Familiar...just enough to be in awe

"But you have come to Mount Zion,
to the heavenly Jerusalem,
the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands
of angels in joyful assembly,
to the church of the firstborn,
whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God,
the judge of all men,
to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant,
and to the sprinkled blood that speaks
a better word than the blood of Abel.
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.
If they did not escape when they refused
him who warned them on earth,
how much less will we,
if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
At that time his voice shook the earth,
but now he has promised,
'Once more I will shake not only the earth
but also the heavens.'
The words once more indicate the removing
of what can be shaken—that is, created things—
so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving
a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably
with reverence and awe,
'for our God is a consuming fire.'"

-Hebrews 12:22-29
JG

Da Hood

How do you begin to attempt to summarize God's moving in a particular area? How do you accuratley say all that God is doing without a thousand words? And how do you put God into a finite box when He doesn't fit into one?

YOU CAN'T DO IT, it is impossible without showing people God himself, the very face .

I long so desperatley tonight to ,as with my life, give God glory, to try and recount a remarkable work of God in the city of Compton, to show people who God is. I know most certainly though, that I will fail to give God the Glory He more than certainly deserves. I will most certainly fail to show people who my God is because He is huge. I imagine that although this may do God a grave injustice, my words do not define my God He defines Himself. I choose to write because I will still minister to some, because I know this heart burns to recount and worship through my rags that I offer my King. I am truly nothing in comparision to my God, to my sweet Jesus. Nothing in comparision to the Spirit that moves through me.

So as normal I will write...INCOMPLETE and UNPERFECT.

I got the blessing to go down to Compton, CA this spring break...to dance with broken and hurting children, experience unbelievable true fellowship, have misconceptions shattered, plant seeds,encourage others, ball it up, walk dangerous streets, fall more and more in love with Jesus, eat great mexican food, learn about culture, do behind the scenes ministry, and show an unloved people love. I count every moment an incredible experience.

I sit tonight at this computer and have very little or nothing to say about this week or in general because I have found myself in perfect peace and in perfect love with the one that made me. I am in love one might say. Nothing matters but Jesus and I.

But I remember tonight that we are called to many things in the christian faith and I am called to write... so I will turn this love into writing...

This week was incredible...

I remember this week being amazed at the people God blessed this trip with, and I caught a glimpse that I have not had for a long while into the very face of God. I saw sparks in peoples eyes being kindled and becoming raging fires.

I remember this week being astounded by the faith of woman who were mightly bold and strong in the Lord whose prayers are protecting and changing a city.

I remember this week being caught up in the rhythm of the divine dancing with broken and hurting children, seeing glimpses of heaven.

I remember this week truth being proclaimed in every form and fashion within the body of believers. Walls being torn down. Hearts being softened by God's very touch.What God wanted in community from the begining.

I remember this week and I will not forget that the God of Compton reigns. What we percieve from afar is not what we see when we take a deeper look.There is a greater need for our hearts to be as God would have and fashion us.The 95%

I remember this week the 5%.

I remember this week that God can completly make what is old new.That much bigger things are in store for those who love and believe. That I serve a God that is God of ALL.

JG

Overtake Me

Damn this senseless direction!
Stare me in the eyes and show me
how your tears still drip misery

Return to me
…that I may return to you

A rope measuring your heart
sings the harmony
“OVERTAKE ME “

Return to me
…that I may return to you

Anesthetic numbs this core
Still I miss you so, still you miss me so
Stare me in the eyes and say it isn’t so

A rope measuring your heart
sings the harmony
“OVERTAKE ME “

I sing…OVERTAKE ME
JG

More than simply doing

I have been recently struck by some thoughts. Bible reading, prayer, other book reading, and massive amounts of "God waving his arms at me" has given rise to the thoughts that are about to be written and penned. I pray you would consider them well and let the spirit do His work in you with the message below.

