Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Having a Heavenly Gaze

There has been much on my mind lately but a singular theme running through all the things that are on my mind is "What is the purpose of my life?" "what do I want to do with my life?" or "why am I living my life?" I am kinda at a fork in the road with my life at the moment and with my recent trip to Ethiopia, I have had many things come flying in my face making me question what I want to do with my life. Sure, I can always do what people are telling me to do and go off to college and get a degree, get married, start a family and live life from there and that is a viable option and I don't think there is anything wrong with that life (if you are doing that). I don't think that is what I want to do with my life though. Life is so short, I don't want to spend long hours in a class room listening to a guy talk to me about things that I could spend 3 days reading about and then understand it just as well. That doesn't sound like a good use of my time or money cuz college is expensive!
No, when I grow old, I want to look back on my life, at least on the years that I was a christian, and be able to say that I spent them as well as I could and that I maximized my time. I want to live so that my focus is on heaven and eternity to come and not be thinking about my grades or pay check or whatever. Life is short and if you are running with your eyes on the ground, the finish line is going to come up on you and you aren't going to realize it but you will be at the end before you know it. I want to run so that I know when the end is and that I do my best so as to not waste my time.
If we focus on the end and the finish, we will live our lives differently then if we focus on the now and try to get our life in order before serving God (which is what many people think they should do first), or we could not even be thinking about serving God and totally waste our lives. I want to live for heaven yet I feel that at this exact point in time, I'm falling and not having any traction on the course. I want to do something yet I feel that I am swimming and going no where. It is a very hard position for me to be in because I like to be doing something. I like to be accomplishing things yet I'm not really. I'm on pause when I want to be on fast forward. Oh well though, God is good and all I must do is to keep my eyes towards heaven, learn as much as I can, impact all those who are around me, and enjoy the process.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Book Review: "Culture Shift"

I know a little about Al Mohler and I know that he is really, really smart. Smart people generally are not good at writing books for normal people. Honestly, this book wasn't that difficult to understand. I did have to look up a few words that he used but his writing style is very clear and he covers a huge range of topics in this short book. I would suggest this book for juniors and seniors in high school. The language will challenge them but the topics are ones that they will be facing by that time in their lives. I wish I would have read this when I got it my senior year of high school.
In the book, Mohler goes over topics that you would find in the daily new: politics, abortion, public school, evil in the world; and he takes them, analyzes them for what they are, and then gives a way to handle them in a biblical way. He quotes people from the respective fields in one chapter and then refutes them in the next. It is a little limited in it range of topics but it is a small book and I don't think is meant to be all-encompassing guide to our culture but rather an introduction, something to cover the "BIG" topics in the news. With that in mind, it is quite good. If you are up-to-date with the news and think through it biblically on a regular basis and want to learn more, I would suggest to find a bigger book. If you are a sheltered, private school kid like me, this is a good place to start, a place to get your feet wet from a guy who is trustworthy and amazingly gifted.

Book Review: "Getting Things Done"

This is an incredibly simply book which can totally change your life and the way that you handle problems and things that come up in your life. I would recommend everyone to read this book because it makes total sense. The guys writing style is alright, he isn't painful to read though he does repeat himself a lot and goes through each step many times throughout the book. If you want to get the basics of what he says, read the first 100 pages and then skim the last 160 pages, it is pretty much all repeat after the first 100 pages. He walks you through his method and such in the second half. If you are going to do his system and work on it while you read, then you should read the whole thing but if you just want to take what he says and adapt it to yourself, just read the first half and skim how you suggests you to do it.
It is a good book though and I suggest everyone strongly to read it.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Book Review #1

I'm on a bit of a reading rage right now so I figured I might as well post reviews of the books I have read. These will not be extensive reviews because my mind doesn't work that way. They will be more summarize of the books as well as pros and cons. The first one up is "Heaven Misplaced" by Doug Wilson. Bethany recommended it to me to read to get some background that post-millennialism. I have huge respect for Doug Wilson mainly because my sister totally loves to read him and she hates to read. I've listened to some of his stuff before and I liked what I heard from him so I figured I would give this a try.
His writing style is great. He is well informed and he writes in a clear way so that most anyone can read his books, which is good because some scholars learn so much that they forget how to be simple for the sake of the people, Wilson doesn't. He uses words well and doesn't throw them away. He isn't near the artist that his son N.D. Wilson is but I won't hold that against him.
Now the content: I will say that I don't know much about the view that he is talking about in his book and so I am going to have to read other books to get a firmer grasp on the topic of post-millennialism but I would say that this book is a good introduction to the topic. He covers quite a bit of scripture but I don't feel like he explained any of it too deeply. I wouldn't hold that against him though because this is meant to be more of an introduction and not a college textbook but because I am now to this viewpoint, I don't feel like he explained it enough to convince me to change though he did a good job of making me curious. I do think that he takes some cheap shots at the pre-millennialists a few times but again, I wouldn't hold that against him because the shots he takes, are problems with many who are pre-millennialists and so the shots should be taken. I don't think he is meaning to offend with his comments, just merely to poke so as to cause irritation so that something might change.
As for the view of post-millennialism vs. pre-millennialism, I think that post solves some problems while adding others and the problems it adds aren't problems that I would prefer to have. I did find it interesting because some of the things that he harped upon are things that I totally agree with, such as Christ being in sovereign control now, and he made it sound like it was a view only taken by the post. Perhaps I am a hybrid, I don't know, I just know that I saw his view point in scripture and thought that most people believed this way. any ways, there is my brief review of the book. If anyone reads this, I hope it is helpful and if it is, please say so and I will write more reviews in the future.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

So Where Do I Go From Here?

