Word is similar to h’our dourves because they are a preview of what’s to come.  The Word of God is a preview of what God is like while we can’t see Him here on the earth so we have the Bible to show us what God is like and show us how much He loves us.  God has revealed Himself to humanity through the scriptures and the Word has revealed the glory of the Most High God.  As Christians we have a huge privilege to draw near to God through the reading of His Word.  The Word is a concrete entity worthy of praise. As the psalmist often says, “Who’s Word I praise”, the Word is a member of the Trinity and was with God before creation and has played His part in history by revealing the glory and character of the Godhead.  The Word is God and is with God.  The Word made a covenant with the Father and the Holy Spirit to be incarnated as a man to walk among the earth and to be born under the Law to redeem our fallen race.  When we think about Jesus, we think about the Word that we read.  They are one in the same. 

We have been granted a huge privilege to have been given the Word.  Whenever we read the Word join God in communion and peek at His glory and righteousness.  Basically, we have been given a glimpse of what our redeemed and glorified lives will be like when we attain perfection and reside with our Lord in heaven.  This side of eternity, the best we can get to this glorious experience is spending time in the Word.  But we often don’t take advantage of this privilege because we don’t recognize how important it is to our souls.  Brothers and sisters, I exhort all of us to fervently seek God by spending time in His Word because it is a fountain overflowing with love, grace, and mercy.  Within lies the power to forgive sin and live a life that is pleasing to God.  The Word is also the power of God to offer salvation.  I pray that we would refocus our vision to desire more and more of God’s Word!  God desires to refresh our souls when we are weary and to have us fall into His mighty hands in times of trouble. 

Psalm 50:15

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble;  I will deliver you and you will glorify Me”

As Isaac Watts says in his hymn “How Sad Our State”, God is our rest from trials, weariness, and sin:

To the blest fountain of Thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly;
Here let me wash my spotted soul
From sins of deepest dye.

A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
Into Thy hands I fall;
Be Thou my strength and righteousness,
My Savior, and my all

End of semester

I can’t believe another semester is just about over.  It’s amazing how quickly time passes now days.  It seems like only yesterday that I was moving back into my dorm for the fall semester and now I’m packing up to go home for the holidays.  Don’t get me wrong, I love breaks a lot!  It’s just a little sad that this is my last winter break ever before I have to work full time. I don’t want to waste this break!  I’m determined to use this break for Jesus in any way possible!  Because when I’m most satisfied when I’m most satisfied with Christ and living for Him alone.  Breaks are always a good way to start afresh in terms of redeeming my schedule of devotions and time in the Word.  We discussed this last night in accountability and how all the guys in my group can be encouraging and reminding each other to be spending time in the Word and with God.  Steve and I are working on memorizing scripture to be our motivation to spend time with God every day.  I also want to use this break to spend lots and lots of time with Jess because her next semester is going to be crazy and she’s going to have tons of work to do all the time.  I want to bless her a lot during this break  make sure that we both can get the most out of this break!  After the spring semester she’s leaving for China for two months so I won’t see her at all over the summer.  I feel a huge burden to make this winter break count.  But I know that the grace of God will be with me and strengthen me to live up to His plan for me.

I also want to start a new section on my blog specially designed for the Christmas season!  It’s called the reason for the season!  I’m just going to post verses from the Bible that declare the true meaning for the Christmas season and why it is so important for the whole world.  The first one will be tonight and the verse is:

Isaiah 9:6-7

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”

Hiatus??

So I’ve been wondering why I haven’t wrote a blog in almost 9 months and I just now figured it out………i went on hiatus!  I just now figured it out, but I forgot to officially announce it.  I should have known better a put out a press release or something lol.  I write press releases at work too!  But I guess this is me coming out of hiatus and getting back on a regular schedule (somewhat) again.  And now that the semester is pretty much over I can devote more time to things like this.  I don’t really have much more to say besides this so I’ll call it a day now.  Walk in love as Christ loved us!

“The wise decision is living life as a Christian, to live and die in submission to His disciple’s commission and, that’s why I’m praying I’ll never deny His name.  Im’a rep Him if I’m in pain or I’m threatened, to die is gain.”–Steven the Levite

baseball!!!

wow 2 posts in one day!  this one is actually important lol.  The 2009 MLB season starts in 6

 days!!!  I love this time of year because the weather is getting warm and nothing beats spending an afternoon or evening at the ballpark and the atmosphere of a baseball game!  Opening Day 2009 is on April 6th and the O’s are playing the Yankees, could that be more perfect?!  I’m trying to go to as many O’s games as possible this summer so I’ll let everyone know when the first game I try to go to is.  Right now I’m thinking Friday May 8th.  It’s another home game against New York.  The New York/Boston games are always the best!  Peace.  See you at the Yard!!

a pleasing aroma

I read something in my devotions today that I had never really considered before.  I had heard about it from sermons and other people before but never really thought it through all the way.  As Christians, we are image-bearers of God and we are supposed to represent God’s nature to the world.  God takes much joy and is glorified when we act like He does.  It pleases Him to see us reflecting His qualities to others.  Our lives, as people who have been bought by theprecious blood of Christ, are meant to be a pleasing aroma to the LORD.  Just as in the Old Testament, the temple and the sacrifices made there were a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Lev. 1:9), we are also to make sacrifices and offerings of our own.  Not sacrifices and offerings of goats, bulls, and rams, but of our own lives.  Of course we’re not supposed to slaughter ourselves for the glory of the LORD, but God is pleased when we choose Him over other things in our lives.  When we decide to open the Bible instead of turning on the TV, or journalling instead of getting on facebook.  God loves to see us make sacrifices, mainly of our time.  When we do the things God calls us to do, He is pleased.  And when we make God and Christ look more valuable than things of the world, He is pleased.