"Another type of religous leader must arise amoung us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions from the throne. When he comes( and I pray God there be not one but many,) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth generation holds dear. He will contradict, denounce, and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation of the other. He will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath. "
-Tozer

I said in my last blog "With events that are to happen that will showcase God's power over the next few years we need to stop... God will show himself to an unbelieving generation and for the first time in a long while they will begin to turn accepting the baptism and embracing belief. But it can't be anything we as christians piece together for them!" I still stand by that thought. We need to get out of the way and stop doing .We need to have everything be an overflow of the heart nothing less than that is God's design. I know all the ways a church could be "succesful" in the eyes of many in Christendom and I know what I could do to help a church achieve that. But I choose not to for a time because that is not the point. Perhaps in so doing I may be a catalyst for change? I certainly do hope so.Until the time I begin to once again overflow I am working on the foundation of all things that go big, the heart. The only thing that matters. "For who has despised the day of the small things"-Zechariah 4:10.As I write about over and over again it boils down to YOU AND JESUS. When we get that right we are given keys to the kingdom and step into something far greater than anything anyone has seen in this lifetime. . God delights when we simply delight in Him. We were foremost created to worship, we need always have that at the forefront of our mind. IT IS ALL ABOUT JESUS .

There are many tendencys within Christendom that I do in part despise. But one above all is that our days do not need the same old thing that we, christendom, have tried and failed at. We need to get to the heart of the issue, the heart. I know that when the God of the universe is aroused from his Holy habitation the flesh is silenced and wonderful things start to happen( Zecharaiah 2:13.) God is aroused by his servants being aroused there hearts longing for God himself this is often showcased by the doing but it is never about simply doing. God is on the move and is being aroused as we speak moving in huge ways in many areas of the world not by action but by heart. I want God to be aroused in our country, God does not have me here for some small thing. I will not let him do small things around me and as much as it is in my power to make sure of that I will influence things. He deserves all things all worship and all praise.

I read things like "Return to me...that I may return to you." ( Zechariah 1:3) and I read things like" He who has believed and been baptized...will lay hands on the sick and they will recover(Mark 16:16-18)." And I understand for once why I doubt and many doubt. It is because we as Christians are not doing all that God says for us to do . We are not taking the first step. He will not return, be aroused if you will, in our lives unless we take the first step. I beg I plead I pray for that to happen but ultimately it is up to the individual to open up the doors and say "my dearest Lord, come into my house lets fix what is broken between us."

Deal with it and fix it! It is most certainly worth fixing...

Until that though my heart will echo this song:

Don't try to wake me up
Even if the sun really does come out tomorrow
Don't believe anything you say anymore
In the morn, in the morning
Bricks to this old house are breaking
Steel would have weathered
But now forlorning
It's alarming how loud the silence screams
No warn, no warn, no warning

Addictions fill the table where the family used to sit
And conversate, conversate to the sounds
To the sounds of a record player
With it's jumping needle
And the lights that grow dim over time

With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive

Are you where you thought you'd be
So beautiful and only twenty-three
Opposition rests in the hearts
With no, with no, with no opportunity
It's not that we don't talk
I'ts just no one really listens

And honesty fades
Like a politician lost in the course
All smiles and no one remembers our names

With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive

Don't try to wake me up
Even if the sun really does come out tomorrow
Don't believe anything I say anymore
In the morn, in the morning

With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
With downcast eyes
There's more to living than being alive
-Anberlin



I love you all dearly,
JG

On the conclusion of Mark

So here I am. I sit here in the same chair.I write from the same computer.Still at the same desk. Yet amidst all this same it seems the spiritual season is hinting at changing. It's like one of those movies where leaves are blowing off the trees, gently falling as you walk under them. The wind sweetly blowing against your face. And the perfect score is playing as backround music as if some wonderful journey is about to begin. Such a wonderful thing about to begin.

I have often wrote about the quarter at this time... trying to leave it behind bulletpoint it, categorize it and find the answer to what each quarter was about..and then move on. As If I could pin down all the subtlies all the teaching all the shaping God has done. I would do God a great injustice if I were to speak and do as I have done in the past. I feel no need to do any of that anymore. Each season boils down to the knowledge God is God, unchanging, ever good, ever wonderful, and ever true. Beyond that very little needs to be said about each season besides the showcase of who God is.

