Proverbial Thoughts

So it's been a while since I have actually sat down to write something.

The latest writings have been a little sloppy... my sincerest apologizes for those who have tried to piece together the shattered concepts presented in them. I do appreciate the effort. I really do.

But even I must admit. They were awful as of late.

I want to redefine what I do here a little though and present almost like a proverbial-esk blog entry of some recent revelations in my life. Here they are:

The writings that I do here will never amount to anything because they will never take the place of God's words in the bible written to you. The words He has said through that Book will do more for you than I will ever do through preaching here. The only thing that really matters would be the relationship and friendship I have with you the reader. That is where anything truly worth noting will be found.

So some would ask why blog? I simply put enjoy writing in this form and fashion. I think it helps give glory to God when I review all that God has done in my life and see the transformation of the heart behind the words over the years. But I must remember I should never write if it does not come out of my heart because it profits nothing.

I have realized a lot as of late that real friendship is the active engagement of one another. Without an active seeking out of one another's company friendships fall by the waist-side and do not develop into anything beyond "acquaintance." Most people do not have friendships like this due to schedule. Yet it is because of their unwillingness to sacrifice to satisfy a deeper longing that such things never develop into true meaningful relationships. This is a shame not many have this.

I have also realized that when we say we understand God's word we fool ourselves. We have no idea what it says. We should be humble skeptics always asking "what does this say?" True faith asks questions and let God do the revealing not the intellect.I think it is this revelation that teaches us that God usually speaks only when we quiet ourselves enough to listen. This often happens when we are humbled. But instead of circumstance pushing us to this point why not be an ever present state of prayer to quiet ourselves and hear.

I think that will do...for now.

To His Glory alone,
JG

How Great a Salvation

My community group leader asked a very thought provoking question the other night that I have been wrestling with in my mind “ how great was your salvation?”

We were talking about Colossians 3 and how it calls us to have the flesh crucified and become truly dead.

I am led to ask was mine so great a salvation if there was not death to the flesh completely and absolutely?

I am led to believe as I thumb through the pages of the bible that the Christianity in our day and age is not at all what the apostles experienced in that first century church.

All of them had character and they obeyed and it was a joy to do so.

They were Spirit led in every facet and reached a world because of it.

I read the things Christ calls us all to be in the pages of scripture and I find we are not and all if not all are fully not what Christ intended them to be. Me as well.

This week I have been reading Martin Luther’s writings He likes to ask the question what does this mean?

I like his approach to questioning things.

But I feel much like Luther where I feel the church, in this case the American church has gone a crooked way. We need to get back to the narrow path less tread.

Sam Walter Foss in the following Poem paints that picture very clearly

One day, through the primeval wood,

A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then two hundred years have fled,

And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day

By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell-wether sheep

Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,

As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade,

Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,

And dodged, and turned, and bent about;
And uttered words of righteous wrath,

Because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed - do not laugh -

The first migration of that calf.
And through this winding wood-way stalked,

Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,

That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,

Where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,

And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half,

They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,

The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,

A city's crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this,

Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half,

Trod the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout,

Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked journey went,

The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led,

By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,

And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent,

To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach,

Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind,

Along the calf-paths of the mind;

And work away from sun to sun,

To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back,

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,

Who saw the first primeval calf !
Ah ! many things this tale might teach - 

But I am not ordained to preach.

I was at a bonfire a few weeks ago and I asked someone who had recently graduated what was the greatest thing he had learned over the course of college. He said it was to not compare himself to others. He learned a truly great lesson. We shouldn't let standards be merely because they are.

We have to go the path God calls us to, not the one bent all askew.

To His Glory alone,
JG

Our problem in Two Questions

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit have you now been perfected by the flesh?(GAL. 3:3)

I have been dwelling on this verse, it is like a dagger to me. All the good, bad, methodology, practical application etc. I don't listen enough and heed the spirit enough. I have ignored him. I have become what I truly hated. I dream too small for a great and glorious God.

Jesus my Lord
May the Spirit reign ,
to the Father's Glory alone

JG

Dang!

This sermon is well worth your time if you have fifty minutes to listen.



