I have fallen in love with the book of Colossians! How can so much truth be packed into so few words? It's the Gospel in a nutshell. It's theology so complex that I can study it for a lifetime and still learn something new on my deathbed. But it's so simple I can explain in to my 6-year-old niece tomorrow. I sometimes wish I could write like Paul (taking verbal-plenary inspiration into account, of course ). He just has a beautiful writing style. That coupled with stirring truth has sharpened my soul in the past few weeks.

Please, I cannot contain it. I must share. Indulge me. 1.12-14 (NIV) "giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, and the forgiveness of sins." Doesn't that make you want to jump? Our allegiance has been changed. For so long we were thugs, fighting on the side of injustice, but we have been rescued! The Father has "qualified" us on the basis of the death of His Son, and we can now switch sides. Call it a healthy defection. We are no longer thugs, but fierce warriors on the side of justice and truth. Where do I get that? It's right there in v. 13, "For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves." This requires a whole paradigm shift. We can't keep thinking about and working towards the exact same things we did before we switched allegiances. 3.2 says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Further, 3.3-17 goes on to define some specifics of what this change involves. You have, "...taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self." I'm afraid too often I live a new life in old clothes. I'm no longer a thug, but I still carry around my brass knuckles. I've been a thug so long it's just what I'm comfortable with, it's just what I do, who I am. Wrong! It’s who I was! I have to stop living with a past mindset. I'm no longer a thug, I'm a warrior unleashed. I'm no longer a minion of the devil; I'm a warrior of the King! My previous tools need to go by the wayside. What does a warrior, armed with every tool he needs (2.10), need with the tools of a thug? So, lately I’ve been turning over my tools to the King. It's kind of sad, I used them so long that I don't even realize I'm still carrying them sometimes. It's kind of like wearing glasses, after a while you forget they're even there. It's slow, and a little embarrassing, but I have a gracious, and patient King.

- Ryan

Tags: Bible

What do you think of Christ? Let me assure you, your answer determines your eternal destiny. Choose wisely.

D. L. Moody delivered a sermon February 27th, 1876 entitled "What Think Ye of Christ?". Although it may have been preached nearly 133 years ago, it is still one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. I chose to perform it for the A.C.E. Regional, and International Conventions in the spring of 2006, my senior year of high school, in the famous speech competition. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I can't even begin to enumerate how many efficacious results occurred as a result of my my working with this text.

Tonight was prayer meeting here at GBS, and the devotional was over Matthew 11:28-30, which is quoted by Moody in his sermon. It inspired me to deliver this powerful speech once again, and I pulled out the manuscript and delivered it tonight. Thanks to the tremendous help of my good friend, Nathan Gumbiner, I was able to record the sermon. I have attached a link to the 7 minute file below. Special thanks to Gumby for all of his hard work! What I thought would be a 15 min. recording session, turned into nearly 2 hour recording and post-editing marathon. Thanks again, Gumby, you're the best!

Let me clearly state my purpose in posting this speech. It is to draw people closer to Christ. If you are a Christian, may it strengthen your faith, inspire within you a greater awe at what Christ has done. If you are not a Christian, may it show you the true character of a man named Jesus Christ, and may what He has done for you, lead you to love Him, as I love Him.

What Think Ye of Christ?

- Ryan

Tags: Bible, Sermon

Have you ever known something your entire life, and thought you understood and accepted it, until one day it just walks up and smacks you across the face with a 2x4? I had that experience a few weeks ago. It finally sunk in at a gut level that I am truly happiest when I'm serving God. I'm truly the most content when I'm obeying Him. You say, "Well, duh!" I say, it hasn't hit you yet. I am finally beginning to grasp what the ancients discovered long ago, this is what we're made for. Isn't that the way everything else works in life? Nothing ever lives up to it's full potential or usefulness, and is never truly content, until it is doing what it was designed to do. We will never be truly content or satisfied until we are living the way we were supposed to, next to Him. It's like John Piper said, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." I get so tired of hearing people say, "We don't serve God to be happy", or "Your happiness doesn't matter in the Christian life". I say, hogwash. We were made, designed, intended to have an amazingly fulfilling and satisfying relationship with our Creator. Just look at Adam and Eve in the garden. They enjoyed close personal fellowship with God, just like it was meant to be. No, this isn't some sugarcoated "Everything is always perfect" whitewash. Yeah, life is difficult sometimes. I don't need to be told that. But that doesn't change the fact that we are in an amazingly wonderful relationship with the living God of the universe! I know this, we will never reach our greatest degree of service and impact until we have learned the secret that God is the source of all pleasure and joy, and it is only in Him that true happiness if found.