I finished Mark today and I was amazed to find that Mark's last four or so chapters are simply a chronology of events. They differ greatly from the rest of the book and read much like a history book. As did Mark and Peter the writers of the gospel of Mark I see the importance of merely stating things as they are for certain things. With events that are to happen that will showcase God's power over the next few years we need to stop speculating and merely write as things are. God will show himself to an unbelieving generation and for the first time in a long while they will begin to turn accepting the baptism and embracing belief. But it can't be anything we as christians piece together for them!

There's the utmost necessity for the individual to meet God individually and for a heart change to happen within the individual. In a lot of ways we need to get out of the way and let the spirit work. Taking the oppurtunity to embrace every oppurtunity to share the good news...because we are still hands and feet mind you. But we must be ever mindful that prayer is the only thing that will change the unbelieving heart and get rid of the spirits that bind belief In Jesus and the baptism from taking place. Prayer is the muscle that opens the clammy heart.

I was reminded today as I was finishing up Mark that there is an understanding and a knowledge that needs to be within the children of God about Daddy's business and what He has worked to do over not just our short stay on Earth but over the history of mankind. We as people need to understand the propecy of the old testament and need to know how it is going to be applied to our time. For most that means understanding the new testament first and who Jesus was and who He is. We need to be reading our bibles more, not for the sake of doing but because our heart wants to because our God is God, unchanging, ever good, ever wonderful, and ever true.

I plead here as well as in my prayers that we would be a generation known for our hearts...not our actions alone. There is so much that appears to be good in the world...not all of it truly is. But a heart that is pure and has right intentions that is beautiful before the Lord and naturally flows driven only by love...that speaks far louder and resounds. May we have that heart.

EPHATHA!

JG

Rise

In the morning he will rise
…a heart defeated
Before the world wakes
…may he sing to you my King

With golden pains reflected in this glass
More unbearable with each moment
Surrounding me this momentary aloneness
If only…he would fall apart before You

Fighting for so long
A war that rages in his heart…

When I rise in the evening
… necessity to wake
When I can’t fall back to sleep
…Your spirit moving

Before the world wakes
…may he sing to you my King

with golden pains reflected in this glass
that’s all surrounding me
…he cries

Around he goes… another day
Another endless cycle

These things he grasps in his hands
The road ahead
This hour
This feeling

To simply fall apart in Your arms
And be embraced

Do not forget these momentary tears
And cease from wiping all of them away

Find this one...he cries

DA QUARTA

Actually the picture above does not represent the quarter at all. I am begining to think God gave me a sabbath this quarter for some odd reason, obviously necessary for me but the question still lingers why? Why did I have so much time this quarter and why did I learn so much this quarter and what are the purposes of circumstance and lessons? Guess we'll see!!! I thought I should for all those who tune in show you what I did this quarter...not much but still I am in college and it is nice for those who arn't here with me to see I am actually doing "something." ENJOI!


FINAL PROJECT: redesign the section of campus around sandwhich factory. Make it into a cafe and gallery that is built around daylighting, dynamic vertical circulation, and the functional uses of a gallery and cafe.







9 SQUARE MATRIX: Create 9 8x8" squares tied together using chings design principles. Employing different complexities of space through the use of walls, planes, and overhead elements.



DAYLIGHTING: Create a model that is designed around daylight



PIRANESI: Create a really big pencil drawing expanding one of piranesi's etchings 6x or larger



CASE STUDY SCHEMATIC DRAWINGS: basically do a detail, and a wall in construction drawing detail



THAT'S ALL SLEEP WELL ALL!
JG

a longer journey, yet

As of late there has been a deeper joy that has begun to take over my countenance.Likewise, as of late there is also a deeper pain that has begun to take over my countenance. It is odd to smile even in the midst of tears and knowing this is deeper than before , but yet there remains still something deep within that is rippling because the source has come near: my God, my Father's comfort, forever joy and peace. These are my thoughts meddled with tears and joy.

