Jonathan Edwards....incredible.

I'm reading a book entitled, "A God entranced vision of all things: The legacy of Jonathan Edwards" and it is wonderful. I find myself rebuked and encouraged by this man's lifelong passionate, disciplined pursuit of pleasure in God. When I compare myself to him in the realm of discipline I look like a 3yr old. When I compare myself to him in relation to how much He enjoyed His Savior I have no words to express my immaturity. I am finding such encouragement from this book (I think partly because I've been so off kelter with our past month that my devotional time has fallen pathetically behind....working on that).

Let me hit you with a few broad things to think about: 

From the first chapter concerning his relationship with God: 

"Edwards remarkably managed to hold together what we tend to split apart. He saw Christianity as engaging both head and heart, while much of popular evangelicalism suffers greatly from pendulum swings in this regard."

More on this in Edward's own words, 

"....God glorifies himself toward the creatures also in two ways" 1. By appearing to...their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself...God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by it's being rejoiced in."

I love this because I see so many people just leave off the knowledge of God for some "experience" or "feeling" and then I see others (and have experienced myself) who academically know the Bible but have no joy or experiential relationship with Jesus. Edward's saw the union of head and heart as a both/and as opposed to an either/or.

Concerning overcoming sin, Edward's says that joy in God is the only suitable weapon:

"Many Christians think stoicism is a good antidote to sensuality. It isn't. It is hopelessly weak and ineffective. And the reason it fails is that the power of sin comes from its promise of pleasure and is meant to be defeated by the superior promise of pleasure in God, not by the power of the human will. Willpower religion, whenever it succeeds, gets glory for the will. It produces legalists, not lovers."

Here's the best yet....and it smacks modern day, man centered Christianity in the face. 

"The chief blessing that we receive, our greatest good, comes to us in God. In other words, the greatest blessing that God gives us when He saves us is himself."

In Edward's own words,

"God himself is the great good [the redeemed] are brought to the possession of and enjoyment of by the redemption. He is the highest good and the sum of all good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory."

Read over that again if it blew by you. What Edward's is saying is that God himself is our greatest blessing. God...nothing else. This is why the prosperity gospel is so horrible; it turns everything upside down. No longer is God himself the treasure; rather He becomes your key to getting cars, wealth, health, whatever. Watch the John Piper video on the prosperity gospel that I've got on the blog and you'll see what I'm saying.

The goofiness of Ethan

Random musings

Christin and I talked last week and we both agreed that our last several weeks here in the Lbk should be spent touching base with all the wonderful relationships God has blessed us with here. Since then we've had some sweet time with friends just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. It has made me think about how good God is in that He created us as relational beings that can find joy and intimacy with one another. Pretty sweet.

I've also been really flabbergasted (I guess that's a word), humbled, and uplifted by all the encouraging words that my church family, friends, and co-workers have shared with me. 

Pray for us.... it is stressful moving a family of 5 halfway across the country.

We're crazy

Well, for those of you who don't know our family will be moving to Louisville, KY where I will begin attending Southern Seminary (www.sbts.edu) in Jan of 2009.

We have been pretty quiet about this for business purposes (I currently sell commercial real estate) and for church purposes (I am the youth minister at our church) but this has become public knowledge and so we wanted to let all 2 of our readers know:).

Our desire for the blog is for it to serve as a type of journal of our experiences so that you can know what's going down with us.

Words can't describe how excited and scared we are as I leave the "normal" workforce to go to school half way across the country on a fifth of my current income with 3 kiddos and a wife to support. That may sound crazy, and I guess it is...but we trust that God provides the means for the ends that He has ordained. The words of David reassure me, "I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread." Ps 37:25.

We are also very sad to be leaving some absolutely phenomenal friendships here in Lubbock. We trust that by God's grace our relationships will last as we seek to press on toward His calling.

Our move date is set for January 12th. Look for pictures and experiences to be blogged soon thereafter. (If you didn't know, Kentucky has these things called trees which are really pretty. Living in Lubbock I've only seen a few of these and I'm looking forward to the scenery)

Your prayers are appreciated.

I forgot to add this one to the last post.

And no, Levi is not standing up on his own.

