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| Hi everyone! So I'm afraid my days of actively blogging are over for now. Instead, you get big updates at random times. Here's a story I know those of you who have not yet seen it will enjoy. It's from my fiancee's xanga site. It's listed under "Now for the Story".
Thanks for your prayers and support during our courtship. We continue to ask for your prayers through our engagement as we prepare for marriage. And we would ask that you continue praying for us in our marriage as we strive to bring glory to God.
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| Now, I know it has been a long time. Things have been extremely busy for me. However, God has not lacked in his care for me. This is most apparently seen to me recently in the fact that God has done some miraculous things in my heart. What follows is a story in which this is most apparent!
I began praying about a young woman about two months ago. We had been good friends for well over a year, and even though many of my friends had suggested her, it was always with a smile that I said I enjoyed our friendship but couldn't see anything more. Well, I was wrong. Two months ago, I had just gotten home from the winter retreat with the Phoenix and Tucson churches. While away, I became aware that this young woman could indeed be more than just...a friend. I quickly dismissed the idea because she lived in Phoenix and although I had good friends out there, even accountability, the thought of pursuing long distance seemed to be too hard. During the next week, God showed me just how selfish that attitude really was. It was not rooted in a desire to serve and lead by service, but a desire to serve myself and my own wants.
The following weekend, I went out to Phoenix for a friend's wedding, and while there, I became acutely aware that I was indeed interested. So on Sunday, I decided I would not only be open to the idea of a long distance relationship, but also begin praying earnestly about pursuing a courtship. Over the next five weeks, I prayed, sought counsel and thought...often finding myself wondering if this could indeed be possible. During that week, I decided to call her dad, which I did on a Thursday night. He agreed to meet with me the Saturday a week and a half later...while I was out in Phoenix for another wedding.
That morning, though jittery and scared, I asked for his permission, which he granted fully, and invited me over for dinner to his family's home, so I could meet the rest. For those who don't know...she is the oldest of nine! And I thought six was a lot!! Though I had initially planned to hold back on the courtship until I came out the following time (about three weeks later), after praying about it, I decided to be open to asking that night. Well, that night I did ask. Not only was she in faith for it, she was also enthusiastic and interested in it!
Thus, as of March 8, I am in a courtship! Please pray with us and for us that God would grant wisdom, discernment and eyes to see his plans for our lives...his desires for our lives.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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| Hi everyone!
It has been a long while since I have posted or even commented on anything. In a way, I can relate with what a young lady told me last year in her second year of the graduate program I am in about being too busy all the time for anything else. In some ways, I've found myself so busy, I cannot find time for much else aside from school and trying to understand concepts in my statistics class, lol.
However, I did want to inform you of some great news. I have been working on writing a thesis. Although the first part had been written roughly last fall, it was still very rough. Following my surgery and subsequent recovery, the project kinda tanked for a while. Toward the end of summer, I became aware that I needed to start being more active in looking at it and revising it. So for the past month or two, I have been working to prepare it for a presentation meeting with my graduate faculty committee (my main advisor, another advisor from my department, and an advisor from outside my department). About two weeks ago, I submitted the thesis proposal to this committee and yesterday I had the proposal meeting, where my idea was to be presented and the four of us would go through the document and discuss what was good, what needed changes and how to look toward the end of the study from here.
Yesterday's meeting went without a hitch. Though I do have a few revisions to make to my research questions and to the questionnaire I'll be using, the project was approved by all the members of my committee. This means that as soon as the revisions are acceptable to my committee, I can submit paperwork to the college so they can review my proposal and instrument and then get an "okay" to go forward in research. Once I get the college's approval, it will be time to begin looking to collect data.
Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please continue praying that the research goes well, that the data analyzing is done well and that I can tentatively be done writing the rest of the thesis by the beginning of January.
God bless you all! Soli Deo Gloria!
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| O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!
This stanza really captures the response that should accompany the thought of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, God and King.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life and health and peace.
Of all the things that we could choose to listen to, only the name of Christ can put our souls at rest, waiting patiently in the good of the gospel for our Savior that continues to plead in heaven for us.
He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free:
His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.
This stanza perhaps talks most of the power that dwells within the death and blood of Jesus Christ. By his blood we enter God's presence because our sin is canceled and God's wrath vindicated; we've been freed from the power and bondage of sin; we have been made clean to come before God. The last bit is the greatest reminder to us of the very power of the gospel. Sometimes it can be tempting to see others and see the life they lead, or even where life has borne them and assume the gospel might not work for them. However, in these thoughts, we immediately question our own freedom from the gospel in that if God's grace availed and still avails us, it will avail them as well. What a glorious hope we have in the gospel!
He speaks; and, listening to His voice, new life the dead receive,
The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.
