I really like this quote, given March 10 of this year:

“In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God Who spoke on Sinai; to that God Whose face we recognise in a love which presses ‘to the end’ – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects.”

Sounds pretty good huh?

It’s pleasantly suprising to hear the Pope be so pastoral.

home is where the heart is

We’ve lost home exactly where we built it. We sit at a table full of familiar strangers singing strong words to forgettable melodies. Longing from empty bellies for new life lived the old way. A new life that grows and cries for the nourishment of tomorrow in yesterday’s bowl. Our spoons have been polished so beyond recognition that our food has lost its savor. When will we taste the sweetness of home again? When will this table bring forth smells of promises fulfilled and the flavor of certainty? Will we have to set it ourselves?

talent and jealousy

he sings his words like a preacher
he holds his guitar like Jesus held his words
his stands with firmness and sways with purpose
he sings truth
he holds memories like a kaleidoscope
he stands in the moment
he sings like his soul grows taller with every syllable sung
he holds his heart with firmness
he stands on that x like she marked
he sings like he’ll never leave it
he holds his guitar like a shovel
he stands on the treasure of the truth of his words like a guard

update

It’s been on my mind to update, even if it’s nothing of great profundity.  I wanted to let somebody know that there are things that we are praying for that would mean changes in our lives; work, training, long term vocational stuff.  Yet, at the same time….I haven’t been excited about telling everyone all about what’s going on with us because I don’t want everyone to know that I am an angry, selfish person.  I am jealous of the time that I get to spend with my wife and don’t always want to see other people and have them over for dinner.  I like books and records and quiet cuddling with Leslie and petting our dog.  I am comforted by those things.  It’s only Jesus that whispers and sometimes yells into my ear, “I didn’t redeem you for your own comfort. I redeemed you into freedom so that you could fulfill the law by love.”  oh.    right.

Yet he has redeemed us into freedom, and there is a time for quiet evenings with leslie and a book while enjoying some music and no interruptions.  That just can’t be the longing of my heart.  Ah, my heart.  This is what Jesus truly cares about, and at the same time is the part of me I don’t want to show to anyone else because it is the origin of all of my ugliness.

So, this is me confessing to _____ that I have an ugly heart.  I give it away to Jesus and he gives me back righteousness that I could never get on my own.  That deal sounds so good, it makes me want to sit around with and talk about it someone, even if I have to give up my quiet evenings to do it.
Pour out your heart.

p.s. I am going to San Diego this Sat-Wed.  But it’s for work.

He had a dream

Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech is real good.  If you’ve never read it in full, you should check it out.  Here’s a good bit there in the middle.

“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

I was thinking about it this morning and especially this familiar section at the end...
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Why? Because we just elected a black man as president and all the headlines say we elected him because he’s black.  Did we elect him because of the content of his character or the color of his skin?

We’ll have four years to find out.  I am praying that it turns out he has character.

The Love of Christ is Rich and Free

This is what I am humming and singing to myself this morning.  It’s real good.

The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.

His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.

(this is the Chorus)
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.

Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.

He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart.
(Repeat chorus)

At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.

And the Sandra McCracken version of this song has a wicked triangle part.

the fate of the world in my hands…

Jesse and I voted today. We sat down with the voters guide and wisely (well to the best of our ability) chose the best candidates and in our own way decided the fate of the country for the next 4 years. That seems to be some pretty heavy responsibility. Hope the world doesnt impolde because of my decision…

Well on a tastier note…I’ve been baking with apples a lot lately. Its fall and fall should be celebrated with warm apple anything in my opinion. Here are some delicious recipies for you to try so soon.

Apple pie…only better and little like christmas:

Filling:
6 large peeled and sliced granny smith apple
2 Tbs of fresh grated ginger
the zest of 1/2 an orange
2Tbs fresh orange juice
3/4 C sugar
2 Tbs of flour
some cinnamon (as much as you want)
some nutmeg (way less than you thin-like 1 dash)
some ground cloves (like 2 dashes)

Mix that all up and let sit for 10 minutes and stir occasionally. After you pour this into the prepared pie crust chop up 2 Tbs of butter and scatted on top of the apples before putting the top on. This is important.

