Roll Call

hey all,
I am rather curious who reads this blog on a regular basis. If you do would you leave a comment . Thanks.

John

*If you want you can answer this question . If you could be asked any question what question would you have asked of you?

Insight on freedom

While I have been home my dad and I have been doing a lot of home repair touchup stuff etc on the house.

We are moving come April. So a lot of what the "designer" wants done to sell the house is getting done.

We( more my dad) were grouting the newly laid tile in the master bathroom. I had gotten up early to help him so I sat on the bathroom counter and used the opportunity to ask my dad a few questions regarding his thoughts on my generation and christianity the church etc.

My dad is a very profound/wise man. I realize this more and more as I grow up. I'm learning each and every day what wisdom He has if you can ask the right question. Just like me. Like father like son

While I was on that counter I asked his thoughts on the church in general, he said something to this effect.

"Son, the majority of christians enslave themselves when they are most certainly free."

I have been chewing on this for about a week now and it was one of those things I am sure when I look back while thumbing through heaven's history it will shape me in a lot of ways.

It's true though isn't it.

As much as I would like to say we are totally free creatures we are still wearing the shackles of our sin. If we were totally free and we knew it we would declare it.

Isn't that why honesty is so attractive?

What does true freedom look like?

I hope I get to find out.

I'm praying toward that end.

To His Glory alone,
jg

Book Recommendation

I don't think I have ever recommended a book on this blog. I have put numerous quotes from Tozer over the past few years and a few portions of the bible but I have never recommended a book.

Why, you might ask? I mean I do read a lot. You think I would have found something worth recommending in all the years this blog has existed. But honestly I never thought about it.

You were expecting something more profound...i know...sorry guys.

The book is called the Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton.

Bomb.

Read an exert here

JG

Regarding Elise

I believe a man is accountable to the words that he has said and will say.

Today I got a call from a friend . I had written him about three months ago declaring what God was doing in Elise at the time. I said this at the time:

To bless you further I desire earnestly to tell you a little bit about what God is doing here in San Luis Obispo CA and how big the God we serve truly is.

In my immediate surrounding my girlfriend, deaf for her entire life, has begun through God's infinite love receiving the gift of hearing in her ears.

Today we got the entire elder board of the church together along with the pastors and laid hands on her and anointed her with oil and her hearing was gave to her for a time.

But the most wonderful part of it all is that people are believing God to be who his word says He is.

God is as Hebrews 13:8 declares the same yesterday today and forever! The same Jesus now fully glorified sits at the right hand of God making our requests known to God and working in wonderful ways through the holy spirit! Our God is absolutely breathtaking.

And that is only one story of so many of what God is doing in this place. Our God is on the move. I pray to that end in your life as well that God is taking your breath away at every moments chance and every move He makes to His glory and renown you experience fully.

I must keep this short because I need to get to bed but know you are in my prayers bro.

I would love to hear about what God is doing with you further and how I can join you in prayer as you reach New Zealand and beyond!
your brother in Christ,
John G

Since then I have not really devoted any significant amount of thought life to the subject because of life's hectic pace. Should I have actually sat down one on one with the guy that called me up I don't know if I could have recounted what God had done in and around her regarding this miracle.

I thank God He has gifted me though with the time to reflect here.

I believe it was winter break of my freshman year Elise and I went to The Next Level Church( a church I attended all throughout high school) here in Colorado. The pastor spoke on a passage about the boy born blind. She pieced all that was going on in her life and what the pastor said to believe that it was God's desire to heal her ears fully. ( she can explain more of the piecing together than I could)

I remember that night or a month or so later I prayed God if I see a shooting star I will know it is time for you to Heal Elise.

My whole life I had never seen a shooting star.

I saw my first shooting star while staring at the sky worshiping one night the beginning of this summer. It was that Friday that I prayed a prayer at the Mill a college service I attend down in Colorado Springs that God would allow Elise to hear the music being played. He answered my prayer.

I did not mention anything to her regarding the prayer that night. Later when I dropped her off at her house she asked me to come in. While inside sitting on her couch she told me she heard the worship that night.

I remember the next two weeks I couldn't focus on anything but the fact she heard. I was at my sister's wedding thinking about what God was doing in Elise rather than focusing on what God was doing in bringing my sister and her husband together.

Over this past summer the elders of the church got together and laid hands on her. She could understand the prayers.

I took Elise up to the hills the night of a meteor shower during the summer. We saw so many shooting stars that night. I prayed for Elise. Again she understood the prayers being offered on her behalf.

It was the day before fall quarter that she called me on the phone left a message telling me to call her. I was puzzled cause she never calls me on the phone. That night her voice was beautiful clear and perfect as if she could hear what she sounded like. She understood me perfectly.

It was sometime that quarter she took out one of her hearing aids placed it in a drawer. Never to enter her ear again.

Since then a few times God has opened up her ears.

And I stand amazed at what God has done already knowing there is so much more but I still have wrestled with why God would choose to work in this manner and not all at once.

My best friend said one night God is doing something even greater here than a mere miracle. He is shaping you into a man who will ask in perfect faith and pray for healing and not be dismayed. Perfectly in delight of God's will for a situation.

There is no doubt in my mind that God will heal Elise. I can't deny what he has has done. I wish I could in a lot of ways, but honestly there is no doubt I am just unsure as to the timing of it all.

