i want to be more like Jesus

As each day passes by,

I feel my love run dry.

I get so weary, worn,

And tossed around in the storm.

Well I`m blind to all his needs,

And I`m tired of planting seeds.

I seem to have a wealth,

Of so many thoughts about myself.

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus.

I want to, I need to, be more like Him.

Our Father`s will was done,

By giving us His Son,

Who paid the highest cost,

To point us to the cross.

And when I think of Him,

Taking on the whole world`s sin,

I take one look at me,

Compared to what I`m called to be.

I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus.

I want to, I need to, be more like Him.

Remember, there`s no greater love,

Then to lay down your life for a friend.

The end of all my prayers,

Is to care like my Lord cares.

My one and only goal,

His image in my soul.

Yes my weakness is revealed,

When by His stripes I`m healed.

He`s faithful and He`s true,

To complete the work he begins in you.

–Keith Green

I’ve been doing this for two years….

And if you knew everything I’ve wanted to say and didn’t, you would give me credit.

“Hello, everybody! This is the first of what I hope to be many posts. I will attempted to post once a week, so be sure to check me out often. I plan to write about a lot of fun, uplifting, interesting, and boring stuff. Have fun, and remember to leave comments.”

Wow. I was really insecure back then. And my sentence structure was bad. What else is news?

Merry Christmas to everysingleoneofyou. I love all of you, andireallylovealotofthepeopleiknowwilllreadthis. So to my family and friends, manyhappyreturnsofanotheryear.

what does it all mean?