As I said in my last blog I have been making my way through Mark and have been amazed as to what fruit it is bearing and the very things Jesus Himself says . But to speak honestly, frankly and candidly here there is some, more a lot of ,really troubling thoughts that come when I read through the book. Like for instance all throughout the book Jesus says " do not proclaim the miracle I have just done for you." what? He also says if we believe anything can be done...it will be done. What's wrong with us that this isn't happening? Why did Jesus take this tactic to ministry? Do we not even know our own God? All this troubles me deeply that there are seldom in the pages of history accounts of christianity working the way it was supposed to originally.

For many this would be the point where they are like " this whole God Jesus being man thing I'm over it." But the thing is over the years I have come to know my God in an intimate way and to understand the way He moves and His intents. He is not predictable by any means, He surprises and amazes me all the time by who he is. The thing is though He never proclaims himself beyond what he needs to and doesn't desire to be proclaimed because He desires our heart more than anything else.

Through a lot of really sucky friendships around me as of late I have come to realize that we as a culture and as a time period suck at being nice. People are not nice, they don't love and they don't care for one another. Argue all you want with this one, but if you have even a sense of perspective and truth within you you'll see this. Take for instance housemates in a lot of cases, they will not go into each others rooms and say hello for some reason, mainly because they don't think about it. People are seperated by a wall both physicallly and metaphorically for some odd reason and what troubles me is the thoughts of trouble arn't there they are covered up. You can seldom find a person that loves in the way that Jesus loved . You can seldom find someone who is going to have things like friendship come naturally. I doubt as well you can find someone who has things flow from them naturally, that is a major bummer. Because the bible tells me what Jesus' intent through all that he taught was for that to happen. And when I read things like Mark 11:26 which says if you don't forgive and love all the Father will not forgive you. And see pictures of Jesus in the garden praying and sweating blood because he is troubled by the fact we are not one I am deeply troubled . We need to get this whole love and intent thing down and we need to deal with the heart just like Jesus was doing and deal with why the heart isn't bringing forth streams naturally.

Ministry shouldn't be a forced thing that is why Jesus had it on the down low because he wanted it to ripple naturally out from Himself and not be a forced thing. Love that is forced is not real love.

The thing is we are sinful people, yes, duh! We all knew that when we said yes to Jesus. But did we become stagnant there? I think a lot of us have. We have fallen from the original design and arn't really working to get back to the original design... we have fallen away from reading and hearing God's words, from talking via Jesus to the Father through prayer. We are a generation so far gone and it deeply troubles me to find us this far gone. Something needs to change and it starts with the heart.Where intentions flow naturally and we take time to deal with what is going on within ourselves this weed of sin and stagnacity that has reaked havoc in our garden.

I have seen a lot of good effort put toward remedying this and that is in part the source of my growing joy . But as 1 thess talks about aim for more still " when we claim we are without sin, we make God out to be a lier." Some of you just don't get it.
My prayers are with you all, that God would begin with the individual and it flow to the masses.I don't care necessarily about my joy but make His joy complete by being of the same mind and letting our ministry be known by love. Remember it is all about Your heart.

"You shall love the Lord YOUR God with all YOUR heart and with all YOUR soul and with all YOUR mind and with all YOUR strength and the second is this you shall love YOUR neighbor as YOURself."( EMPHASIS ADDED PLEASE NOTE IT! )
Mark 12: 30-33

Know I love you all dearly so much. Do not neglect the longer journey, the road is still worth the travel.
JG

... in the Night

Tonight I stand by the ocean...

Where Light breaks this silence

beneath my feet
Ripples
Waves captured by light

Darkness that would hide the power
Yet still the ocean ripples
And in the fullest of time
There is sanctity of the night

Flicker of moonlight
reflection
captured here in this moment

here in the vastness

Where Light breaks this silence

JG

frustration

It is odd what inspires us, what gets us to hoot and holler, what make us cry tears, feel pain, etc. I was recently reminded by a movie that we are a generation far far gone. That phrase cannot be understated and to say I know it deepest meaning I cannot say.

