fire hydrants and shadows

there is a fire hydrant across the street, its silver and it has a shadow. while looking at this hydrant the other night God spoke to me and it, i believe, was and is very poignant.

this hydrant, i noticed, has a shadow. and just like every other shadow there are certain similarities. all shadows are a "cut out" of the original. depending on where the light hits the object they can be the same height and width as the object. now if someone tried to convince you that this shadow had the exact same qualities and value as the main object you would assume this person to be crazy. the shadow serves no purpose beyond that of telling you where the object has taken up space, that's it.


when we as people are living our lives outside of our Creators (God) design and plan we are this shadow. the same applies. if you walked up to someone and told them that there shadow held the same validity in life this person would not only assume you were crazy they would tell you as well. i think that there is a sort of catch though. when we are living in our shadow of our true self we really don't know it. see, the enemy, who is satan, will do everything in his power to try and keep us living outside of God's plan because he knows full well what we (you) were truly created for. he knows that when we submit ourselves to the Master Author the true writing of our lives begins and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. think of it this way. to truly understand a song, poem or play you would go to the author, right? of course. God is this author of our lives. however, you can still run wild on this stage we call life and be completely unaware that you missed your cue. this is due to the fact of our pride, we are convinced that we can do it ourselves. however, how foolish would that actor look on stage if he did not follow the script and all of the other's did?


among many others this is the offering of Christianity, clarity of life. wouldn't it be hard to live as that shadow of the object yet still desire with all of you to be the actual? i'm not going to suppose that this is Christianity in it's entirety because it is not. i believe it is as individual as the individual. however we cannot be someone that we were not created to be and wouldn't it be nice to be the self that you created to be. how else do you, could you, be that self away from your true Creator?

friends

every Monday night my wife has her Fusion (that would be a college girls small group) and i go to Barnes and Noble's with a good friend of mine, Logan. we sit and talk. about what you ask? everything. tonight we talked about life, Jesus (which really is life!) God, the Holy Spirit, money, work, philosophy, family, friends etc.... its truly a time well spent. now i have realized as of late that God has greatly blessed me with friends, which i do consider family.

every other Sunday night we have all the college kids over here at the house. to do what you ask? to talk and hang out. we drink coffee and speak on the idiosyncrasies of life. God, family, friends, work, life, politics and everything else in between.

what i am trying to get at here is that life is good and God is greater!

a thought on light

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C.S. Lewis from " The Weight of Glory

it's interesting to me how profound yet simple this is. when i gave my life, heart, mind and everything solely to God i saw, and still do see, all things in such perfect clarity. why wouldn't i? you would understand a poem, painting or song if it were explained to you be the creator of said work better then if it were told to you by some on looker. so why wouldn't we see with more clarity when our Creator truly opens our eyes?

in John 9:39 Christ says that He came to "give sight to the blind." now i believe this to be figurative as well as literal, He did and still does both. prior to a life given to Christ we can see, or so we think. the enemy, satan, has blinded us to ourselves and our own self destructive ways. we do not know, until were lying face down on the floor, that we have missed the mark. think of it this way; a man for all his life has lived in darkness, literal darkness, lets say a cave. now you find this man and introduce light to him, keep in mind he has no concept of this, at all. how over stimulated and elated do you think this man would be? for the first time in his life he would truly see.

we, prior to Christ, live in this darkness, and like the man, do not know it. now its easy to assume that this man, having lived in the cave and just shown the light, would be thrilled to show his friends. there would be no hesitation rather complete joy and excitement allowing nothing to stop him from showing his friends and family.

this is why i breath. this is why exist. getting married, holding an occupation, drinking coffee with my friends and ranting on theology and philosophy and (seemingly useless) politics are all well and good but not the reason i live. this is. see i have been shown this light and i'm elated, thrilled and over joyed to tell others.

Matthew 5:16 - "Let your light so shine before men, that the may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven"

bitter coffee and sin.

let me start this out and make it very clear that i am not saying that coffee is sin, that's just dumb and anyone who knows me would agree that i should own stock in Starbucks with the coffee i go through. i'm simply using it as an analogy, so relax and enjoy that cup o' joe.

coffee, it is great. i, like many people, are drawn to it. i love the aroma, the taste and i have many memories tied into it. but, there is a problem. 95% of the coffee is great, then there is the last 5% that is wretched. its rough. and for anyone that drinks it with some regularity can back me up on this. if you let that coffee get slightly cool its going to be nasty towards the last sip. its going to leave a bitter, nasty taste that lingers in your mouth. no good i say!

now lets go to sin. sin, particularly of the flesh, is like this. sweet, aromatic, enticing, and pleasurable. then towards the end it suddenly turns into this hideous mass of pain, discomfort and shame. by this time its often to late to stop, so we think. (it's horrible to realize that death has been, and is daily, delivered to us in such an enticing way that we cannot help but to peer in.) the enemy will tell us to continue, to see "it" through. our flesh will echo the same. when the feeling or sensation flows over into the nerves, that overflow is the consummation; when the anguish flows over, that physical symptom is the crowning horror.

sin is deceptive. satin is the great liar and deceiver. his ultimate goal is to kill us (john 10:10) and to see us robbed of who God made us to be. so just as that last sip of coffee can all to often be bitter so the same with sin. we train ourselves to get "used to it", to adjust. when this takes place we are only fooling ourselves.

Romans 7:13-25

13. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23. But I see another law in my members, waring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25. I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

the good, the bad and the relative

Relativism, which is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture.

this is the basis of relativism and it is flawed from the start. if there are no "absolute truths" how can there be truth at all? even in a small amount? when you ask for the truth would you ever ask for the partial truth? no. we want the whole truth in its entirety.

the relative philosophy will also say that there is no definite good, all ways are good they would say. with the exception of murdering, raping, theivery, etc... the basic moral codes of society. however, the satanist, the hindu, the buddist, the Christian, the moron and so on are all right or good in there own respect, the relativsit would say. however, if one believes that all are right then that person does not believe there is wrong. in turn, they have nothing to reference good off of. so how can all be right if there is no wrong? (i personally believe that this relative mindset or philosophy of living is highly irresponsible and immature at best. this posistioning that individuals take is simply a way to dodge all responsibility and to make sure that everyone is happy with you. if you look at the soceity that we live in it is becoming more and more this way.)

the world that we inhabit dictates to us that there cannot be light without darkness. only a fool would try to convince you that darkness was a mere thought or frivoluos idea. without the darkness light would not stand out, light would not break the darkness, light would not be light. just the same there must be right and wrong, there cannot be one with out the other.

Jesus Christ is the true way, the only way. we have a blessed assurance in the blood of Jesus Christ to know that if we follow after Him we are choosing the right and good way of life.