I believe it was Abraham who waited twenty years for the promise of His son.

I will never stop believing.

JG

Bring a torch

Bring a torch, Jeannette, Isabella!
Bring a torch to the cradle run!
It is Jesus, good folks of the village;
Christ is born and Mary's calling:
Ah! ah! beautiful is the mother!
Ah! ah! beautiful is her Son!

It is wrong when the Child is sleeping
It is wrong to talk so loud;
Silence, all, as you gather around,
Lest your noise should waken Jesus:
Hush! hush! see how fast He slumbers:
Hush! hush! see how fast He sleeps!

Softly to the little stable,
Softly for the moment come;
Look and see how charming is Jesus,
See how He smiles, Oh see how rosy!
Hush! hush! see how the Child is sleeping;
Hush! hush! see how He smiles in dreams.

-Émile Blémont

Reflections on the Manger...

From the nations you came to declare His glory
From the East seeking what a prophet uttered about He who would set us free

"There is hope in this One’s eyes,
these infant eyes: our glorious king"

Did your eyes gaze into his that night as he looked into the open skies
Past galaxies straight to the throne of majesty:
the one before you who are upon your knees?

Did you see the light of the guiding star exploded
not able to contain the night all darkness fled?

There is more than meets the eye
with this infant found before thee

JG

Reflections from a Side View Window

As of late I have found myself absolutely distraught when I listen to any type of music secular of christian. This is a little more than just merely upsetting see, I was driving back from Fort Collins yesterday listening to the XM station's top twenty countdown you know getting to know my culture better and I started crying during a rap song and getting all emotional about just how things are so broken. There are like four songs that don't make me sad or frustrated as of late. What gives? I have found myself frankly just so distraught at how broken America is in every single facet.

See, I was listening to this sermon the other day while driving around fort Collins by the head of the Great Commission Churches about his thoughts as an older man on our generation. It was really illuminating. I think we probably should be doing that as young people more often asking older wiser men about our generation and their thoughts on it because it gave me a sobering reality of what our generation really is like.

But I believe the concept and reason I got so emotional on my way back goes further and deeper into the idea of different generations coming together in accountability in discipleship and holding each other up to a standard of actually growing and moving and unity.

The man who spoke the sermon was saying that he would be scared to death to not come out of his quiet times without having something to share that the spirit illuminated because he experienced this thing where everyone held each other completely accountable. 1 Peter 5:5 and this concept of how much responsibility a younger man should have in the things he places over him in order that he may grow has given me a lot of insight into these afore mentioned things.

While reading through the comments on my pastors blog he quoted an odd translation known as GOD's Word translation.

GOD's Word translates 1 Peter 5:5 this way:

Young people, in a similar way, place yourselves under the authority of spiritual leaders. Furthermore, all of you must serve each other with humility, because God opposes the arrogant but favors the humble.

What I would take from this is that young men are to literally ask for older men to instruct them disciple them etc. This doesn't line up with the rest of the new testament though as I see it and that is why I was so puzzled to see it translated that way. But my infant like grasp of hermeneutics and understanding of the way to interpret and understand scripture though makes me wonder if this was merely a societal issue of respect or the way things were at the time.

I was talking to my mom back when I was in high school and she said something very peculiar she said " you guys( referring to my generation) have a grasp on scripture and understand so much more than I ever did at your age."

I am led to believe that there is this really peculiar thing about the generations that walk the earth. The younger are in some cases wiser than the older. Keep in mind I said some cases.

It leads me to believe that if men in our society are afraid to interact with younger men which I do see on both ends then it is the charge of the younger to bridge that gap and "place yourselves under the authority of spiritual leaders."

I asked my discipler the last time we met. "Is there any last wise words to impart". He said this "seek out discipleship." He believed in a lot of ways that it was the charge of the younger men.

For a long time I have held to the view that God provides and does all the work. This is deeply rooted in the gift of wisdom He has given me. I understand history so well and what God has done that I believe it is only by God. Bur more so I am afraid of what God is doing and I need to learn to trust myself to be different than what I really would classify as 19 centuries of failure and God's faithfulness in keeping it still going.

What I see God doing is something different than all the history I understand so well. I believe it is time that certain long kept ways of doing things are turned on their heads and perhaps the younger take more initiative in their spiritual states with a proper understanding of their generation.

To His Glory,
JG

A Heart Thawed

There are moments in life where I believe we just know we need to get away: God is calling us to this different place for a time. I believe Many of us need to get away much more often than we do. I know I needed to get away for a while early this week. I needed a couple days to just be forced to reflect, pray etc.

I withdrew myself to Fort Collins, CO about an hour North of Denver and spent sometime with my sister and her husband in their apartment up there.

I took sometime this morning to drive up to the reservoir in the area. I had been to it about a year and a quarter ago and decided to retrace my footsteps: at that time I had just entered into my relationship with Elise, God had silenced a lot of my spiritual gifts and was stripping and silencing a lot of the core of who I was.God was literally just hacking away with his pick axe at my stone heart that was so unloving at that time.

Now the trail was a little muddy due to the melting snow but when I got down to the water's edge I saw something I did not expect to see. No part of the lake was frozen.

The reason this is so remarkable is because last year while I was in Colorado we had three blizzards within a 21 day period ( unheard of ever). This break is so different.