Ryan

Tags: Bible

A friend and I were talking yesterday and the topic of man's free will came up. God has given us the ability to choose right from wrong. Why? If He hates sin as much as the Bible makes clear, why would He have allowed the possibility of it to occur by giving man a free will? While this certainly is not the whole of the matter, an important part of it must be that God wants true, heart level love. In John 14:23 Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word". The key way we show God that we love Him is if we keep His commandments ("My word"). God was not interested in having a people that loved Him because they couldn't do anything else. That's not love, that's slavery. God wanted a people who loved Him because of Who He was, and showed that love by obeying Him.

This kind of struck home to me because of some situations that I'm facing right now. These past two weeks (months, really), have been some of the most difficult that I've ever faced in my life. I now know what it means to be driven to my knees, because there was no where else to go. I've expressed through prayer the anguish that is so often my unwelcome companion. I know what it is feel pain so deep you can't express it. But this one thing has held me fast, an unwavering trust in the benevolent nature of God. If this were not so, I would not have been able to submit to His will. If God is not good, then life is worse than death. But because I believe God to be good (Psa. 94:19; 73:1; 84:11; 143:10; 109:21; Ezra 8:22), I can trust Him. Granted, this "trust" is not always easy. It requires commitment on my part, as well as maturity beyond what I possess in myself. It requires me to exercise faith (Heb. 11:6). So, while God's will may rarely be the easiest, it's always best. While I may not enjoy the pain and anguish involved with the path God has chosen for me, I submit to it because I have an unshakeable trust in the goodness of God. And I believe that it is during these times my truest submission, and love can be expressed to Him. It's when the flames of the Refiners fire are licking at my skin, and I hold fast, and instead say, "Yes, I trust You. Whatever You want." that my truest love can be expressed, and God is glorified. My submission is not contingent upon my understanding of His will. What's my role? In one word, trust.

Ephesians 3:20-21 ~ "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory..."

Ryan

Tags: Bible

I write this sitting at a Starbucks on the outskirts of Cincinnati. Besides myself, there are only two other customers in the place. But it still seems to be excessively noisy (I never noticed this about Starbucks until tonight). My thoughts have been hither, thither, and yon lately. Some positive, some negative. Some ordinary, some lofty. I guess I could be best described as contemplative. This is partly due to a recent listening of the audio dramatization of The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom. I was convicted as I listened to this fascinating, and, at times, shocking story. I was inspired by their mindset. It was...convicting, to see their perspective on the situation. To them, it didn't matter so much if they were living comfortably in their home in Harlam, Holland, or at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany, they just wanted to serve others. Instead of questioning why God had allowed this horrible event to occur in their lives, they simply found joy in the fact that God had allowed them to serve so many people in the camp. It reminds me of a quote that I read:

“I think we have lost the old knowledge that happiness is overrated—that, in a way, life is overrated. We have lost, somehow, a sense of mystery—about us, our purpose, our meaning, our role. Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short one. We are the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such—unhappiness. The reason: If you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe only in the flat material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness—if that is what you believe, then you are not disappointed when the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you are despairing.” ~ Peggy Noonan

I've began to shift my paradigm of thought from focusing on my happiness here and now, to the eternal. Yes, this is something I've always known, this is something that I could check the right answer in the box on a test, but to truly sink in at a gut level and to have it as a mental pivot on which to point my thoughts down the right channel, was new. I'm sure you will read this, just as I would have a few months ago, and move on, unchanged. My simple, and unflattering words are not enough, in themselves, to apply this truth to you. So I pray that God will do what I cannot. And I ask you to stop for a few moments, look at your own life. Are the decisions you're making right now something you will be glad you made when you stand before Christ in eternity? It's something to think about.

