who restores my soul

I want to love the Lord with wild abandon.

I want to be the kind of man who'd lead a parade to crumble a wall. The kind who'd promise a princess. The kind who'd march a desert for the sake of a hundred million stars. The kind who'd swim for a cure. The kind who'd throw off burial clothes and face a crowd. The kind who'd dance amidst flames. The kind who'd throw in those pennies. The kind who'd return covered with swine only to find the warmth of a robe.

I want to love the Lord with wild abandon.

in the light, so that you may

David Crowder is the new Rich Mullins for me -- an artist with a powerful ability to craft melodies that dance around poetic lyrics that contain the good news of God and who He is. Listen to and peruse the lyrics of "Wholly Yours" if you don't believe me. I actually don't think it can get better than that first verse:

I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From a broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt

A Christian song is successful only when it can put the gospel into such a light that you are simply overwhelmed, overwhelmed again like that first time; when you realize the difference between the sinfulness that is you and the holiness that is God and the width of that chasm that can only be bridged by that Calvary tree.

out of the camp to meet God

"Inviting: How to Be an Andrew" {John1:35-42}
* Excitement a process; surrender always difficult
* Josh24:15
* Jealous God -- wants all our attention
- We must choose twixt Him and world
- We must choose twixt His will and our will
* Andrew's characteristics
- Name: "Man"
- Notoriety: Obscure. Known more as another's brother (Peter) than own deeds.
- God looking for people who will bring others to Him
* Andrew's conversion
- God used a respected associate
- God used a relational approach
* Andrew's primary concern? Reaching out. (v41)
* Lessons from Andrew
- God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways
- All can't teach, preach, evangelize, et al, but all can invite
- Trust has impact in context of relationships

and with all my soul

I want to love the Lord with wild abandon.

I want to be the kind of man who'd drop his nets to fish for men. The kind who'd stop the Lord a distance from his house because he trusts the mere word of the Lord. The kind who'd laugh between walls of surging water. The kind you'd trust to build that wall right next to you. The kind who'd move a mountain with a mustard seed. The kind who'd slay a giant and sing a psalm. The kind who'd dance in the street. The kind who'd help carry a beam of wood up a stony hill.

I want to love the Lord with wild abandon.

to bring back to this place

I'm secretly hoping members of my home church either read this post or read the original post I'm linking to. You need to read this post and check out the list of "innovations" for the American church. What's striking here is not its ironic let's-be-innovative-by-being-old-school sensibility. What's striking to me as an evangelical who very much treasures his Catholic roots are the high church traditions being advocated. How many on that list bring to mind the vaulted ceilings and incense-laden atmosphere of being in a cathedral?

Sing hymns? Check. More frequent Communion? Check. Scripture reading? Check. Apostles' and Nicene creed? Check and check. A focus on sin? Absolutely.

Throw in reverent kneeling during the service and robed pastors, and I'm ready to bring along my Pope-blessed rosary. Said the Protestant elder.

standing by the cross

I want to make fun of this movie, I really do. Not because I'm evil or have a black heart. But because the cynic in me (maybe I do have a black heart) looks at this blend of marketing and religion and patriotism and Hallmark emotion and cringes. But then I watch the released clips and the trailer and then I see those intersecting beams of steel in that shape I love to the depths of my being and I can feel my heart stick in my throat and I see through the cynicism.

There is something beautiful in the symbolism -- an image of hope in a backdrop of tragedy. And you recognize the perfect portrait of Calvary for what it is -- hope amidst disaster. And even if the movie ends up as cheesy melodrama, you can't make fun of the creators for trying. You see light in the darkness and not only do you want to run to it, you want to capture it for all to see forever and ever and ever.

there takes place a change of

Confession time: Been watching a particular show lately. In many ways, it reminds me of another guilty pleasure. You'd think I might also like another similar show, but you'd be wrong. I said I'm interested in renovation; I didn't say I'm a woman.

The actual stories behind the before-after transformations holds no interest for me. Neither do the tensions inherent in going from before to after. If either show were five minute long clips showing the pre and the post, I'd be just as satisfied. I'm interested in the ends, not the means.

Renovation, rehabilitation, transformation -- if you're a shepherd of any kind, if you're gifting is evangelism, if you're interested in devoting your life to ministry, these are words you must come to love. More importantly, these are words that you must come to desire. Improvement, going from here to there, from before to after, this is the heart of Christianity. Grace transforming nothing to something. Calvary making death into life.

If you aren't interested in seeing how something rundown becomes something worth the world, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you aren't good at understanding symbolism.

exhibited as an example in

My take on yesterday's verses:

Like Heb11:32 states, "What more shall I say? For time will fail" if we wanted to list all of the great heroes of the faith – not just those in the Bible, but also all of those testimonies of all of the brothers and sisters we know and don’t know – in our church, in other churches, our missionaries overseas. Every believer who lives or has ever lived, or will live has a lesson on faith taught to them by God. Heb11 is not the end of the story. Heb12:1-3 tells us where we are to go from here.

All of these great heroes of the faith, all of these examples of faith should give us encouragement that faith can survive and flourish; that plenty of people have gone through difficult circumstances and not given up hope; that plenty of sinful, broken, incomplete people in circumstances far more dire than our own, that these people have been able to keep the faith.

Then Paul moves to the ultimate example of faith. The great heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 are nothing compared to the example of Christ Jesus "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Paul lays out in Hebrews 11 a ton of familiar acts of faith and encourages us with these examples only to then point to the pinnacle of faith: Jesus and the Cross of Calvary.

You can pick out your favorite Biblical character and examine their faith, sure, but what Paul is saying here at the beginning of Hebrews 12 is that to really, really get through your life and live your life in a manner that pleases God, to do that you need to focus on Christ. The ultimate goal of faith is to have a faith like Christ’s faith – a perfect obedience to God. By doing so, by having a faith like Christ’s we become like Christ. Paul says in 2Cor3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." That is faith.

if he has enough to complete it

"How to Endure the Race" {Heb12:1-3}
* Intro
- "Therefore" -- see context of Heb11
- The command is to run w/ endurance
- "Cloud of witnesses" -- faith heroes (Heb11 & others)
* I can endure because my hindrances are removed
- Hindrances not necessarily sinful
- Top 5: Entertainment, financial goals, relationships, substances, personal dreams
* I can endure because my sins are dealt w/
* I can endure because my eyes are fixed on Christ
- Persevere because of joy
- Scorn shame
- 1Pet2:21-23
* Application
- Am I in the race?
- Am I on course to finish well?
- Am I racing w/ purpose?

is turned over within me

Been trying to refrain from the whole Vick-dogfighting-"I've found Jesus" story, but it continues to play out in the press in various ways. This piece presents several different takes on the whole situation. Apparently Christianity Today even ran a poll on it, and some 3000+ folks weighed in to express a clear majority opinion of doubt.

Believers should never, never doubt expressions of finding Christ. Deathbed conversions are easily discredited in our minds, sure. But why? Many of the common salvation stories are based on reasons that are just as "flimsy". Sunday school lesson on hell driving a seven-year-old to the sinner's prayer, that's better? Storm-tossed slave galleon, that's somehow different? Sappy lyrics about trampled roses or inspirational stories about sacrifice moving tearful women to their knees, that's more believable?

A man's remorse over his actions, a likely prison sentence, a multimillion dollar career thrown away, the collective hatred of a nation of animal lovers -- that wouldn't or couldn't drive a man to the Lord?

Question: how do you manage to see, what with those gigantic logs in the way?