Anyone who has been around me much since I have gotten back from Ethiopia should have noticed that I have been more reserved as of late. This is mainly due to the fact that I have a lot on my mind and one of the major things that is on my mind is what am I going to do now that I am back? I don't want this trip to have happened and to not effect me, I want it to change me and I really think that it has. I am getting a little ahead of myself though, no one has been in my mind for the past 2.5 years so no one would know where I am coming from in order to get to where I am at now. So we regress... 2.5 years ago, I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life and I realized that I wanted to do ministry. I wasn't quite sure how this was going to turn out or anything, but I knew that ministry is what I was meant to do with my life. I am not called to a simple life or a "normal" life, God wouldn't have done everything that He has done in my life just so that I can live a simple life. How many people do you know that He kills and brings back to life just so that they can go on the same way that they always have? there aren't many. So I knew I was supposed to do something and I believed it was ministry. So I started to pursue a pastor career. I did a youth ministry internship and started to study and read books, all of which I totally loved. There was something that I was missing though and that I knew I needed if i was going to continue in this career: a heart. I needed to love the people. I didn't really have a love for the people that were around me, sure, I care for them, but I had a hard time relating to them and wanting to care for them. So I started to pray. I asked God to give me a heart and a love for a people. I didn't care where they were at or who they were, just a love for them so that I knew where I was meant to go. So i started to pray, and I prayed, and prayed some more, and I saw that my love for people in generally started to grow, and I was excited. God was working in me. This was all happening over the past 2.5 years. these prayers and loves have been growing. I then went to Ethiopia. I then fell in love. I saw people who had nothing but Jesus and it was totally amazing. These people knew how to live, and they needed help. Perhaps I am not the best person for the job, I know that I am not the best person for the job or the best suited or the most gifted, but I know that I love those people and that God can use anyone who is willing to let Him use them. So this brings us up to today. I know that I love the poor, especial the kids. I absolutely love them and want to care for them. Orphans will always have a special place in my heart. Every time I see them, I want to just love on them. So with all this on my heart, I set out. I don't quite know the path that I am going to take yet but I do know the destination that I am headed for: somewhere. I want to work with poor kids in other countries that have nothing because I love them even without knowing them. I want to share Christ with them.

Now, I have a long ways and a long time before I will be there, that is where you come in; if you are reading this, I need to you pray. Pray that God will give me wisdom, a path to walk, and support. I say support but I am not talking about money (at least at the moment) I need people to encourage me with this, not false or weak encouragement but heart-felt, because they believe in me. I need prayer support. I need people who will come along side of me and who will help me with all of this. It is all new to me and I am a young guy, I need help.

So please pray and ask God to work in me

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

a mind is a terrible thing

I am sorely in need of distraction from my own mind so I write this blog post. I read through Psalms a few months ago and I came across Psalm 146 as one that I need to memorize. It is truly a great psalm, especially to a person who likes to figure everything out on their own and who likes to always have a plan.
I find myself now in need of trusting in God. I want to have the answers to the questions yet it seems like I am only allowed to have the questions at the moment, which I am not enjoying. I like to have answers. My mind has been dwelling on the unknown for the past week or so and that is wrong because it has been occupying my thoughts and more or less paralyzing me because it is all that is on my mind and I am totally a one-track-mind kind of guy, I can only think of one thing at a time. While I would really love to have these answers to my questions because I kinda do need this answers in order to move forward in life; having questions isn't meant to freeze you, it is only meant to pause you.

I still can't clear my head of these thoughts though, they just won't leave me alone. I need to distract myself, I am just not sure as to how best to do that, everything seems to bring them right back to mind, it is terribly annoying. Sleep works for a time and so I will do that for now. until morning where I face another day of wonder.

epiphany

So as most people know, I just got back from Ethiopia. I was on a missions trip there with 14 other people. We met some amazing brothers and sister and we all really miss them a lot now. We went there to bless them and they totally blessed us way more then we could have even imagined. While there, we did some jobs for them to help them out and such. During all the stuff we did, I started to realize that I have been foolish with my life. It isn't enough in life to simple live and to not live the best that you can. We all only have 1 life to live and we should not let that life go to waste. As such, I see that I have not optimized my life. So today, I started to work out. In the past, my physical fitness had been an idol but now I see that my neglect of it is just plain laziness. So i have started running and I will do push ups and sit ups as well. My goal is not to look better or get bigger or anything like that, but to keep my body in shape so that God may use it as He sees fit and so that my lack of disciple isn't something that holds me back from being used. I'm tired of sitting on the side lines, I want to get back out there so that I may do something with my life.