The Beginning of Something Great

The heavens declare thy Glory, Lord
in every star thy wisdom shines;
-Isaac Watts

Glory Thine attributes confess,
Glorious all and numberless!

One God! One Majesty!
There is no God but Thee!
Unbounded unextended Unity!

Glory to sit and think on God
Oh what a Joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name
Earth has no higher bliss

And all things as they change proclaim
The Lord eternally the same
-Charles Wesley

-amen
JG

The Book Always Gets Better

I stand on the edge of the next chapter
waiting to jump head first into the waters of uncertainty
I see the depths below
a road still left unexplored

Blessings birthed out of blessing
and more to come

What word will you use to illustrate the next point
what effect do you desire to be reached in me
The book always gets better
The book always gets better

Your words! I behold thee in fair line
the penned phrase before the dawn of time

Blessings birthed out of blessing
and more to come
The book always gets better
The book always gets better

Infitude meets a certainty
a growing love evermore
I see the depths below
a road still left unexplored

The book always gets better!
JG

Sweetly Broken

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

[Jeremy Riddle]
[Sweetly Broken]


JG

Eb and a Minor Second

If you could put your life in a slideshow what would it include? Would it be those funny faces with friends, the late night coffee shop conversations, that phone call that should never have been? That trip with friends? The moments someone says something that slices you to the core? Those moments we realized we had someone else to lean on?...?

This question has been running through my mind as of late...

To speak openly and without restraint tonight.Why do we forget to simply look back and remember those moments we would want to include in that slideshow. Why do I especially forget so often those moments where I have felt the most alive? Stupid me refuses to accept the terms to the continuance of that such thing .

I am left with a question instead of an action plan, what happened to the old John who did the part that was Spirit more than the part that is flesh?

Am I advancing or backsliding?

Sitting here tonight and reading and reflectingI have made so much progress in so many little areas YET in many it seems by the attention I have given to others those gardens are now full of weeds.

There are very few things that I can't deal with and swallow very well...one of those is conviction and truth. When God rebukes me I don't handle it well. When God shows me what things can look like if I choose to step out in faith I can't shake that vision and that right view of sucky self I see. Tonight I am convicted not by some elaborate sermon or some reading of God's word but the kind I can't not shake, conviction of the conscience.

I believe so often I am so far off target and act in apparent disobedience to strict direction from my father. I bring it up tonight not to answer that question afore mentioned, I think everyone would want something a little different than the next in that answer. My answer is this:I am sorry for not allowing many of you to see who God is because I was too busy being preoccupied in disobedience.

Loved ones of the Father in Heaven,I approach this page tonight deeply convicted that I have desobeyed my Father.I have refused to love you in the way my Father does. I refuse to take that initative that I took for so long in yesteryear. I get discouraged easily by opposition. I refuse to pray for you. I refuse to do all that I am called to do for you and on your behalf.


Tonight may God make known himself for He is worthy of the highest worship whether or not I choose to honor him back by giving it to Him. That fact will never change...thanks be to our Majesty the unchanging unknowable God.

JG

On those seldom occasions

On the seldom occasions I do get to sit down. Be still. Take my mind off the billowing memories of the day's ordinance I oft find myself simply in wonder. Able to recline in this place...take off my shoes throw them to the side and be barefoot before my blessed Lord with each moment being more and more amazed.

As I oft write I wonder why I am here writing. I wonder why God would by choice choose one such as I for the things he chooses to use me for. As I find myself these days I find myself in one of those seldom occasions.

And perhaps tonight I will let silence speak rather than my words.

May God find you wherever you have traveled in this evening. May he wrap you up in the shadow of his wings and may your tears wet His shoulder. May he continue what He has surely begun...
JG

In the field where the white flowers grow...

Authenticity the desire deep inside,
That the skies would open, and release me from the corner that I hide

And let Light drench these fields
Where the white flowers lie
That perhaps this time we might lay down our shields
And let honesty reside, in this pasture of the most high

Hills that proclaim and voices now raised
Birds that sore , clouds now unhazed
In this valley of the Vision, where we find ourself amazed


Authenticity the desire deep inside,
That the skies would open, and release me from the corner that I hide

And in the place where the white flowers grow
God began to tell the evermore
Where something quite wonderful has come forth
Secretley in the hills of the east-north

In the field where the white flowers grow...

JG

-photo courtesy of Tom

The Lord's Candle

We glimpse, we see, we listen, we wait. The lofty breeze runs through the tall grass. We stand, we see, we listen, we wait. The rustle in the grass beckons the change. WE proclaim, we see, we listen, we wait. the ripple of pages rip the scattered lines. WE proclaim we see, we listen, we wait.

God swept me off my feet once again as I got the chance to spend really all weekend in the hills. On friday spending time in the hills around Cal Poly and on Saturday spending time in the Hills near Bakersfield.

I remember being on a rock overlooking a valley and God asked this question "why John are you here? Why have you climbed physically exhausted to this place, and why does it take a silent place for you to feel and find me"God asked me this question along with a few other that I perhaps may mention at a later date..