See, when God decided to thaw Colorado last Christmas break Elise and I went to her Aunt's Cabin in the mountains with her parents. We went to a Lake named Dillon up there. It was completely frozen much like my heart at the time. We ventured out on the lake and heard the undercurrent moaning and complaining wanting winter to end. One of the most unsettling things you may ever hear.

It may not have hit you since you have not walked my shoes and share my experiences but the beauty of the non frozen lake in the middle of winter put my heart at such a peace.There was tranquility in the waters this morning.

I found myself in awe of what God has truly done in a year and a quarter since I was last there. Things have changed in such drastic ways and I have complained so often but after this year to reflect upon where I was and to see now where God has brought me I can hardly speak. I find myself just awestruck by who God is that He would really even care.

What a great God we serve who does not leave things frozen or broken but reconciles all things and blesses the undeserving so richly.

To His Glory alone,
JG

and so it begins...the first flower blooms

Many prophets have wept for what I was blessed to see today :The American Church's first white flower blooming!

This morning I got to worship alongside those at New Life church in Colorado Springs. For those who know not Newlife was the scene of two deaths last Sunday after a gunman attacked the members of the church. God has done much within this church over the past week after the aftermath. But this week only scratched the surface of what God has done within that church.

What I saw this morning while joining with my brothers and sisters was not a church of 10,000 grieving but a Church that has overcome in so many ways. A church of joy unspeakable and unexplainable . A church and a people sold out with their eyes fixed on Jesus alone: A church tested in their faith and risen up through the strength of Christ to meet the challenge. A people BOLD and not afraid to worship with their whole heart in beautiful honesty. A church of men not afraid to shed a tear for God's greatness.A church forging something on God's power alone.

They have overcome, exactley where God desired to lead them.

The church glistened purest white this morning: that is what has come out of all this and the trials before. I saw such a thing this morning and I could not hold back my heart and tears. My words do far injustice to the God who does such things and my combination of letters could contain.

To His uncontainable glory alone,
JG

The Forum of Honesty

God has these certain things He uses in my life, reocurring things if you will. It seems we are back to the white flowers again.I think it is very fitting I have always been fascinated with white flowers. It is a personal metaphor for purity honesty etc.

I remember it was in a field full of white flowers that I got the chance to see hundreds of men meeting God individually and being blown away by the depths of who He
is: Where authenticity before God and men was showcased.

I remember it was a white flower that was the first to bloom after the fires in the hills where I hike.

And I remember before I left to come back to the snow of Colorado seeing one single flower white and beautiful on the orange tree outside my house in Cali.

It would appear as if God is doing a great work inside of me and His people and those who are yet to come!

I see it...do you?

I see the signs of the winds changing.

I have always been curious as to how all this would play out.

Of this I am sure...more white flowers are to come!

To His Glory alone,
JG

So here I sit in the living room of my childhood. My parents have gone to bed and I sit here in the normal pondering mode that I go into after about 10pm.

I really haven't done a lot since I've been home I believe I have watched more tv than I have watched in the past two years combined in these short four days of being home. And despite all of this so called relaxing my body mind etc is still exhuasted. The more and more I reflect upon the quarter the more and more I realize that I relied on my own strength far too much

JG

A Breath and a Sip of Something Great

It is on the seldom occasion that I rise from the warmth or my covers before the world wakes. But everytime I do, this morning because of my flight, I see something beautiful unfold before my eyes: seeing stars fade to morning. And this morning it hit me. God is even more faithful than the morning. Woah! Watching it unfold before my very eyes. Simple truths about God His character and His love, Simply incredible.

To have a day like today to just relax and enjoy God, what a day! To reflect on what God has done this quarter in SLO let alone what I sense and see when I get on a flight. My words do far injustice to the work He does.

Our God is so awesome!

JG

*Left- Tell me there is no God, small man.
*Right- Peet's in the airport "what?!?!?!?" And what is with this croissant shaped like a muffin? They better patent that seriously!

If I have not Love

Why is it that all the great hymns must be born out of the pain bore in one man's soul of such a exhausting pang?
of such things I take great joy in?
Why can I find no answer to why I love God other then the blessing I see around me?
of such things I take great joy in?
Why can't great love and great hymns come when things are perfectly still and good and be from a pure heart?

Why do we still struggle with these things that God has clearly redeemed?
of such things I take great joy in?
Why does it seem that a choice to be what God says we are appears to be only the beginning?
of such things I take great joy in?
If I have not love...

.... I have nothing.

Love makes the world colorful.
And all these things like raindrops
striking a piano's keys

JG

Fearless

If you gave this boy the keys to a legendary place?
Something born of the ruins of long ago?
Would the walk through the remanants of the ages shape His soul?
This boy who once upon a time dared to wish upon a shooting star?

I remember many times over the course of my life where God has brought me back to the ruins: The places where walls have been knocked down and pieces of who I was still remain as a reminder. I found myself walking through those ruins this morning.

I found myself crying for the first time in the hills here praising and worshipping a God who has done so much.

I peaked this morning at a patch of forest I had been to a year or so ago I remember being so scared to enter into it because it was dark and overgrown and there was no path. I remember being so crippled by my fears that I missed what was beyond that forest. Walking through the burnt remains the ruins made it ever so clear there was the other half of the ridge hidden ready to be experienced if only I would have ventured in.My fears used to cripple me in so many ways.