For me, when I attempt leave the real worlds (Spiritual and physical) and enter the less real one (virtual), it’s easy to become caught up in the “Christmas spirit.” I visit all the blogs, and they all say our religious seasonal cliches, even though they truly mean it, and then I rush over to WordPress to put in my two cents worth (again cliche), and we feel our hearts elevated for a time, and then things go back to normal.  But are we content to keep these truths bottled up for the year? or is the year like our days: we keep these spiritual “bookends” in the morning and evening, and fight to get by the rest of the time. Truth is, we have enough in the Christmas season alone, corrupt as it may be, to keep us going. That’s to say nothing of the morning and evening quiet times, the books, the sermons twice a week, and every such influence that surrounds us.  We’ve got treasures of truth: God, how are we to make much of this?

~~~

What messages does Christ’s incarnation leave us with that should stay with us? Jamie reminded us of them last evening from Isaiah 9; where else can we look?

All scripture is from God, so we shouldn’t over reverence one part over another, but what message did God especially send to the lowly that would listen when He sent His Son (Luke 2)? (btw isn’t it amazing, that when the Son of God Almighty was born, His Father sent shepherds to be His worshipers?)

Well, the first message, in order, was this: “Fear not.” Why? “For unto  you is born this day in the city of Bethlehem, a Savior.” There are so many cliches about not fearing. But, really, can you imagine the seriousness of this message? For the Christian, Christ’s coming meant that perfect love would cast out fear. By His merits, we need no longer fear to come before God Almighty; His coming, and living, and dying, is what gives weight to every command against inordinate guilt in the New Testament. He allows Christians who talk about their sin, which grieves them, to say “but..Christ.” Saints and Sinners, surely this day it is brought home to you how we are to plead the merits of Christ without fear if you will not come to God, you are not just rejecting an invitation; you disobey a command.

The Holy God became man, and He tells us “Fear not.”

But what about this: Christ came, Why? The angels used their thousand voices to shout out the reason: the reason why He came, and lived a life of love among enemies (aka us); patience among apostates (aka us); a life of stretching out His hand towards those He knew would betray Him and run, and saying of them, us, “Behold, my mother and my brethren.” His family. The reason why He became the personification of everything His Father hated in His church, and was willingly crushed, at the Father’s pleasure.  The reason was this: “Glory to God in the Highest.” The  great reason the God-Man exists is that. God’s glory.

For that Christ came. And it’s what I want too. I wish this “Christmas  Spirit” would permeate all. God help us.

Gory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace and good will towards men. For some reason, God has linked His greatest glory with our greatest good. His being glorified brought us peace. His glorifying Himself brought the unveiling of His love. That’s what the incarnation, the great, profound, mystical joining together of God and Man, that display of Deity veiled and yet unveiled, should mean.

All Glory to God, our Father. And the peace which passeth understanding in the hearts of His own.

Sinner, run to Him, and you will find peace.

God bless you.

a happy old year….

A year of hope.

With New Faces

New Friends, and older ones…

Lots of these…

New Family….

And a Growing “old” one…

But one thing hasn’t changed. We still have the same Father, whose “loving-kindness is better than life.”

celebrate adoption this season

This goes back to a post of mine from last December. (Same songs)

But this year, I’d like to dedicate it to my good friend Ben, as well as my little brother Josiah. They cannot imagine how God has used both of them in my life.

it’s the most wonderful time of the year

I hope so. It should true.

Not because we get a lot of presents that need to be replaced next year (cloths: to small; technology: one year old, three years outdated. funny how that works; everything else, fallen apart). Not because the Jolly Old Elf is coming: somehow, that is not very alluring. He too old and has fallen off on the jolly.

And. It. Has. Nothing. to do with the grand allusion that just because it is hideously freezing that makes it wonderful time. No.

It is simply this: it should be the most wonderful time because it’s the end of the year. And by God’s grace, it should be that much more wonderful because of where He has taken us. He doesn’t love us any more or less than last year: but we can love Him -we should love Him- that much more.

It should be the most wonderful time, because the immortal words of Charles Wesley are still true.

Christ by highest heaven adored,

Christ the everlasting Lord

Late in time behold Him come

Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus our Immanuel

Hark! the herald angels sing

Glory to the New-born King.

I really love that song. And it lasts all year; Winter Wonderland may be nice to sing for fun, but it can’t be true all year. What’s true is that

The Godhead and man are still united in the person of Jesus Christ. He still owns the possession that was His by right and is now His by purchase. That at all times, while we worship Him that He ascended on High and sits at God’s right hand; while we adore that He rose; we celebrate that He died; and we make much of His living here on Earth, we still worship and stand in awe also of this preliminary thing: He came. Blessed be His name.

Angels still sing “Glory in the Highest.”  God still gives peace on Earth to those that He knows and are His. And the hands that the world would have called helpless still hold out good will towards men. And towards those the world still sees as “Helpless.”

Let everything that Christ is and has done be held aloft this season. In this time, when people are willing to kill another human just to get into Wal-Mart on a big sales day, how glorious would it be if people could see us making much of Christ on our December 25ths. And our Black Fridays. And our New Years Eve. And even in the mundane, doing school, eating, brushing our teeth… We can live in the reality that the One who had wielded His power from the Cross and the manger “Came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” We’ve got a chance to show the world, when peace on earth and materialism are forced bedfellows, that