God encouraged me greatly this weekend by reassuring me that what He wants to get done will get done. He showed me once again that but also something I think I had forgotten amidst searching for something greater.My mentor back home said something profound one of the nights I was leading worship " we can only move forward upon our knees." God brought me back to this this weekend that we can only proceed humbly. That there must be an authentic view of self. That the heart must be molded and naturally flowing out holiness and goodness.

I wrote a song back at man time while we were up at Hume I think it should be republished here in regards to what happened this weekend. God heard my cry for authenticity that night and answered it this weekend at mens' retreat. Men were being real with one another confessing sins and proceeding forth on their knees not in a battlelike cry. It was beautiful...in the manliest way possible. Here are the words I penned at man time...

Oh the great multitude of confession
that weighs against my soul
in the evening of my momentary weaknesses
in my lack of strength, that peirces in this cold

and to find myself once again entagled in your grace
knowing I am nothing apart from you

Oh the great necessity for repentance
that yearns within my soul
in my words exhorting the Spirit
in this moment giving glory to the King

and to find once again I am entagled in Your grace
knowing I am nothing apart from you
and to find myself once again in full assurance
knowing you are surely faithful to do and be true

oh that You might grant us Your desire
that You alone have made

oh grant us grace to pursue Your face
grant us the grace to see and do
oh that we might desire Your heart
grant us Your desire...

All I can write here is that God is God and He is acting quite Godlike and never ceases to be that way. He is doing great works in his Sons and in His daughters, making them more and more like Him. And giving them authority by Truth and Authenticity. It is wonderful and very encouraging to see. May we all proceed forward on our knees.

JG

In Protest of Blog Titles

Week 1...
Death, encouragement, tears, new friendships,cookies, dates, models, bunny suits, street preachers, reunions, bible study, parents, new classes, different directions,e-cards, e-high fives,horses,grilled cheese,houses, dumpster diving, Narnia, salvage yards, 2 corinthians, carmel apple cider, facebook salvations, 1000s of eggs,Librarys,choirs, 3D movies, old people...Yup!

Sometimes I find myself at the end of each week in rediculous disbelief at how God can weave thousands of very strange things into a really good story. But even more beyond that weave it together to a greater purpose. I mean look at life, it is a good read and if you are paying attention God has grafitied his name everywhere as of late.

I was telling Elise last night on our date that this quarter is so rediculous in so many ways and most certainly God is on the move. I can honestly for the first time at the end of each day say God did this wonderful thing today. How often does one get to experience that in such a dark and fallen world. Seriously that is so awesome!

For instance: I know of about 7 people that came to Christ this week alone. That is quite something. That is not including the other decisions I know of to return to their first Love, the only true Love, Jesus! It is no Acts church by any means but Cal Poly can say for the first time " and He added to their number daily." That is incredible!

To those who doubt God can do something wonderful still in our time... I have seen His working...He is still Mighty and Powerful. He is as Hebrews 13:8 exclaims " ...the same yesterday today and forever."

There is such a tendency to get discouraged in this age...but brothers we are called to joy and unending peace, " He will keep in perfect peace he who has his mind set upon Him." Scripture promises that to us. Brothers and sisters " we sing cause He is bigger than any reverence we could make and we dance until we are tired because we know His name is great"

So when I title this blog In protest... I mean that no blog title can capture what God is doing here and who He is. If you want it summarized go somewhere else...God is too big to be contained. We lose who He is when we try to define Him with anything we have to offer.

So I close tonight at the end of this week, the day before the anniversary of my Jesus rising from death and conquering sin once and for all, knowing that we at CalPoly have experienced nothing yet! And far greater things are to come! I don't know the specifics but I know my God!

Long live Jesus!

JG

My Accolade...

With one word you set my heart afire
This is my accolade
The deepest affection and desire
My highest praise

Blessed be…
To the king of infinite glory
infinite mystery…
The son who came to die on calvary
Glory be…

A fires warm breath
Fanning reaching
A new depth
Brooding, Unraveling

A distant spark
Illuminating the depths
A distant dark
illuminated by the depths

Blessed be…
To the king of infinite glory
infinite mystery…
The son who came to die on calvary
Glory be…

With one word you set my heart afire
This is my accolade
The deepest affection and desire
My highest praise

Bold

A funny thing happened today...I was sitting down ready to get down to some much needed time with my God...when all of the sudden God chose to speak through a small creature out my window pane. It is not uncommon for God to speak through such things but today it stuck me as kinda odd.

I was struck this morning by this marmot who would climb boldy up past the barb wire to see beyond his vantage point. Longing so desperatly to see truth, the world from above.

I began thinking...this marmot is bold. I mean honestly if websters was a picture book this creature would be in the definition of bold.

It played my heart's strings and made me want to be like this creature who desperately longs to be where God is and to see truth at all cost. If only more of us were willing to seek out God and boldly approach His very face. Knowing that Jesus died and we are spotless. May our faces reflect who He is and shine. May cameras capture only a lens flare because it is so profound! That would be something.

Beyond that I will report only that God is doing wonderful things...I do not need to encourage my readers beyond that because God is God and He is acting everywhere in the same manner...doing wonderful things. Open up your eyes and see what God is doing it is unprecedented, extraordinary, exceptional,and truly incredible.

JG