To His Glory Alone,
JG

Who said a Candle Blowing Out is a Bad Thing

11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

-psalm 139

Fifty

Candlelight why do you cease?

here we are brought to our knees on the eve of fifty 

Where 2000 years of an oracles voice has grown close to cease

Candle light what words will your last be?

Take me back to the day when your light was like the sun? 

radiating ever place where shadow ceased.

But here we are brought to out knees

on the eve of fifty here where the candlelight refuses to be

Although Dim my eyes grow I can see the Spirit brood

May He find a resting in those who see a fainting light to renew

Bring us back to life.

To His Glory Alone,

JG

To love

I have been meditating on the greatest commandment( Luke 10:27) for a week or so. The meditation has led me to many questions. It says to love the Lord your God with all your 1. heart 2. soul 3. strength and 4. mind.

Upon meditation I think we forget to love God with more than our #4(minds) quite often. We base almost everything on intellect.

I want to pose a question with these thoughts in mind is this way of doing things crippling the church from loving God as she ought?

I personally find this meditation to be disturbing in countless ways.

It says in romans 10:10 that when we first believed it was with our hearts. Intellect had no place in that most awesome of occurance.

I have wondered so often what is so truly incredible about the new believer. I think it is this: that they love God with their heart...they are seeking him with their mind...they are willing to be strong....and their soul pants for God.

They have this beautiful balance within them.

I have been wondering what can restore that balance within the older believer? I prose the question because I see that I don't have a proper balance in my own life.

Regarding this I think Jude 19 points out a great truth "these are the men who divide you , who follow more natural instincts and do not live by the Spirit." The truth is I think that living by the spirit is the only way what was divided can be put back together.

I have been struck with what Ezekial 37 says, this idea that God can breathe once again on the dead and seperated bones joining what was torn apart. There is life after so great a death! What a great truth!

As to How to live by the spirit and truly love my only advice is

" the realm of the spirit is closed to the intellect."
-A.W. Tozer

Once we stop staring at this wall that bars us from putting all of these puzzle pieces together and say God " you are the only one who can lead me into this and do this" that is when I have seen great things happen and true Christianity begin .

Remember "they will know we are Christians by our love"

To His Glory alone,
JG

Colony of heaven

Bring me out in the Spirit
Sit me down
Tell me this age old mystery

Lead me to behold
What lies in this place
Can we truly live after such a death?

Breath of God in this age
let them Know You are!
May the earth quake and tare! Awaken what lies trapped behind such death.

You say “where faith believes and questions arise Command the whisper!
Speak to Me, command the four winds.
Let colonies of heaven arise on Earth.
Live and stand!"

To His Glory alone,
JG

Mishandling the word

Every Monday I go out with my best friend to coffee. Him and I take about a three hour break at the beginning of our weeks to talk about God's work in our lives and speak truth into each other. Over the course of this tradition which has now lasted almost two quarters I have grown to see what God does with such a thing and what happens as a result of true "community" between believers.

But even more recently i have realized spending a lot of time in God's word i find myself disagreeing with a large majority of christianity and what we have made it to be especially with the sermons that people preach. Take for instance the focus we have put on certain verses and ignoring the whole of scripture around it or that it sits in. I was struck tonight by what John writes in his gospel(v.8:31-32 ) that abiding in God's word is the mark of a true disciple. We don't teach discipleship that way and thinking about it in context with the great commission and how it is preached by itself: not weighed in meaning by the rest of scripture I honestly urg I can't belief those who bare the name of Jesus are mishandling this very powerful sword( the words Jesus spoke before he ascended)His last words! So much of what we do is unbiblical and most don't even know it.

Another thought I have been dwelling on is I have been thinking about this strict fundamentalism developing in America and sticking to the bible alone(sola scriptura). Thinking that this movement may cause a huge reformation/upset/disruption in the whole of Christianity It is going to be quite something much like in Ezekial 37 when God breaths life into a valley full of dead bones and very disturbing rattling sound begins.

I thank God I have a whopping amount of work to do and to occupy this brain from all this. That God can teach me in this time and not allow impulsive judgments to take place of well heart felt discernment about things.

To His Glory alone,
JG