But walking through the ruins of that forest this morning made me realize that I am fearless: walking fully into what God has for me God alone has really done an incredible thing in mixing truth with love. So far from who I used to be.

And while I was up there I could not help but think there is always something more wonderful ordained by a wonderful God. Christianity is not some bland boring thing that is limited to religous ritual and emotional responses. There is always something more if we are willing to enter into it in truth and love. There is a relationship that can take your breath away at every moment!

to His glory,
JG

1 class down 3 to go

One down. Three more to go.
That is really all I have to say.

JG

"they know not what they do"

I was out this morning with a friend for coffee and this woman came up to us and proceeded to talk about whether or not we love the Mexicans who have apparently invaded our country and are destroying our economy. She asked me several questions:

1. Do you love illegals?
2. Do you want more money?
3. Would you tell the prisoners that you love them?
4. Would you let them go free if they murdered your sister?

It was honestly quite odd. I didn’t know quite what to say or how to respond.

It was Just like the interaction I had a few weeks back with a Hindu monk who was willing to sell his possessions go homeless and give away books for a living.

It always amazes me when I see people willing to give up their comforts for a cause. The woman this morning with the illegal issue and the monk who wanted to get the Bhagwad Gita out to everyone. Things like that.

But I think these interactions have made me realize how hurt we all are from the society that we live in. Each of us with wounds that need to be dealt with and the various ways we go about trying to fix it unsuccessfully. I’m not going to get mad at this woman who lives in a broken world and is fed up with the way it is and not going to bash her cause and method although she is doing it in the name of God. Because quite honestly I don’t blame her it is a hard broken shattered world we live in where there is seldom love and if there is love it is noted as being of a selfish nature.

I don’t blame the majority of Christians who live in a broken society and with the money they spend on animals they could end poverty. Because quite frankly there is a lack of true religion in this society. You can’t merely blame and not do. Things are broke that is why we need God!

I asked the woman this morning what she was going to do about this “issue” she said she was just merely raising awareness. But got fed up with us that we would not join her in her crusade against the mexicans.

But I think that we can learn from such a thing and apply it to reaching the world as christians. One person one interaction at a time you do what you can and let God do the rest: the impossible stuff. You raise awareness about what needs to change and live it out. You ripple out from Your own city first.

I love people but I swear“ they know not what they do.”
JG

Where I left off

It has been a while. Almost two weeks since these hands have touched this keyboard.Two weeks since my eyes seen this page I come to when I write such things. Seasons are changing and the world appears to be paceing in its perfect circles awaiting what the new day will bring. Final projects are done. Finals are just beginning. Christmas is coming, advent is here. And in it all God is God the eternal ever the same unalterable steadfast unwavering beautiful trinity in perfection.

And when I title such a thing and say "where I left off" I mean that as much as many men will try and undertake describing God as I often do with creative phrases and extensive metaphors...they still do not even reach into the depth of what God is like.

And isn't that what this is. A summary of continuing things: of a God who is was and will be as Hebrews declares?

And I think such a thing a knowledge of such things would strike a writer speechless and quite in awe because His words are living. I feel I should continue but what to say when my metaphors and words are certainly pale.

And that is what I am coming to more and more each day is that anything is because God has chose it so. Nothing is of myself everything is from him through him and to him as Romans declares in the last chapter.

There is an awe that comes with humility and a correct context.

I was having a conversation with my best friend who has just began to experience what happens when God shatters the glass box we cage Him in. The awe in his eyes. The new that is springing up because of such a gaze fixed on One thing: on God.

The very God who outshines the Sun
Who has Shattered my flesh into a million crosses
To where new life begins

The One, God in this very room
Whose breath began the universe
The very air I breathe

The very God who outshines the Sun
Who has Shattered my flesh into a million crosses
To where new life begins

The one, God in this very room
Who made the universe by mere words
The God who holds it in the palm of his hand
The very God who touched me

The very God who outshines the Sun
Who has Shattered my flesh into a million crosses
To where new life begins

Our God
The indescribable God
The One


To His Glory,
JG

Fixing a broken thing: lonely people

I am home! My home in Colorado that is. I arrived this afternoon and have had sufficient time to relax do laundry eat etc.

I get to spend the next week relaxing...meditating etc.!

Home highlights what God has done within me. It is a strange thing to know people who have been through it all see all and heard all about you your life etc. from the very beginning.

And this one thing that strikes me so is that we are really bad at developing these types of relationships the ones that are of the long type. I was eating lunch today in a local bbq place and the thought struck me 'sports ruin relationships.' It's a crazy thing many men take the easy way out in developing relationships.

I remember a week ago one of my good guy friends stopped by and it dawned on me that our friendship will never be the same :our friendship has changed and will never look like the one I have with my best friend. I look at the relationship I have with my best friend and I look at friendships have with other friends and they all pale not because of desire on my part but we don't know what it looks like.

JG

Don't Look Back!

“Don’t look back!”
Grace is poured upon Your lips
Oil upon your brow

“Don’t look back!”
Your hand has surely rested

Commander of my victory
You call, I shall answer
The winds billowing in the sails

Beconing me to onward go
as angel wings stir the still water
Your messengers with a burning coal for my lips
this is not my war but Yours,
Command victories for Jacob

Your voice across the waters
“Turn Your Eyes!”
Faithful from generation to generation

My heart ever fixed
Upholder of Justice
Giver of all

JG

I get it!