These Earthly treasures hold no lustre,

For what riches can we pine?

Given keys to heaven’s storehouse,

If Christ is all, then all is mine.

God bless you. Everyone.

a few fssoe moments

Nick on Bourbon Street (that’s Charlie behind the sign).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caleb: in a “discussion” with guy on bike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick and Charlie.

Hannah, Nicol, David….a lot of people.

Hannah and Ali.

If y’all are sick of posts along these lines, I promise to post about some other thins soon. Seriously.

i’m home anywhere, if you are where i am, part two

I will continue my narrative from where I left off, being Wednesday evening.

 

Thursday: After another early rising, mainly because we had to be in the breakfast room by six-thirty (the Church we were at did daycare, so we had to be out-of-the-way by sevenish) the team broke up: Jason took his family, David Candace, and Katie to some of the local community colleges, whilst Caleb led the A-team (namely Himself, Caytie, Nicol, Hannah, Ellen,  Charlie, Nick, Chris, and yours truly [these last two were like officials petitioning buddies]) back to USM for another day’s work there. Very interesting experience this time (you can ask me about it in person). After visiting a few of the shopping centres in Gulfport (where I got a new book, just so you know) we called it a day. On the record. Off the record, we still hadn’t made it to the coast (last evening attempt had failed and that miserably). This time, although it weren’t quite so personal, we went with the tried and true method: we drove in the van. The beach (in Boloxi) was desolate, the perfect time to take a tranquil seaside walk, or go wading in what was roughly sixty-five degree water. Ellen, Charlie and I chose the former option,  whilst Candace, Caleb, Nicol and David chose the trekked hundreds of yards into the shallows of the Gulf of Mexico.. Charlie wanted to pray together (just the three of us-on the seaside. I love times like that) and after the somewhat chilled waders returned, we once again headed back to the Church. Stayed up late alone….

Friday (the 13th): The team again broke up, the Storms, Candace, Caytie, and Katie (merciful spelling difference) going to one community college, and the…rest going to another (as usual, I hung with Chris). After a few what seemed like almost wasted hours, although we did get a few signatures, we did a lot of running around (always a blessing, as long as you know plenty of good hymns and have plenty of good songs on your iPod) and several unscheduled shopping stops, we met Jason’s group on the beach for

Volleyball! and a seaside sunset (again, good times to talk and fellowship). After that, part of the team went to a high school football game, and then wen tout to eat (seafood, of course) with an old friend of Jason’s. Wonderful time. after that, we went to the…….hotel, in which this fellow and his family was staying, and stayed till about eleven fifteen. The man was a police officer/preacher, so what he had to say was interesting. Afterward, we went back to the Church (where there was, apparently, some late-night youth get together in the gym-we didn’t get involved).  Caleb and I had been scheming to put together a small group prayer meeting since the first night at the Church, and as that was our last night together there, we would have been a failure did it not come to fruition (I use failure in its broadest possible sense).  However, it wasn’t scheduled to start till 12:15 due to time constraints. At first, it looked like it would just be Caleb and I, the rest of the group being completely wiped out. But Ellen came in, followed later by Nicol, which was a real blessing. I was really reluctant to relate so serious and personal a circumstance as this meeting to you all, but use it to bring glory to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. We decided to remove some of the usual guidelines, like starting with one person and ending with another, and it lasted about an hour and a half. When it drew itself to a close, nobody moved for a while. After a little reading, we retired. We ran into poor Nick upstairs, who was suffering from the seafood, and the four double cheeseburgers he had a little earlier. But by this time, we were well into

   Saturday: Went to a Christmas shopping deal at the Civic Centre in Boloxi, where Personhood MS had a booth. We -Meaning Caleb, Chris, Candace, Katie, Nicol, Ellen, Hannah, and Yours truly- were there till about two thirty, and then we left fro New Orleans. After a tour of the city, led by Jason’s dad, our fearless leader took Caleb, Charlie, Nick, Chris, Hannah, Nicol, and yours truly, to Bourbon Street, to preach for a short time. I will write much more on that later: Jason took us to the “safe” part of the street. I was glad to go, though I can say without reserve that it was the most immoral place I have ever been in my life. And half the people there claimed to be Christian’s.

  After some fresh air beside the river, and some refreshments in Cafe Du Monde, we rejoined the rest of the team at Jason’s father’s house, and headed back to Jackson (another wonderful Hymn singing time, even though we got lost). Caleb, Nick and I stayed up late again, and retired…

  Sunday: Woke up early to leave by eight. My last few hours-precious. We met my brother in Batesville to head home…long goodbyes at the gas station. Then, just to make things more surreal, we went ahead and had lunch with all the young people. That was good while it lasted. The goodbyes were not quite as long, though. Even though good ole Chris almost killed me with a bear hug.

   I have been frantically trying to keep up with the team via e-mail. It’s wierd: I am scared to death I may never see some of them again. We must learn to trust the hand of Christ in all things.  

Nick and Ali

i’m home anywhere if You are where i am, part one

Y’all are probably wondering about my shameful neglect of this site. A lot of that is justified. Some of the time, though, I’ve been away. So here I am to fill in the few of you that are faithful readers. But before I go any further, let me introduce you to some good friends of mine:

Admittedly, it’s a terrible picture. Half of us aren’t looking, and I am not, (do you hear me? NOT!) a Rebels fan. But these are now some of my best friends, left to right: Katie, Jason Storms (not looking), Nicole, Jon Jon (in the same general  area as Nicole), Caytie, David (barely visible behind Caytie), Caleb (looking away), Sara Storms, Julia (the lovely young lady dead cetre in the front), Chris (again, barely visible), Ellen Riley (I still don’t know much about her), Candace, Hannah, Jake Riley (again, I didn’t get to know him very well), Alli, Charlie in back, Nicholas in front. (and a toddler name Elliot who was asleep in the van.) They constitute the Faithful Soldier School of Evangelism. From Wisconsin. I know. Northern territory. But individually they were from all over, and from all different backgrounds. They just had generally common passions.

Our camera was broken. I’ll put up better and more informative pictures once they’re e-mail to me.

So, to tell what I’ve been up to briefly,

Thursday 5th: The FSSE arrived at our house, we got to know them, hung out, prayed and sang together.

Friday 6th: Went to Ole Miss with the faithful soldiers, worked there for several hours on things like petitioning while Caleb or Jason preached; had an enjoyable ride over to Cleveland MS, lots of chances to fellowship together, had some adventurous moments at DSU, then a fun ride home. There was a serious conversation gong on in the front, but since I couldn’t hear, being in the back along with half the others, I was delighted to get the chance to sing and swap hymns with Hannah (as in my sister) Hannah, Chris, David, and Nicole, (who was gifted with a wonderful singing voice).

Saturday: Went with Caleb F. to Vardeman, MS, where there was a festival going on. After being there for a about  three hours, Caleb had to leave for work, and I was…alone. In hostile territory. For about an hour and a half till Jamie came to rescue me. That evening, I went to the last Salvation in Full Colour book study, going through the the chapter on The Final Warning. Very challenging to our complacency, as well as our lack of gratitude. Afterward, we went to Jamie’s house and spent half an hour trying to put together one of those puzzles that like is one picture made up of thousands. Ouch.

Sunday: Went to Church (wonderful Sermon), the Faithful Soldiers departed for Jackson, and we had to go get pictures taken at our grandparents house. The whole afternoon felt kinda surreal.

Monday: Typical. School, working, reading, packing.

Tuesday: Arose;  Ellen, my Mom and I left around nine or something; did stuff that needed to be done in Pontotoc; left the county at about ten o’clock or ten-thirty. Rode to Jackson (listening to Russel Moore); went and met the Faithful Soldiers at a college in Clinton, MS; Ellen and I are Left Behind; and we don’t complain. That evening we went to some old friend’s house with all of the Faithful Soldiers, had a wonderful time sitting around a campfire and getting to talk to people (campfires are always lovely times for that). Went back to the country retreat-type place where they were staying; stayed up till 1:30 reading and hanging out.

Wednesday: Was able to wake up very early and spend time alone. Went canoeing for a while; headed for Hattiesburg, to the University of Southern Mississippi; worked there all day, doing basically the same things we did at Ole Miss; that evening we had a another nice drive down to the coast, where we were treated to dinner; afterward Caleb, Caytie, Chris and I went to a youth’s “Bible study” (by the way, apparently some new translation includes discussing the “spiritual significance” behind modern teen secular music videos as part of the Bible. Go figure.).  After that, Caleb, Chris, Ellen, Nicole, Candace and I tried to walk to the coast. We were told if we just followed the Pearl River, we would get there. After so away we went, singing hymns and talking as we rounded obstacles, walked the train tracks, and climbed out on long abandoned piers (some over conscientious young fellow kept yelling at Caleb and Nicole to be careful. Weirdo.) After we found that due to fences, overflows, private property, and such, that there was no way we were going to find the ocean no matter how big, we headed back for the church (Nicole and I raced a train, but the rest were of a more moderate disposition, and waited till it passed). After staying  up late again, I turned in…..

where’s there’s a “will ya” there is a way

Or  a wedding.

Now, all that stuff about engagements and courting is really nice to talk about.  Or joke about. But it should be taken quite seriously. Especially since, no matter how surreal, annoying, amusing, et cetera, everything may seem in theory, in real life it’s…worse.

Oops. I’ll get in big trouble for that. I shouldn’t pollute this website with my own personal opinions. I should be even and balanced. That’s my goal. To be the “Fox News” of the blog world. (HA!)

But in all seriousness I am writing this solely to extend my wholehearted congratulations towards my sister Emily and Tyler Upchurch. May heaven bless you and may you live together in peace. May all your futures be pleasant ones, Not like our present ones. May you both be favoured with the future’s of your choice, may you live to see a thousand reasons to rejoice. All that good stuff.

May you be kept immovably in the love of Christ, and if I may say so, with little regard for how this may be taken, may HIS love be the one great fountain from which your love for one another springs. I love y’all both, and may God bless you.

Tyler: since I hear it is the Groom’s privilege to select groomsman, I’ll let you no that (I mean, know that) I am perfectly willing to accept such a position. Provided you and Trey and Dad have sufficient manpower to drag me there under such a threat. That’s all.

Emily:  I’ve always favoured the “Imperial March” as good wedding music.

Both: If you see the need, I would love to perform a ceremony for you. Provided, of course, that you wouldn’t be extremely offended when I could not resist the urge to say, “Mawwiage is what bwings us together today. Mawwiage, dat bwessed awwangment. That dweam, wivin a dweam.

This is for my dad:

And finally, a great summary of the marriage:

“Even In marriage, the one to look to is God. The ideal in marriage comes when each partner looks to God to meet His or her own needs and looks to the other partner with a heart to meet that partner’s need. Then they can both rejoice when God meets each of their needs through the other! This is love rather than lust.”

Clyde Cranford.