One thing I really struggle with is how I spend my free time.  Most of the time I do not glorify God with it.  I spend my free time advancing my own personal desires and interests.  I would rather play video games and watch TV than work on homework or study God’s word.  The first thing that needs to change is my heart towards these things.  I have to realize that my time is not my own since I have been bought with the blood of Christ and knowing this truth will hopefully cause me to be less selfish with my time.  I believe that God is just as pleased when I even choose to do homework over watching TV because I am choosing to spend my time wisely instead of wasting my life as John Piper would put it.  I pray that God would grant me a new heart towards being about His kingdom and not my own purposes and leisurely activities.  I want my life to be pleasing to God in all aspects, which includes my free time and the choices I make.  God’s timing in revealing this to me is nothing but perfect because it’s that time of the semester when all of my projects and assignments are due and it really is crunch time.  Every semester at this time I find myself needing to make adjustments to how and when I work, so God, once again, has reminded me of this and convicted me of how I’ve been living all semester in folly and laziness.  As rapper Timothy Brindle puts it, “Sluggardly laziness, it shouldn’t be named among us just like nuns on a dating list!”.  By His grace I will prevail from this semester still on my feet, but hopefully I will have a new heart towards pleasing God and what it means to offer my life up as a sweet aroma that is pleasing to God.

what a relief!

It’s always such a relief when you turn in assignments that you’ve been working on all semester!  My accounting annual report project is finally done and turned in!  I was very glad to finally be taking that burden off of my back, but at the same time I was really nervous because I need to do really well on it to pass the class.  I have to get a C- to pass since it’s required for my major.  It’s not impossible, but I definitely need to hit the books and grind it out for the last month of the semester.  All I can do is work my hardest, not give in to distractions to slack off, and trust that God will deliver me from this trial and put me in the place He wants me to be in.  

This week will be pretty crazy because I have an accounting exam on Wednesday and I have a consumer behavior project to finish by Friday.  I know God will give me the strength and mental toughness to make it through and succeed.  I’m also extremely thankful that God has provided me an oasis in which I can rest in and can trust for encouragement.  My wonderful girlfriend is so great at listening to my many complaints about how much I don’t like school right now and always encourages me to keep going.  She is such a blessing that I can forget about the world when I’m with her.  I thank God for her everyday and how she is always there for me.

be salty!

It’s been a while since my last post cuz school has been kicking my butt!  But I’ve decided to kick school’s butt for the rest of the semester so I’m gonna try to get back into a regular pattern of posting.  But I was reading Colossians 4:2-6 today and was impacted by the words in verses 5-6.  Paul writes, “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.  Let you speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”  These verses stood out in particular because of this week’s care group discussion.  We talked about our own successes and failures in personal evangelism.  We just started reading the book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever and so far it’s been very convicting.  My recent evangelism history is pathetic and is embarassing to discuss because it is so poor and infrequent.  During our care group discussion we mentioned how non-believers will see that we are different from the rest of the world by the way that we act and the things that we do and don’t do.  We are set apart from the rest of the world, we are salty.  Jesus says in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet“.  God’s people are described by many analogies and metaphors throughout the Bible such as a beacon, the light, a city upon a hill, and the salt of the world.  The salt metaphor is the strongest to me.  Since salt is a seasoning and a preservative, we must be the same way with our thoughts, actions, and words.  We season the world with the truth of God by representing the Gospel of Jesus and we preserve righteousness in the world by standing for truth and promoting the worldview of the Bible.

But if salt looses its saltiness it is “thrown out and trampled underfoot” as our Savior says.  If we are not representing the truth of God in our every action, thought, and word then we might as well be thrown out and disregarded.  God is all about His own glory and wants us to always put Him on a pedastal.  If we are not doing that, we are not glorifying Him and are instead valuing ourselves.  God has no use for people who think they don’t need Him.  But for all who are in Christ Jesus, we are about our Master’s work.  The Spirit of God that resides within us gives us a newborn passion for His glory and a passion to be salty.  If we are in Christ we will be salty!  So i pray for myself and everyone reading this that we would not hesitate to represent the truth of the Gospel which is the power of God to save our souls!  Go out and be salty!  Grace and peace.

perserverence mixtape

brand new christian hip-hop artist Believin’ Stephen’s debut album The Perserverence Mixtape is available on Trailblazinministries.com and holyculture.net.  Believin’ Stephen is the brother of Christian rapper Timothy Brindle who is the artist behind the albums The Great Awakening and Killing Sin.  All three of these albums are must haves for any fan of holy hip-hop.  Check out Tim and Stephen Brindle today!

 

The Perserverence Mixtape

Christ’s Preeminence

Quick one today!  I’m reading in Colossians now and was impacted by verses 1:15-18 when Paul is describing Christ’s superiority over all things.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, wheter thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consits.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

–Colossians 1:15-18

This passage reminds me of how small and insignificant we are compared to the glory and superiority of Jesus Christ.We are finite, He is infinte.  We are the created, He is the Creator.  We are all like grasshoppers to him who created the universe but yet He loved us enough to die on a cross for our sins!  What a Savior!  I love this passage and it really puts my humanity into place and really humbles me everytime I read it.  Praise God that our lives are not what it’s all about!  If my life were not subject to a higher authority I’d be completely lost.  Since Christ is king over all the earth, He is king over me and it is my joy to be His subject!  ”For a day in Your courts is better is than a thousand.  I would rather be a dorrkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” –Psalm 84:10.