Lately

She's a beaut isn't she...
JG

Spirit led

I believe when we title something give it a label we end up pinning it down as we would pin a butterfly to a board. I was pondering today about such ramblings and wondering if in a sense like the scientist who examines the butterfly we look too closely, try to think we know everything and in sense miss the fact that perhaps the buttefly once flew...was once alive...and once perhaps was nestled within a beautiful flower. We oftentimes try to pin down our lives..pin down formulas...and by doing so we lose the whole fact that these lives are not our own.

I went out sharing with my good friend last week and ran into one of the "F God" people in the world. I count the experience as a very enlightening one. I got to experience a hard soil where the seed will not take root easily and without much opposition. I got to see by the opposite things I would have never noted otherwise. As I mentioned before i count the experience as a blessing.

JG

Our House!

Here are the long awaited house photos...it's ours now. It is very strange to have a house...anyone else feel this way? idk? Anyway though these are some photos that capture the highlights of our new casa hope you enjoy and I'm sure I will get the chance to show many of you it in person. I wonder if I should name the house?
-Our wonderful backyard with one of my most favorite things in the world...a huge giant palm tree...
-Matt and I's room...it looks bigger in person
-The fire places of fire places...yup that's what I thought
-The kitchen which is huge aka awesome!
-the brick barbeque pit...aka tizzight!
-And our little serenity known as a nice mowed lawn
- The front of the house...so beautiful!

JG

Christian Revival and Riot

This whole week struck me as very strange.Anyone else?

I don't know if any one caught it but I but it seemed God was booking it to get a few things done within His people. It seems ever since I wrote a while ago every day seems to be full of stuff to do, full of ordained conversations and there is very little down time to simply blog or get some nappage in, read a book etc.

As best as I can tell, on the large scale, Satan is trying to distract and God is giving the oppurtunity for His children to rise up and proclaim His name in almost every facet of everything. It is a wonderful oppurtunity presented but I beg the question what will "we" do with it?Will we get distracted by our enemy or fix our eyes on the only constant, our lord Jesus!?!

Just something to think about.

Anyways though that is not the reason I write. I wanted to mention here what I have been dwelling on for quite a while now...I was listening to Jaeson Ma a while back. I heard his heart for the first time that night. He said something quite profound...

"wherever Jesus went He either started a riot or a revival."

Think about that for a moment...

We are supposed to be a mini Jesus to our surroundings. Why then are there no riots on a daily basis? Why no revivals every moment a "christian" speaks?

I mean it is a good question to be asking for something that I would be willing to give my life for...

This is not the first time I have thought such things...I ask this a lot and I understand the lost when they say " why would I want to be a part of something that looks just like everything else? Good question, I wouldn't looking at the state of the church. When someone says that to me I say to them look to Jesus not those redeemed...there is a disconnect there anybody else see that.

The way we conduct ourselves as believers is worth much tears and frustration. Somehow we have become complacent within the christian circles. We take our example from the world rather the bible. We look more to a role model than Jesus. We don't look at who God is correctly and in turn as Romans 1 tells us "professing to be wise become fools."

I mean read your bible people. Paul in Romans praises the church there for being a place where the gospel was going out to all nations. Is the gospel circling the globe? Is it circling our nation? Are lives being changed within our state by this message that is truth? Are people in our immediate circumstance seeing Jesus in each one of us, people willing to start revivals and riots?

One of my good firends kicked non christians out of his house to have a solid fellowship of Christians next year. Did they see Jesus in him? Another one of my friends is leaving the christian community he was in because each side did not pursue community in the way it was supposed to look like. Did He see Jesus in his christian brothers? And then one of my roomates is finding there is no community in the non christian world besides the drinking parties etc. Is there any hope of a christian community that is true and what God wanted from the begining?

I do hope so!

I bring this up not to blame people...that is the furthest thing from what the issue needs. God will do what he desires to get done Job assures us of that. But we need to work on this!

I have seen bits and pieces of when a christian community is doing what it is supposed to... it is something truly wonderful. I pray to that end.

This past weekend I felt my first earthquake on Elise and I's date. It was the most pathetic excuse for an earthquake I had seen! I want the ground to be shook because physical manifistations of the spiritual plane are coming into the present! I want the Lord's name to be Hallowed and his kingdom come! In every matter of everthing!

Long Live Jesus. In his Name I write all these things,
JG

The far surpassing greatness that comes from holiness

There are those moments where I get a glimpse and I see what it looks like within a body of believers when they are doing all that God has them to do. It is beautiful. I have been sitting in my chair for about an hour now letting my mind drift and meditate on such things.

My dear borthers and sisters, those few that read this. What God has is far better, do ALL He asks and step into what He is doing. May sin not be a choice because you see the far surpassing greatness that comes from holiness and a heart fully gave to our God.

I desire to see what God can do. May we let Him.

JG

Tonight I saw...