I come, honestly tonight to my computer being frustrated with the male christian community. Actually honestly I don't know what I am frustrated about. I am probably frustrated with myself for not being the leader I need to be. I am frustrated with the way God crafted me uniquely. I am frustrated with sin, the human condition, etc.

But before I go to bed I want to type something out, and I don't believe this only to benifit me in the typing. We as Christian men are supposed to understand what inspires us and makes us move, we must learn how to wield a sword and wield it correctly or we will never learn and take hold of what is there for us.

JG

Scribes, Engagements, and Immediacy

As of late I have been making my way through the gospel of Mark. It has been a long while since I actually sat down with a gospel account. I normally get lost in the old testament somewhere being like " Jews threw huge parties, we should do that" or like " Nehemiah prayed and fasted for three months and then got the king to accept the impossible, maybe in doing that we can make the impossible plausable." I find myself fascinated by jewish culture or something to that end but when I finished reading through 1st kings, I was like hey it is time to do something different. How bout Look at an account of this Jesus character who was the fullfilment and the energy that made all this passion and power happen. So here I find myself on a beautiful sunny day in early march, somewhere in the middle of Mark.

There have been mainly three things that have caught my eye that I want to try and note on real quick...well, maybe real quick.

The first one being scribes. All thoughout the gospel account of Mark I see people referred to as scribes who I at least see as should being able to realize this Jesus character is the son of God , for some reason they don't. I think it boils down to a phrase tozer said " the kingdom of God does not lie in words buts in its understanding, the true power." I have sat down with this phrase for a while now and thought about what it means along with the whole fact that the writers and historians are literally put next to in association to the pharisees. The reason they are put next to them so many times is because honestly they have all these words but they do not see. And I think and believe that this means for me as a writer to make sure that my words are more than mere words. They need to be meaningful. They need to be honest, and I shouldn't puff up myself. There is a tendancy amoung bloggers to pretend they are doing something but in accuality they are doing nothing. This is no good. That is lying using an artform as a corrupt thing. There are some people that say if Jesus lived in our day he would have a blog. I'm positive he would not. He would acually go do stuff not pretend he was. We need to be super careful not to merely learn for the sake of learning. Learning and knowledge should come in order that action might be taken upon the knowledge.

Second are engagements. I was struck last night as I was going through chapter six of Mark the phrase he includes in I believe chapter three " the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." Going back to the sixth chapter, Jesus doesn't get a sabbath for a long while because people need to be healed they follow him every where and never has a down moment. But when he can he takes advantage goes to a secluded place and communes with his father being filled to an overflow so He might affect many.But he is interupted by a storm that is brewing out on the sea where his disciples are. So he goes intending to pass by, but he jumps in the boat to help them out. He is not engaged to anything he can be interupted. Can we take a lesson from this? Most certainly. We need to be able to be interupted and go wherever we are needed at a moments notice. If we can't do that we need to somehow do something radical, and trust God.

The third thing is Immediacy. God is a God of immediacy. We are a people of little faith. These two things don't mix. I am reminded in reading through this account of the gospel that if people simply believed, had faith they would be healed they were healed. Bleeding hemorages gone, leprosy gone, all these things that they couldn't cure gone. What happened to that type of faith? I will say that again what happened to that type of faith? I will say it a third time what happend to that type of faith? I have accounts from all over the world of people being healed of their ailments. Yet we don't believe. Why? I do not know. We should though. If you haven't realized it we are in the last days and it is apporaching quickly I see signs and wonders all around me, I see men prophosying and dreaming, I see the gospel taking root in places it has never taken root. I see entire towns fraternities etc. coming to Jesus. I see the works of the devil being defeated. We need to get on the wagon with the rest of the world America. Myself included. We need to be radical and step out in faith. We need to pray more. We need to read our bibles. We need to be interupted. We need to trust this God of immediacy to do what he has said he will do, if we merely believed. As Isiah 45 talks about " I have not spoken in secret, in some dark land"-Jesus Our God does not hide himself unless we as a people do not wish for Him to come and show himself. WAKE UP AND ARISE, LET OUR GOD SHOW HIMSELF. All I can do is pray. And that is what I will do. I will do what I can, but christianity is not an "I" sport it is an all inclusive sport. We are weak when we try and play it alone. Even weaker when we try and play without God on our team.

