What It's All About...

"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this:

that one had died for all, therefore all have died;

and he died for all, that those who live

might no longer live for themselves

but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

From now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh,

we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away;

behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ

reconciled us to himself and gave us

the ministry of reconciliation;

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against them,

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ,

be reconciled to God.

For our sake he made him to be sin

who knew no sin,

so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God."

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

"Marriage"

Well we are just under the 3 month mark of our wedding and I added some more "marriage stuff" to my previous collection of qoutes by Mike Mason in his book The Mystery of Marriage. Hope you enjoy; good stuff.


"Even when we do catch a glimpse of love, it is still miles ahead of us. It's because love, true love, sets people free to be whoever they are. But a thirty-year-old man is like a densely populated city: Nothing new can be built, in its heart, without something else being torn down. So I began to be demolished. That is one of the chief characteristics of love: It asks for everything. Not just for a little bit, or a whole lot, but for everything. And herein lies the battle. It is always some version of this tension between the needs for dependence and for independence, between the urge toward loving cooperation and the opposite urge toward detachment, privacy, self-sufficiency. No one has ever been married without being surprised, and usually alarmed,  at the sheer intensity of this invasion. For we are opaque, solid creatures; we resist being transparent. And yet this is what love asks for: transparency. For that is what love does: It brings people out into the light, no matter how painful that transition might prove to be. Love aims at revelation, at a clarifying and defining of our true natures. For suddenly there is so much to see! So much is revealed when two people dare to stand in the radiance of one another's love. Marriage is a choosing of the closeness of God, in the form of a close relationship with another person. It is a deliberate choosing of closeness over distance, of companionship over detachment, of relationship over isolation, of love over apathy, of life over death. It forever admonishes us that there is no such thing as life apart from relationship, which is to say, no life apart from the sharing of ourselves with another. Man was not to be an isolated creature, nor a whole horde of isolated creatures, but rather "one flesh". Like God Himself, then, marriage comes with a built-in abhorrence of self-centeredness. It attacks people's vanity and lonely pride in a way few other things can, tirelessly exposing the necessity of giving and sharing, the absurdity of blame. Angering, humiliating, melting, chastening, purifying, it touches us where we hurt most, in the place of our lovelessness. Dragging us into lifelong encounters that at times may be full of boredom, tension, unpleasantness, or grief, marriage challenges us to abandon everything for the sake of love. For this is just the sort of thing love loves to do. It loves to back us into a corner. It loves to rip out our independence like a rug from under our feet, and then stand back and watch what we will do. For love demands wholehearted commitment; it is never satisfied with just a little bit of a person's heart. For love is like death: What it wants is all of us. For marriage is a wild frontier, the most free and raw and unpredictable of all human associations, it is the outer space of society. And so the godless flee from marriage in droves. They flee in the sense of this: It is a vocation to total abandonment. Naturally those who stubbornly refuse to believe this will fail to experience the reality of it. But when they do love, that love becomes a fire that has the power to enkindle all around them. A fiery covenant. Far from being trapped, we are actually set free. If a couple were to seek the Lord with their whole will, rejoice in Christian fellowship, and spend time both alone and together in heartfelt prayer and study of the Scriptures, they would soon find their love life with a rich glow, finally ablaze. For only through wholeness of dedication can human life begin to approach holiness. From now on, the greatest part of all the "giving in" and "letting go" we must do in life will be done within the context of our marriage, as we surrender not only to the Lord but to our human partner, and as we are called on to let go not only of all the worldliness we ourselves cling to but of everything that clings to the other as well, every fleshy desire, every weakness, every sin. If it is hard to accept our own imperfection, then it is harder still to accept imperfection in another. Marriage reduces all decisions to one, one simple decision that must be made over and over, and there are no results more particular or far-reaching or catastrophic than the results of that initial and ongoing decision to invite one other person to interfere permanently in our lives. To love is to submit, and to submit is to love. Love asks: Can you love another person enough that you will consent to becoming like them? But before love can really begin to be love, it must face and forgive the very worst in the person loved. A Christian finds the strength to forgive. True submission is humility acquired on behalf of another. We must forgive, or in short, be destroyed. For when we forgive the unforgivable...we see Christ. And who He really is. And what He really meant by His death.Two mysteries that will help any marriage: One is shared prayer, and the other is unconditional love. Either we suffocate under all that is unbeautiful, unsuprising, unspectacular, ungraceful in our lives, or else we learn here and now to breathe the air of grace. In marriage, to put this thought into our homely language, we learn how to appreciate one another, to see one another as precious. We learn to love."