I think it is funny how there are points where I see what God has been trying to teach me for a while. I tend to wonder why I did not see it before in those blind times inbetween the signposts but never the less I think I finally get it...what God is doing.

God is being God bringing a new humble leadership to the church creating oversight under His leadership alone.

1. I see it in Mar's Hill who are to in the words of Mark Driscoll" approach this new season on their knees." .

2. A worship Band I respect greatly writing this.

We couldn't be more exited about our new release coming November 6 called Everyone Overcome. As many of you know, we've been through quite a year and we're exited, humbled, and grateful to say that we are weaker than ever. thats right...weaker. the brokenness that came our way this year was the place where God could mess with us exactly how He wanted to. so we made a commitment...we never want to be strong again. when we are weak...we are strong. so really...we're stronger than ever. i think you'll hear it on this record. and when i say we...i mean the thousands of young people that showed up to sing. the thousands of young people who each have a story... a testimony that will bring darkness down. a generation of overcomers!

3. The salvation of a guy I met Saturday who accpeted Christ on Sunday. Hearing about God literally pursuing his heart and the many people that helped lay the road that led him to such a point. God is so incredibly good!

4. A dear friend who has taught me about the friendship God brings and how in humility stripping ourselves of any armour we may have can move each of us to a place where God can move in incredible ways.

5. A campus ministry who was scattered this year in order that God may oversee it and its victory be found in His moving and going before alone.

6. A deaf girl who has heard a little better each day ! Who in humbleness would only be able to proceed forward through this long restoring process leaning on God alone.

7. A church plagued with discouragment and a man who can somehow encourage it realizing it is not he but God who does such things.

!!!It's not me! It's God alone! A hope who will never dissapoint!

To His glory,
JG

Call to arms against our enemy

The devil's main weapon is discouragment. If we could render such a weapon useless what would the church look like? In full knowledge of faith and trust seeing what was meant to be? We have no idea yet...

JG

Wind:swept

Come on and dream with me
About something in the winds
Come on and dream with me
About this prophecy

The Divine mystery:

Windswept to meet the morning
Warm breeze upon the oceans blue
Could something grander come
to one already with such a destiny

And may the manuscript record
These words: Subtle and unseen

Come and dream with me....

For me to know and you to ask about...

Click to Play

-John 3:8
JG

Enough!

I can't help but think that we all know and agree something in this world is broken.

It pains me to see such a thing.

I have over the course of life had many conversations and experienced enough of friendship to know that we are all broken.

I have seen grown men cry.

I have seen enough of the world to know what I have.

I have seen beggars

...grafittied streets.

And I know enough about interaction and the world to know and pen what I see.

I know enough to know to address the root instead of the issue.

I know enough about emotion to know what response has.

I know each will choose a different way

...whether or not it actually trully helps.

I know about intimacy enough to know it is hardest to be truthful with those that are closest to you.

I know. I have seen.

I know enough about the issue.

Enough! about the issue.


I have seen though that life can push through death.

I have seen it.

I have seen heaven come down for a time.

I have seen it.

JG

Some More Recent Work

I am glad that FLickr is there for me when blogger is not. Blogger has been having issues with uploading for the past weeks or so. Thank you Flickr I love you!

Anyways this is some more recent work. And as I said before more to come!

JG

Prayer

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy seat;
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there.

Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above.

Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian’s armor bright;
And Satan trembles, when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel’s side;
But when through weariness they failed,
That moment Amalek prevailed.

Have you no words? Ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain;
And fill your fellow creature’s ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To Heav’n in supplication sent;
Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,
“Hear what the Lord has done for me.”

-William Cowper

Lazy Sunday (Lament of Tyre)

It's been a while since I took a day off.

I did today though. It was nice.

If God didn't call us to take a sabbath rest I think I would go nuts.

Today I spent most of the day at Peet's coffee downtown. It is by far my favorite coffee shop in SLO.

That may change but for now I will say the above.

I was thinking though while I was downtown and after I got home and doing enjoyable stuff like organizing, throwing away, sorting etc. "how lonely coffee shops are." I feel like I could open up the forum to talk about such things but I feel like it doesn't go anywhere.

But the questions about such things and their solutions remain unanswered:How do we fix the problem of lonliness, how do we cultivate commmunity, true friendship, love etc.

I ran into a good friend at Peet's. We sat down at the window caught up and then proceeded to do our own things. I was gazing out the window and saw a world far gone pass before my eyes. It was very odd to see such things in SLO.

I was reading Luke 10 which mentions a town called Tyre. For those who don't know about Tyre I would encourage you to read Ezekial 26-28 and Isaiah 23. They encapsulate a city that got it BUT eventually they too fell into immorality and ended up being completley consumed and destroyed by God's wrath due to their sin.

In all that I read today I was left to wonder if we as a country are not so far gone ourselves from what God would intend for us. My heart broke once again for America. Like the jews that saw the signs and wonders that God displayed before their very eyes I wonder if we are not changed by what God is doing. Will we be like Tyre who would have believed if we saw what the jews saw?

I am left with no answers. That is the best place to be for now. To let God act in His hallowed nature: not knowing how to approach these issues. In so doing His name will alone be glorified.

Just some thoughts to ponder on.