JG

Turbulence in the Transition

So I am here. Where you might ask? In my room eating a bowl of cheerios staring at the calender infront of me. A thousand thoughts are running through my head. Thoughts of how awesome and much of a man one of my friends is. Thoughts of the progression of time and how the heck is it already march.Thoughts of what the heck this "blog" is going to be about. Thoughts of what God is going to do with my spring break on Urban Immersion. Thoughts of why the heck my most prized possesion is a wooden elephant from India. Thoughts of how I can develop my building concept further. Thoughts of how happy I am to be in a relationship with Elise. Thoughts of how much I suck. Thoughts of how awesome God is. Thoughts of what God did with those things I'm not quite sure I said this week. Thoughts of future, and what that entails. Thoughts of what God is going to do with this evening. It's like a fricking universe in there. That is how I come to these keys, swirling, a thousand and two thoughts running through this mind.I can't make much more sense of the unseen and seen beyond that and because of that these blogs arn't up to par, I know that, and I am truly sorry. Perhaps in time God will grant my writing ability back , but until then I am sorry if these things don't make sense, I haven't got many of these thoughts down either. Until then though I will shut up until a coherent thought does surface. Until then...

JG

Procession of Progress

Why is the begining always the hardest? I swear! There are times that I will spend hours, entire days of thought life thinking about the first sentence. I must say! There are far better things to do with my time then pondering about the beginning of things. The beginning has already begun by the action of deciding upon writing, and it is in part begun by people choosing to decide upon an action and the feet that have tread before me. The ball has already been set in motion in many things. The first step has already been taken.

So shall I begin? I will continue...I think a lot, a lot, most often about meaningless and inconsequential things. This is to my emotional downfall a lot of time. By nature I ask a lot of questions,and have always had trouble with this aspect of my character. I continuously am setting rocks in motion rolling down that metaphorical hill called progress .I don't think it is just to be an ass. Who knows, maybe I am frustrated to no end with what I see. I believe I ask and think to make people observant that many things are in movement around them. Not limited to my own rocks but the boulders that have been set in motion by other far more important men than I. I have come to realize after stepping back for two weeks and seeking out God and not starting many rocks down that hill known as progess that there are threads that are continuous through everything in life. There is a thread to life, and I must not try to do it all on my own. I am a part of a much larger mountain.

I believe and have come to the conclusion after much thought about the society I live in, we don't view ourselves in our proper context. We all see it right? Our society has big issues. Something is missing, things are not good, not perfect. What is wrong? Mr. Papas said this week, our generation will most likely not be known by the natural progression of generation x, y etc. We our so arrogant , stupid and selfish that we will be known most likly by generation "I."

I am not proposing everybody gets less selfish all of sudden because of the knowledge that they now have. Don't do that at all, IT IS NOT COMING NATURALLY AND THAT IS THE REAL ISSUE. Christian brothers come to me all the time wanting to bypass the issue. I will oblige by listening but I tell them foremost " you need to deal with things with your Father in heaven." The best thing they can do is take a day off get on there knees and simply sit there and let the overwhelming nature of silence set in. You can't keep covering the pain you must comfront it head on and deal it. We have got to get this down and realize this above many others:There is a progression of progress that has been begun a long time ago. Progress, reconciling, it has and will continue to happen despite us.I will say this though: we are hands and feet and must set things in motion but before we do anymore we must get in touch with the one who makes the rocks roll. I would love to see christians not force anything until they take a week off to pray fast and deal with the REAL ISSUE. I took my two weeks. God shattered my perceptions. God made me cry. God made me deal with this issue. We all need so much work, it is overwhelming.

If you do anything with what you learned here do this 1. read God's word and don't get frustrated, sit and meditate on a passage for more than your ADD mind normally would. And 2. figure out why things don't come naturally, the insight you gain from that question is well worth the soul searching. So much for my nap, bummer.
JG