- Mike Mason (a rendition of the book)

"Surgical"

If maybe over the course of this blogging, I could stand back and read all these blogs from a whole (and the reader as well) maybe I (and you) could see what I am getting at. If you could take the whole work of a man, I doubt it would take long to find out what he is all about. Or what he loves and admires, dislikes and likes, and if he lets you in a bit further...what he believes.

I think one word would sum up this blog so far: Surgical.

Surgical as in that some of these blogs aren't easy to write or easy to understand, or easy to implement. Implement being another fancy word for practice or "doing". If anyone would think that somehow I can practice all that I write with ease, they don't know me very well. Or rather, they haven't spent enough time with me. Or rather, we have not gone any deeper than the epidermal layer of life. Or rather, I haven't let them know me.

Surgical is the word.

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:12-13)

Answer: Women

It is hard being a man.

Anybody know why men die before women?

I do.

Answer: Women.

Nah (although Ashley thought that was funny/cute), its because men don't take the time to step back and be still. A "BE STILL PILL". It comes not though in a multitude of post it notes, or simple positive thinking phrases such as ITS GOING TO BE OKAY. Nah I think it comes right from the Word of God. I mean I can sit here and open my budget and grab my calculator and input numbers and formulas all day. Or sit down and stare at my calendar and plan out the month. Or keep annoying everyone asking them if everything is going to be okay. Or just try to make more money. Or just open up a bottle of Jack Daniels and drown my worries. Nah that will kill a man fast.

So here is to finally resting in the Lord. And taking His Sovereignty not just as another theological doctrine but as a reality. 

Psalm 103

"Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast

love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Lord works righteousness 

and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to 

Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love 

toward those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

for the wind passes over it, 

and it is gone,

and its place knows it no more.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is 

from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to children's children,

to those who keep his covenant 

and remember to do his commandments.

The Lord established his throne in the heavens,

and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his word,

obeying the voice of his word!

Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers,

who do his will!

Bless the Lord, all his works, 

in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

The Disease of Universalism

 Universalism: the belief that all religions are correct and true.

I believe that Universalism is completely, fundamentally, functionally, and utterly demolished by the Words of Jesus Christ:

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, "Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ....Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" (John 14:1-10)

A Further Dissection

I want to further dissect this question: "Can I lose my salvation?"

The question is false in itself. For it asks the wrong question. If a man can lose his salvation wouldn't it thus require by some means that he/she is obtaining it? Think about that for a second. IF you could lose your salvation; then somehow you are obtaining it...

And this is so contrary to Jesus.

When we come to know the power of the Atonement. We will understand this: "What can wash away my sins? NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS."

Do you see the error in "losing my salvation"? Without Jesus we would have no salvation. Worthy of repeat: Without Jesus we would have no salvation...

Why? Because we could not live the life He lived; we could not die the Death he died; and we could not Resurrect the life He Resurrected. Do you realize that you are utterly lost without Jesus? Do you realize that as a Christian you are utterly dependent upon Jesus?

And this is where the Blood of Christ satisfies God. God is satisfied when he looks upon me, for I am covered by the Blood of the Lamb. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. And His Blood is Perfect. ONLY that Blood saves.

Therefore on the Day of Judgement my God can look upon me and be satisfied. For I am covered by the Blood. Covered and Cleansed.

Now can I lose the covering of the Blood of Christ? GOD FORBID! Again how on earth are you obtaining that covering?????

You Know

Two grave mistakes a man can consist of: Trying to change someone; and Trying to change himself.
One has grafted an idol that will never live up, rather comfort, his desires of what they "should be". And One has the constant error of checking one's "spiritual pulse".

"Son of man, can these bones live?"

And I answered,

"O Lord God, you know."

Ezekiel 37:3-4