To His Glory,
JG

Architectural update: ReRouting a River/ Changing the direction in the Compass

I think it is rather amusing that I rarely post about architecture and what I do with and within the many hours I spend in lab, it is a rather big part of my life at least time wise. But gaining in importance as I pursue this degree and what God has with it. So here are the first *five weeks work: enjoy :)

For those who don't know I am an architecture student at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. It's ranked second in the nation as far as best schools for such a thing. So the fact I got in three years ago was a miracle. There's more to that but I need not say anmmore about it.

I am in my third year now.

Basically to sum up these past years , God keeps changing the direction of my compass regarding what He wishes me to do with such a degree.






Currently we have been working on a cultural museum for the Chumash people. Unlike normal design classes this project may actually get built. It's been a little more work than these past years because we have an actual client and developer we are working with.

For a long time I thought God had me going to Asia to so mission work with my desree. He's been changing that.

God's heart is for all . All of the world. ALL.ALL.ALL

That's the message of the bible. Jew and Gentile. All the nations.

It goes back to John 3. God loved the world so much...ALL THE WORLD!



And God loves America too believe it or not.

And if I am to effectively do mission work within the course of study God has chosen for me it will involve embracing things that America has. The native americans, the growing hispanic population, the broken down chuch in America:God is currently mind you actually fixing it,baseball etc.

And I find as the prospect of next year dawns as i continue in this major etc. and God keeps redirecting my compass that my heart joins in God's for all the world but more so what I have around me.Embracing relational ministry. NOt an easy minsitry field but one that will develop my faith far better than taking the easy way out.

I was walking through the university the other day just looking at all these students who do not know Jesus as their first love and my heart simply broke.

It has been happening more and more as of late.

My heart is for America. Weird!



I see tangible things like 80 accepting christ at a magic show 30 coming to know Christ through facebook a couple more a few weekends back. God is redeemming a nation and strangely giving me a heart for it. Changing the universtiy student's heart towards a US nation.

Back in Isaiah 45 it talks about a Persian leader name Cyrus who rerouted a river to sneak into the walls of Babylon and in so doing murdered the king and brought an end to the greatest empire the world had seen. Wouldn't that be cool if God's people did the same thing.

I do hope, actually scratch that. God is rerouting such a thing as that river and He is ushering in the new kingdom a kingdom where He alone rules not us. I pray to that end.

There is in the scriptures things about a last great revival. I think it is the dawn of such a thing.

JG

Could God have purpose beyond love?

Could He? My thoughts have drifted as of late. Could God have purpose beyond love? God is love. That is His reason.

We try and fit an undefinable God into our mind. Does He need a purpose, a reason?

I was up in the hills the other day and God was teaching me about what He is doing with laying "waste to the mountains" and this new baptism of fire. I didn't need to see a reason in it. To rest on the fact that this is all because of His love. That is enough.

All the blessing, both wonderful and equally difficult, is because God loves me. He loves you and me. He needs no reason to pour forth His blessing.

We turn our thoughts towards praise and towards this great love! What wondrous love it is!

JG

Where death was and New life begins...

I remember a few weeks back staring at the hills in front of my house. Wondering when I would be able to go sojourn in them. Wondering what the fire that burned them three months ago had done to their beauty and the rekindling of such things. Desperately Desiring to see the new life begining in the hills where death was and new life begins...

Today was an end to four weeks of unendlessness: The scurried feet and rapid pace of life :San Fransisco, San Jose, beaches of Ventura, studio til morning breaks, celebrations for dear friends, a death of a grandfather, best friend's visits. Father's visits,Leading worship for those who seek God in the morning with no amplification, midterms, many a meeting with older wiser men. Coffee shop conversations, class, work etc.

And somehow amidst all of it all. There was a joy indescribable and unexplainable.

But still a desire to sojourn in these Hills that God has used in so many ways.

He has given me a name, a purpose, and a decalaration of a miracle in those hillls. And each time I feel called and priveledged to commune with the king I expect something truly wonderful to come from such a meeting. He always has a way of sweeping me off my feet up there.

And at the end of it all today I found myself where my heart desired to be before my king in apparent ashes sitting as the picture shows above in the ashes of all that had burned 3 months ago in the hills. It was there that God led my thoughts to what i will mention below:

We were sitting in biblestudy on tuesday night talking about matthew 3: John the baptist and baptism etc. We found ourself in verse sixteen wondering why the holy spirit would choose to come upon the Son of God "as or like a dove?"

We had two new guys this week. One of them spoke of verse 11 and the fact that The spirit of God baptizes with fire.

We were reminded of Noah who released a dove beack in Genesis and when it came back with an olive branch fully blooming in it's mouth it meant that this new had come. then it dawned on us all that God with the flood fully baptized the world. It was this beautiful thing showing that things needed to be totally submerged or burned in a sense in order for the world to begin again. In purity and beauty!

The preperation that John was doing was for the purpose of letting this new begin and God allow it to grow. He was baptizing in the manner he could with water.Waiting for the far greater baptism through Jesus. A baptism of this new covenant! A far better one.

That night after bible study ended it started raining.

We had to return a friend who was visiting to his hotel up in Paso Robles so my friend and I journeyed into the rainy night.

On the ride back I was sitting there realizing that my words that night were of a passion I have not had since freshman year. My heart has become burned purged and baptized. And it dawned on me today I have been baptized with the holy spirit's fire.

Elise said something tonight to the effect that death is beautiful, baptism is beautiful. That is what I am disovering there is something beautiful about such things. They harold new life.