Tonight I saw…
…a fire ablaze

the flame’s warmth on my face
…a fire fully ablaze

Hands together in joyous unity
Bringing forth the full weight of those in grief

Tonight I saw
…the fire stand amazed

And I Wonder….
Oh how I wonder?

Gleaming as the noonday light
In the darkest of night

Tonight I saw…
…I saw.

JG

Ramblings...little did I know

There are times in your life where you come to a page...to a keyboard and you feel as if you should be able to offer some form of wisdom to others. I wish tonight I could offer something that I know without a shadow of a doubt will actually benefit you but I feel I don't have that.

I know at least for me there are moments when I feel like I could never offer anything even remotely whole to those who read this. The extent of my lack of insight as I continue to grow up reminds me every day that I will never be able to do that .BUT my God has a way of dumbfounding me with the fact he can use these ramblings to encourage my dear brothers and sisters. That is so amazing if you think about that.

I remember when I was a kid the world being my neighborhood. Little did I know it was infact more than a thousand times bigger than that. Little did I know. Little did I know.

What ever happened to believing we could do anything, was it just a young naiveity?

As I progress more and more in my field here in college I find I am infinately more stupid in regards to the matters of my major. As I progress in my walk with God I find I am infinately loved but more stupid with each passing hour in regards to matters of much importance.

Is this just a more clearer view of truth that we have yet to discover? That we a very "capable" people are very uncapable of doing most things.

The greatest piece of wisdom I have found is that we can do nothing without God going before us and ordaining that we walk into it.

All I know is I praise God that He uses ramblings such as these to speak.

Questioning the Exclamation

What direction and way will God call us to in this new day? What new blessing will he call us to? Swift as the morning breeze blows. As destructive as the tornado. Things are gave and taken away. But the day shines out all the clearer in the morning after the dust has settled.

I write tonight with this lesson ingrained within me: when we make something certain and are unwilling to give it all away at a moments notice we do not worship our God wholly. To take it all away is what God is known for allowing to be done. He will give it back a thousand times greater than before though. We have to be willing to go wherever the wind goes to do whatever the present calls us to and worship God.And perhaps in this grand chaos we will see something so radically different than everything around us, our God.

May with the new mornings knowledge...something truly wonderful be born from apparent ashes.
JG

Lessons from the Whirlwind

There is something mysterious about God how He can give us such peace in times of such adversity. Give us moments of sweetest joy when everything else falls apart. How he is as Job talks about: the God who makes men walk barefoot who "though He slay" us,we "will hope in Him" because He is the "Redeemer" who when we see our" heart faints within" because we "know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted"

This is the God I serve the all powerful, ever King, uncomprehensible, indescribable "Light of Light, very God of very God" God whom is nothing less than everything we could ever dream of the one who fulfills our inmost desire.

I have been reading through Job for a while now and spending some time in meditation on it.After a week or so of doing this I come to this thought: I am amazed to find how I am so " prone to wander, Lord I feel it/ prone to leave the God I love." How I forget so often to look at the all encompassing character of God . Focusing on one aspect and losing sight of the bigger picture. As Tozer writes " afraid to whisper mystery," I am so quick to say God if you love me everything will go wonderful. Forgetting the whole time that God is not my soldier, He is my commander.

We can never instruct God. One wise man wrote in Job 37:1 " at this my heart trembles and leaps from its place" There is a paradox and a mystery in this that on one side it scares us to think we are not in control, yet it is as we are" lost for words, so lost in love, sweetly broken, wholly surrendered." There is an utter peace that comes from God himself when we finally realize that it is not us who controls God. He is the untamable Lion. As Lucy in Narnia puts it though 'He is good."

My prayer for you that read this is this: that God may fully instruct you that though adversity comes there is no reason to grow weary and tired. God called peter the Rock " and upon this I will build my church." God's showcase of who He is is built on people such as Peter. Those people that are strong when everything else is crumbling. God is constant, there is no reason to doubt God to be who He is He is ever the same. May we put our foundation deep within His steadfastness and who He is ever reminded He is the same" yesterday today and forever" -Hebrews 13:8

JG

We Endure...

To believe God’s children are the objects of His eternal pleasure is most exhilarating. But to believe God is pleased to chasten and crush them is less than exhilarating. And what kind of God would do this? It is the same kind of God who was pleased to chasten and crush His own beloved Son, so that He might redeem us from the curse. And why did the Father ask the Son to endure such cruelty? Because He saw the greater good rather than the immediate need. With infinite wisdom, He foresaw the blessings that awaited both the Son and His Bride. Likewise, it was Christ’s joy to be crushed for the pleasure it would bring the Father and ultimately us. May we come to appreciate not only God’s eternal pleasure in us because of our identity with Christ, but also His pleasure to chasten those He loves for purposes greater than our finite wisdom can comprehend.
-Donald Smith

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