Since I got a new camera, B.J. says I need to become an expert with it, so, yesterday I rounded up my best subjects and took some practice shots.

Well, I must say, I love my new camera.

The Boys

(I was playing with the color on this one.)

Little Boys!

Pictures of Levi

Where did a month go?

Ok, so I feel like we got bushwhacked. With the addition of our 3rd little rugrat Christin and I had to switch to zone defense instead of man to man and it's taking us a while to get back into the game. So for Christin's b-day several family members and I got together and bought her a smokin hot camera. Now to be honest we don't have a clue as to how to use the thing but it sure does look cool. Here are some pics, hope you enjoy and hopefully we blog before this time next month.

Our back yard. Pretty cool.
What a stud.
The scary thing is to think about when she's 16.

Preaching tomorrow

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to preach for the first time at "big church" shall we say. My preparation time this week has been a great time of worship. As tomorrow morning is quickly approaching I have been thinking about the weight preaching. It really is a priveledge and an honor to do this. So as I was thinking about this stuff I turned to my old dead friends, the Puritans, to see what they had to say about preaching. Enjoy.

"A Minister's Preaching"

My Master God,
I am desired to preach today,
but go weak and needy to my task;

Yet I long that people might be edified with divine truth,
that an honest testimony might be borne for thee;

Give me assistance in preaching and prayer,
with heart uplifted for grace and unction.

Present to my view things pertinent to my subject
with fullness of matter and clarity of thought,
proper expressions, fluency, fervency,
a feeling sense of the things I preach,
and grace to apply them to men's consciences.

Keep me conscious all the while of my own defects,
and let me not gloat in pride over my performance.

Help me to offer a testimony for thyself,
and to leave sinners inexscusable in neglecting thy mercy.

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people,
and to set before them comforting considerations.

Attend with power the truth preached,
and awaken the attention of my slothful audience.

May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted, comforted,
and help me to use the strongest arguments
drawn from Christ's incarnation and sufferings,
that men might be made holy.

I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness,
that I might be a pure channel of thy grace,
and be able to do something for thee;

Give me then refreshment among thy people,
and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way,
or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a redeemer,
or be harsh in treating of Christ's death, its design and end,
from lack of warmth and fervency.

And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work.


Now I promise that I'm not going to preach in Elizabethan english but I am so encouraged when I read these guys. They were truly sold out. What I love about them is that their passion and joy was theologically informed. In today's Christendom, where we just want to get excited and have a good time at the expense of theological depth, these guys show that theological depth and joy in Christ is a "both/and" not an "eaither/or". So, may we press on in His Word and daily search the riches of Christ and by this we will experience joy and fulfillment on a daily basis.

Germany and back in 48 hrs - for real.

My Dad has been a pilot for American Airlines for 29 years and this last week he retired. So a bunch of us went with him for his retirement flight to Frankfurt, Germany and back. We left Dallas Sunday at 2pm and returned on Tuesday at 2pm - insane. It was a great trip.

The whole lot of us before we left Dallas
Cockpits of a 777 are a button pusher's dreamland.
Dad coming out of the airport in Germany.
Me giving Mandy a backrub after the 8.5 hr flight.
Yea, we're stupid

Mandy laughing hysterically at something during a celebration dinner for Dad
Dad making a toast at his celebration dinner
Aunt Marion, Uncle Dave, Me, and Mandy
So at dinner I had this German dish called, Schwienhox (I'm sure I murdered the spelling). It was incredible. Here's a group of us as we sat down at our table.

Mandy and Uncle Dave and Dad in the cockpit before we took off from FRA back to Dallas
Me and Uncle Dave and Dad
Way to go Dad!
Dad and Cheryl
We took this just before we deplaned after our arrival back in Dallas.

Dad, thanks for all your work and for supporting our family for so many years. I appreciate you and am thankful that I could be a part of your retirement trip honoring you for your service.

Naomi and Ethan meet Levi

Levi's arrived!

Levi arrived at 2:56pm this afternoon. He weighs 7lbs and 5 oz and is 19 inches long. Both he and Mommy are healthy and happy. His first feeding went well and he appears to be very content. We are very thankful for a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy. Enjoy the pictures.