I guess that is why the pheonix has always fascinated me: born of apparent ashes.

And this returning of things far better is because God was making a world compltely new in it's lacking and taking away.

So as job said "I repent in dust and ashes" in order that a new far greater thing will come. This is the attitude I take. That nothing is of me and everything is of Him. I must become less and He must become greater being willing to give it all away for the greater thing.

That is what baptism is...where death was and new life begins!

JG

Awed...

You find me in the middle of a ball room

Upon my knees where lights refuse to diffuse this gloom

You Take me out of the crowd touch my tounge
and say
My child how I love you and wish to be with you on this day

And oh the generations who join me here
Upon my knees, where we have found the attentive ear

We sing a new song to our God,
Crafted from the chips of broken marble: the once hard heart now awed
And here breathes a new hallelujah
A giving of self to the overflow of awe

You find me in the auditorium upon the bare wood floor
A beauty I have never seen before…

A dove meets the morning!

So Here I find myself 7 am with me and my yummy bagel at the kitchen table the sun is rising my lappy in front of me and the morning its seems fresh with possibilities. I could join in the chorus of the hills singing to greet the morning light or sleep and dream of a day when I will see God fully, spend the morning with beloved brothers joining together for a morning meal, or spend it communing with the Father through His Son. God could do so many things with today all incredible because His hand is in it... that is pretty rad I won't lie!


I eagerly await what God is going to do with today. May it be blessed in fullest measure and reek of God himself!

To His Glory,
JG

From the Inside Out

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out

Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out

-Hillsong United

Community: Overflow of Awe

I've have been staring at the concept of community for a while now trying desperately to gather my thoughts on such a broad topic. I have been meaning to write something on the subject for a while but I knew God was not done teaching my tounge of the words I would speak. This is what I find God is teaching me and what I see:

I found myself this weekend walking along the beach with Jesus and I saw something quite remarkable on an outcropping of rocks in the water. I beheld four men sharing their lives with one another praying for each other. Hands holding each others shoulders and I saw a picture of what God is doing.

part of John the baptist's ministry was to return the heart of the fathers toward their sons. God through his intimate whisper and individual work in each son of God in this place is returning their heart to the Father. This is the MANifestation of what I saw while on that beach.

I do not think my observations prove me wrong in this. God is developing real christian community all around me. He is developing real leadership in his sons and doing quite a remarkable thing. It is frickin RAD!!!

And I am forced to think from all of this that this real community I see is really from an overflow of awe and a love for God himself. the love of His word and who He is is doing miracles in the midst!

You find me in the middle of a ball room
Upon my knees where lights refuse to diffuse this gloom
You Take me out of the crowd touch my tounge and say
My child how I love you and wish to be with you on this day

more to come...

JG

A Reminder from Long Ago

"why are you here(1 Kings 19), why are you on your knees asking Me questions, just simply delight. Forget about understanding fall in love with Me once again, "simply shutup and listen to my whisper".
-God

A Tribute to the Younger and Perhaps Even Wiser

There are few greater joys to me then being rest assured that God has His firm gap on certain individuals doing something I am not called to minister to. Ministering to those shattered and seperated that I could not possibly in this season minister to.

Tonight I saw a few young men who I feel are capable of leading such a thing. That brings me such great joy.To see that God has his hand firmly on situations. It makes this very steep slope flip a 90 and appear flat and managable. I feel compelled to say:

Surely the mountains have been laid waste to
crumbling the things that have hindered
now I find myself finally letting myself be thine
surely you have chipped and broke apart this travertine,

Masters passing the gifts to the younger

And underneath the columns in these halls
lies wisdom but lessons to find the man in the stone

formless without void. Til artist herolds creation from hewn stone.

God is good!

JG

Surely in the Valley

"Surely God was in this place and I knew not"

-Jacob later named Israel

O Christ our Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. As conies to their rock, so have we run to thee for safety; as birds from their wandering, so we have flown to Thee for peace. Chance and change are busy in our little world of nature and men, but in Thee we find no variableness nor shadow or turning. We rest in Thee without fear or doubt and face our tommorows without anxieties. amen

-A.W. Tozer

I was telling a guy I got the chance to talk with last thursday morning at Peet's Coffee that God has the christian community in a season of Chaos and disorder.

My girlfriend was talking to one of the pastors of our church here in SLO and said something to the same effect regarding a certain miracle and what God is doing with it "I honestly have no idea what God is doing with it"

That is all most of us know.

Those who have been let in on God's great revalation for this age are hushed by levitical law on prophetic utterance.

God is doing a great work in our midst and perhaps years down the road perhaps we will be able to understand all of it. Not now, though!

And this is the reason I write.

Over these past few days amidst so much craziness I must confess I have forget to cling upon the Rock to fix my gaze upon Jesus and let all cares cease. The result has been disastorous. I find myself understanding the necessity of holding my Father's hand during this season.

I found myself so disoriented after today that I needed to commune in the high places.I neglected my studies and work and will be up late tonight because I found myself tonight facing the east and watching the beautiful hills that grace this part of the country. Watching the freeway traffic and the voice in my head saying " you are surely in the valley"

Here is where God calls me...in this valley. He calls me to long suffereing, long faith, long endurance and all those things that draw me closer to HIm.