Ryan

Tags: The Hiding Place, Bible

I just experienced the first real storm of the summer. I was sitting working on my computer when I suddenly came to the realization that it was dark... not a good sign! I looked out the window to see the trees bending, and debri flying everywhere, driven by the wind. It was a very fast moving storm! I raced outside as fast as I could and just stood there in the middle of it all. I raised my arms and felt the wind whipping around me, and the debri brushing up against my skin. It was awesome! I then ran to put a few things away around the house that could be damaged, and put our cars in the garage because of the possiblity of hail. By this time the temperature had dropped nearly 25 degrees. Then the lightening started. Flash after flash, followed almost immediately by claps of thunder that were nearly deafening. Power!

As I stood there, taking this all in, it struck me, God is powerful! God is majestic! God is artistic! Have you never seen the ferocious beauty in a storm? It can be terrifying, but so is God. Yes, He is "meek and lowly of heart" (Matt. 11:29), but He is also fierce, and terrifying. He is the definition, the epidome of strength and power! Have you never read any of the descriptions of God throughout the Bible? Just look at Revelation 4:5 for example which describes the throne of God, "Out from the throne come flashes of lightening and sounds and peals of thunder." And later on in vs. 11 the elders praise Him by saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." For an even more ferocious descripton of Jesus, look at Revelation 19:11-13, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God." Power!

It is most certainly important to understand and accept the amazing gift of God's love, patience, and mercy, but not at the expence of creating a passive God who is nothing more than a benevolent grandfather. There is such a thing as a healthy fear of God. This fear is not the fear of a slave to an unjust, tyrannical dictator, but the healthy respect, the healthy fear, of a servant to His just master. Don't ever lose sight of this balance.

Ryan

Tags: Summer, Storm, Bible

It's been a pretty slow start so far this semester. Three of my professors are actually in another country, so I really haven't started in three of my classes. Although, I must admit, I have felt guilty about not compensating for this by pushing all the harder in my other classes. Oh well, maybe I can store up this relaxation for later in the semester.

I've had a few thoughts that have been pestering me lately. Do we really think that God is good? Do we really think He has our best interest at heart? Do we really rely upon "grace through faith" for our salvation? Or do we subconsciously strive to 'earn' our salvation. I know that we've been thoroughly indoctrinated with the concept of the "gift" of salvation, and would quickly check the correct answer if asked 'how to receive salvation' on a test, but has it truly 'sunk in' yet? Or do we strive and struggle in a vain, subconscious attempt to earn God's favor. Have we accepted the fact that God loves us for who He made us to be, and there's nothing further we could do to make Him love us more? He loved us enough to die for us, while we were still sinners, is there any better way for Him to show His love to us? ("But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8)

Dr. Phil was talking in class the other day about Nahum 1:1-7. You really owe it to yourself to read that passage! Did you realize that God is jealous of you? Not in the negative way that we so often think of today, but jealousy, at its root, is a desire, an intense desire. So God intensely desires you! And as you read through the first 6 verses of that passage, and you visualize just how thunderous and powerful this God is, it can be almost terrifying. He rebukes the sea, and it dries up. Mountains quake in His presence and hills literally melt. His wrath is poured out like fire. But then you come to vs. 7, "The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him." Visualize God as Nahum 1:1-7 describes Him. See as He walks and moutains quake, and hills melt before Him. See the ferocity in His face as He pours out His wrath, but look closer. There is a follower of God, running for all he or she is worth, being pursued by the enemy, but he or she is running straight toward this Being Who turns the world upside down with His presence, because they know, that if they can just reach Him, they will be safe. (Psalm 18:10) And as the follower nears God he doesn't slow down, but barrels straight into Him, and is swallowed up in a haven of safety, and the enemy is forced to abandon its chase.

If I serve a God Who loves me enough to die for me while I was yet a sinner; if He is jealous of His relaitonship with me, then I have nothing to fear. I can stand unashamedly, I can work uninhibited, and I can live in peace knowing that I don't have to worry about earning my right to God, because He has provided the way, all I have to do is walk in it. Why on earth should I fear and worry about situations that I might face? If I truly believe that I serve such a powerful God, and that He intensely desires a relationship with me, then I can simply relax, go limp, and allow Him to work out His will in my life. It's kind of like a swimmer who is drowning. They're thrashing and struggling for all they're worth, trying desperately to stay afloat, but all the time unaware that the life guard is right there trying to rescue them, but is unable to help because they will not simply relax, and allow themselves to be rescued. Help me, Lord, to live with reckless abandon to You, being completely dependent on nothing but your love for me, and your intense desire to have a relationship with me.

Ryan

Tags: Study, Random, Bible