He spoke in the beginning with the Father. He still speaks, and dead souls respond and receive newness of life through the gospel. Hearts that mourn their sins find freedom and joy in the Son of God and those who find themselves most needy and humble are graced with the very presence of Jesus Christ and comfort in his sacrifice and atonement on their behalf.
Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; and leap, ye lame, for joy!
The miracles of Christ in His ministry were not only in bringing life to those who were dead in their sins and to seek and save the lost, but he also healed those who suffered physically. God still heals us and cares for us physically today. This verse is also reflective of our hearts spiritually - dead, deaf, dumb, blind, and lame. But through the power of the gospel, we are alive, can hear, can respond to God, look upon him with "unveiled face" and enter his presence. Indeed, we are right to sing his praise and leap with joy.
My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim
And spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name.
Finally, our obsession should be toward pointing others to God as those who have gone before us. God actively moves in the life of the sinner and in our own gratefulness for all God has done, our desire to please God and live for God not only stands as a witness to a watching world, but we are also prompted to declare openly with our mouths the greatness of God. Let us "run our race" as we are "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses" that have gone before us and lift up the name of the Lord of heaven and earth.
This hymn is one of my favorites and will remain so because of the deep stirrings it brings about in my heart in response to the gospel. Corporately, in our response, we also share the response of the author, Charles Wesley, a man who wrote many hymns declaring the greatness of our God and his desire to praise God for his physical life and later in glory. In reflecting on these words, may they bring you closer to the Savior in worship, but also serve as a reminder of those who have gone before us and remained steadfast in the faith and run with endurance.
O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!
Jesus! the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life and health and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free:
His blood can make the foulest clean; His blood availed for me.
He speaks; and, listening to his voice, new life the dead receive,
The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; and leap, ye lame, for joy!
My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim
And spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name.
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| I was reflecting on perhaps the way I approach friendships and consider the Biblical example that was very clearly seen between David and Jonathan and later through Christ and his disciples. I hope what I do share blesses you as it has blessed me in thinking about my own friends. There are ten central ideas which I have expanded with my thoughts and the way it pertains to you all - my friends.
1) I am on your side
Everything I can do, I will do, and the moments I have to
push you further, I will because I know that God's glory will be reflected in
you, and I desire to serve you.
2) I will never change my mind
No matter what time, or trials, may bring, I will always
support you, unconditionally, and without regard to what I desire for myself,
because I desire to serve you and uplift you in God's grace.
3) I will be your friend
I want to know you as the person you are, so I can truly
appreciate you more with each passing day.
I desire to see you not just as any person or a set of habits and emotions, but even to the point of being an extension of myself,
because I want to serve you as I would myself.
4) What is mine is yours
Whatever I can give to you, whether material possession,
or bits of advice, trivia or past experiences, I want to share what I have with you because it is my intention and desire to
bless you, and I long to serve you as God has and does still serve me.
5) My strength will be yours
Through my physical strength and worldly goods, I shall
bestow on you all the strength I can give you because I want to support you as an extension of God's love
to you.
6) Your enemies will be mine
Whoever, or whatever, seeks to destroy you in your growth in God will also be an enemy of mine as well. As God cursed the enemies of Abraham and blessed his friends, so I will seek to love your friends and desire the rightful destruction of your foe - be it sin, self, temptation, circumstances and even the devil. I want to serve you as a friend, not only in name but in action as well.
7) I will speak good of you
Even in moments of tension, I will choose to serve you; I will rejoice with you when you rejoice; I will weep with you when you weep; I will praise you when God has sown righteousness in your life and you respond; and I will confront you directly when your behavior is not informed by the gospel, because I desire to see your reputation built and lifted over my own.
8) I will delight much in you
I will choose to treasure the time I have with you as I
do not know what tomorrow may bring. In
all times with you, I will delight in being with you, because I desire to serve
you by making you important in my eyes, and before the needs I feel for myself. As God delights much in us as he redeems us, so I choose to delight and rejoice much in you.
9) I will do my best for you
No matter what I do, I will do my best to give you all
that I can possibly give, to bless you, and to extend the areas in which you
see God's active presence blessing you in this life.
10) I'll strengthen you in God
In this area, I desire to serve you - by seeking to focus with you on the gospel, even as Christ has with you and me.
To the point of giving my life for you, I will follow the example of
friendship modeled by Christ our God, to serve you unconditionally, even if my heart does not desire it, because I seek first to see you satisfied and grow in the grace of the gospel of Christ. In all of these thoughts, the gospel must be foremost or the meaning of friendship disintegrates. Christ has spread over the barrier and killed the hostility that once separated us from one another. As a result, that hostility exists no longer. We are now unified in Christ and are called to live as we have been redeemed. And aside from the gospel, eternal and lasting friendship would be impossible. But, because of the grace of God, we are given the opportunity to experience God in community, from intimate friendships to acquaintances around the world that are based in the gospel. Soli Deo Gloria!
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