But although I am surely in the valley I rest in the fact that as hebrews declares God is the same yesterday today and forever. I can rest on the immutability of His character that there is ever grace and ever love for me should I choose to run back and say here I am abba daddy!

JG

True Love

Come close, listen to the story about a love more faithful than the morning
The father gave his only son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the father’s broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
The day that true love died the day that true love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died the day that true love died

Search your heart you know you can’t deny it
Come on lose your life just so you can find it

The father gave His only son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the father’s broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
The day that true love died the day that true love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died the day that true love died

Now Jesus is alive Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died the day that true love died

Come close, listen to the story…

-Phil Wickham

Prepare the way

Normally by this time in the quarter, I know exactly what I am to do regarding ministry regarding those people I am to focus on etc. This year before I began this quarter I sat down and tried to plan out all that I felt God calling me to and I came up empty for the first time in two years. God told me something to the effect of "the gospel is mysterious and messy." "The splatter paint and the throwing of neatly stacked papers to the sky to fall back in one giant mess is to be this quarter." A few weeks in now somehow I find it is strangely beautiful. This quarter is not to be the same in any way at all. For those who know about pattern languages this is one I don't think we would have ever come up with on our own. This is surely God in our midst. Something I know many have prayed for and I pray now we are ready for

I sat down with one of the pastors of the church I go to here in SLO on Thursday morning. I tried in vain to tell him all that God is doing in and around me in this place and on the larger scale of this age. I found myself perfectly inadequate to tell of it all...my God... bigger than my words will ever be.

That seems to be the theme...a strong desire to recount it all but a calling to simply let it be chaotic and changing.

Currently God has me going through all of the gospels: Matthew in bible study, Mark at crusade, Luke in my quiet times, and John at Calvary SLO. It is one big thing that I can't recount going through all four of them: seeing how all four are doing such an effective job recounting God among men. God was huge to those four men.

There was something I came across for the first time really yesterday that struck me about these four writers and one man in particular that they mention: John the Baptist.

I was reading through the gospel according to Luke last night and came across this:

He began to speak to the crowds about John (referring to John the Baptist), "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?...a prophet? Yes! This is the one for whom it is written "I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you.” I say to you among those born of women there is no one greater than John...

-Luke 7:24-27

I will not do all the cross references across the other writers here because it is an unending trail of how important this man of God was...one who would prepare the way for Jesus.

This got me thinking something that I had been dwelling on for a majority of these past two or three weeks as God called me to not lead a bible study this quarter and to really not do anything that most of us would classify as saying yes to ministry.

Here's the question God has been asking me for a while: What if God much like he did with John or in Nehemiah's life used my life to prepare the way for the lord: to facilitate the gospel coming to fullest light in this world?

I get this picture as Jesus is writing to John in prision that he is smiling and delighting in the fact that there was no one greater than John, born of woman. Someone willing to lay waste to the mountains that the path may be clear. Someone willing to exalt the valley!

I get this picture as Jesus is going into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and palm branches are being thrown before him that he has to stop and smile at the fact those walls were built around the city. The fact that Nehemiah a man of ordinary profession and long obedience was able to prepare the way for the facilitation of the Jews to return to Jerusalem and God to come among men.

Couldn't God do something extraordinary again with a man of obedience and ordinary means? I dare to believe so.

Prepare the way!

JG

Ever-more

This is my letter to the nations
A forward from those who have written before
From distant age to present mentions
A tale of God ever-more

Inhibitions of a generation
Strict Timetables given by an impatient offspring
Desperate for a heavenly intervention
Desiring but never truly accepting

May it never be that a desire of a man
Not be able to fly and become sweetest prayer
Nor prophecies becoming realities because of sin
Awaken oh cities of long written pasts and become the ever-more

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things

-Roman 1: 18-23

... Therefore you have no excuse

-Romans 2.1

Abundantly

Tozer once said something to the effect of"time is no longer a devouring lion for those belonging to the new birth but a purring kitten.

I come in full realization of that:our God is most splendidly incredible!

That is beautiful isn't it.

God has a way of blowing me away by the fact He doesn't just merely provide but provides in bigger ways than I could ever imagine or realize!

I do not believe God to be a minimalist but to be an abundamentalist or morethanenoughalist.

And the thing is He gives it to the most undeserving people!

Long have I held to the idea that God in His very nature is an abundamentalist always providing the means for us to grow and flourish in undescribable ways at an given moment.

And that is the point I want to stop and meditate on tonight:

Over this past year or so my writing has completely changed stylelistically. I think I finally understand why tonight! God has showed me how truly available are the means to make a man somehow get closer to God HImself rather abundantly! Every finite moment has the possibility of taking us into the infinite of the far surpassing greatness that comes from what God alone gives!

It is in that light that the attributes of God and the diciplines of man become deeper and more fuller. Needless to say more difficult to write of as well.

The honesty I had in my old writing is harder to achieve because what I see and understand now takes more thought to get me to the point of all encompassing a finite thing that was never truly finite. A much fuller thing has become in my mind.

And I think in a lot of ways that the fact that during my three hour conversation with my best friend this morning showed...God is doing abundantly much in and around me and I can't encompass an infinite God in a finite pen and key stroke.

But my heart in it's infinte inadequacy can't stop recount such things.

Perhaps that's the reason three out of the four gospel writers wrote chronologically they could not describe it any other way: they saw God to be infininite a God of Ever-abundance!
JG