The crust…well I cheat because I’m lazy and just use the pillsbury roll out crust but home made crust is so much better. Pretty much all recipes are the same but when you’ve covered the pie, if you’ll brush the top crust over with apricot preserves it gives the baked crust a beautiful glossy golden deliciousness.
Try it….although i think this pie might be best at Christmas…it tastes too much like wossle to be had in fall it think… but still so good.

Recipe #2

Apple cake:

entire recipe is here… Have fun and eat so much! Plus since there’s apple’s inside and you know there’s no preservatives you can have these for breakfast!

Happy Autumn!
love,
Leslie

well i tried…

the couch and my favorite wall

folks…here is just one of the many pictures i tried up loading to this thing today. I tried to upload more and it got soooo jacked. so either you’ll just have to come over or….wait until i become a little more blog savy. sheesh. love you!!!

the North side

Leslie and I are all movied into our new house on Locust street just across from Art Alley.  We are even having a house warming party this Friday evening, which you are cordially invited to attend.  We’ve planted a winter garden and repainted the sunroom, and even I am beginning to assign the word “cute” to our new home.  Here is one artistic shot of the front, but we will have some color photos up later.

That fella in the picture is Andrew Velder, and yes he is our room mate.

This week’s thought: Les and I had a great day on Sunday.  It included a Sunday afternoon motorcycle ride through North Denton.  In foreign neighborhoods with streets named Stuart, Imperial, Sheraton, and Cromwell.  We saw the homes of many of the people in Denton, including the now retired Professor Donald Pickens.  It may be news to some, but we have been going to the 11 o’clock service since July, and it has given me a varied perspective on Denton life.  I realized while out on our ride that many of our fellow Dentonites and therefore many of the 4,000 people who attend Denton Bible, have little to do with either university in town and might not even venture near one in thier day to day for the same reason a UNT student seldom drives down Forest Street.
This was something we discussed later Sunday night, sifting through images of videos and exhortations to love our city.  Understandably, most of our friends think first of other college students and the overlooked populations of Denton when wanting to make a difference in the lives of the people around them.  Now realize that for most of the people who are faithful members of our church, the people around them have little to do with college kids, unless they have some of their own, and the way in which they would befriend them has even less to do with meeting up at a coffee shop or sharing a late night of movies and laughing over youtube videos.
The conclusion at the end of the day was that I felt hurt by the popular sentiment that the morning services are “out of touch”.  I could summarize laments about the morning service as being austere and archaic.  Yet, in the same way could not the elder members of our church view the differences at The Well as flashy and unnecessary?   I believe the elders when they approve of what changes have been made, because at the center is a declared desire for the Gospel to go forth unhindered.  Does is not stand that younger Christians hold this central desire to be true as well, even if it means the possibility that the most effective means of communicating the Gospel to the majority of the population of Denton includes choirs and ushers wearing slacks?  I say yes.  I look around at the grey heads that surround me on Sunday mornings and I am moved to believe that the name of the Lord is being exalted in their lives.  I hope they look at me in my cargo shorts and white t-shirt and thank God that we at least have Christ in common, the same way I hope we can look at a guy in a suit and tie and trust that God has made that man for a purpose in his culture, whatever culture it may be.
More thinking to come later.
Please come on Friday.

the ‘T’ word

If breaking the laws of civil society to fight extremism is always wrong, then terrorism is not a morally gray area.

I’ve been without a TV for a long time by my own preference, so my following of the DNC had been highly selective. I have enjoyed dispatches from a guy who is documenting the far left-wing protesters who have made Denver some sort of battle ground for extremism. While looking at some of the protest posters I’ve seen, I was reminded of a reoccurring thought. I never have been able to reconcile the idea that we need to take a deeper look and understand people who engage in using fear as a weapon because the truth is never as simple as black and white, while torture is described as ALWAYS being wrong in any circumstance. I can’t reconcile the two arguments, which are often made by the same people, when the fundamental ethic behind the statements conflict with each other.

Either the situation is a gray area and terrorism for some people gets a free pass, and torture has it’s place in certain situations….or
The idea of torture and violating civil society is an absolute and never to be violated, and we also are going to resolve to condemn everyone who uses the death of innocent people to get their point across.

I just don’t see how you can reasonably be sympathetic to terrorists and staunchly anti-torture.
It’s just something I was thinking about.

Here’s a little visual.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/denver/upload/2008/08/_MG_0260_0362.jpg?1