Two nights ago, I watched the movie Courageous with a bunch of my friends from my floor at school. This night was one of many recent events that God has used to make me think seriously about my life. It challenged my thinking (and living) about the fleeting nature of life, how I am navigating my relationships, and how serious I am about my faith. Psalm 39:4-6 says, "Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah. Surely every man walks about as a phantom; surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them."

Make the most of your time.

   I have done a lot of pondering and honest reflection in my life and keep asking myself, What would Jesus say about my life if it ended today? Would he be pleased with the faith that my life has displayed? Would my relationships bring a smile to his face? Is there any more I can be giving to him right now? It has been really rough trying to answer those questions. I have been so selfish and unforgiving in all of my relationships. The time that I have spent serving him has been so short, and often sporadic. I don't say that all that to throw a pity party. I am just saying that honest reflection about my life has been a difficult thing to do recently. 
   What do you do when you really understand that you don't have much time on this earth? How do you get past the fact that the life you have been given will not be here much longer?
   Carpe Diem. Seize the Day.
   Today is the day! You are not guaranteed another. My mom always says, "You would be surprised how much you can do in 5 minutes." Maximize your time today. Make the most of it. If you have broken relationships, do not put off reconciliation until tomorrow. If you are feeling dry, don't keep moving your Bible to the bottom of your stack. If you are nervous about something you know you should do, don't keep suppressing it. Pray that God would give you the strength to be courageous. I think you get my point.
   Secondly, think about the future as if you are not guaranteed it. If you knew you only had 2 months to live, how would you live differently? Recently, one of my buddies from my soccer team told us a story about one of his best friends who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer not too long ago. He was given only 2 months to live. You can imagine how much he has rearranged his priorities.
   All I am trying to say is this. You don't know how much more time you have on planet earth. I challenge you to consider how you are making use of one of the most precious gifts you have - your time.

   My heart is heavy right now. It is heavy on behalf of a friend who is going through a very hard situation. And as I grieve for my friend, I wonder how God desires me to feel. Are my emotions legitimate? Do they matter to God? And it is as this point that God directed me to the Psalms. Because here, I see David going through hard times in a similar way that I do. How does the man after God's own heart respond to hard times? He could have done one of three things: He could have 1) broken down and become an emotional train wreck. We see this happening a lot today. People do not handle stress very well. They will take anything to relieve themselves of stress. Running away seems to be our best option so often. He could have 2) denied that he was feeling this way. A lot of our "Christian" answers do this. "Let go and let God!" "What would Jesus do?" Or he could have 3) given his troubles and emotions over to God. This is why we see David saying to God so often, "God, please just destroy these evil people who are troubling me... I wish I was never born...Why are you silent, God?" and so on. He is not complaining against the Lord of the universe, but instead, he is giving his grief over to God. But then he always ends those laments with an affirmation of his trust in God's perfect sovereignty. He recognizes that God has things under control at the end of the day.

It is totally legitimate to grieve,
feel pain, and suffer. 

   It is totally legitimate to grieve and feel pain and suffer. God gave you emotions. But how do you express them? Do you allow things to set you off at any drop of a pin? Do you suppress them, and sweep them under the rug? Or do you trust in the one who made planet earth, that he is keeping things running exactly as he planned? By all means, express all of your emotions to the fullest. Feel the pain. Experience the confusion. And let it be known. Don't be fake. Don't hide anything in your heart from God. He knows it anyway. But at the end of the day, remember that it is God's good and perfect will that prevails. He is the one who will carry you through the storm and bring you to the peaceful shore at the other end.

   This week at Moody Bible Institute is Founder's Week. Founder's Week is a historic conference hosted by my school every year to challenge and exhort the believer in his faith. The theme of the conference this year is "The Hope Within Us." And every year we bring speakers to this conference who have a national (and sometimes international) reputation for inspiring believers in their faith. This year the lineup includes Dr. Paul Nyquist (our president), Jill Briscoe, Francis Chan, Gene Getz, Erwin Lutzer, James Meeks, Don Sunukijan, Don Sweeting, Ravi Zacharias, George Waddles. Some of the musicians include Tim Stafford and Keith & Kristen Getty. This has obviously generated a lot of excitement among our student body.

What is the antidote for hopelessness?

   As I was thinking about the theme for the conference, I was contemplating on the need for hope. Hope shines the brightest when we are at our darkest hour. But what happens when you don't feel like you have any hope? What do you tell someone who is going through a "rough spell," or on the verge of giving up? How do you generate hope where it has gone M.I.A.? What is the antidote for hopelessness?
   These are all questions that I have asked of myself often at different times in my life. I have wrestled with hopelessness, and I know that there are not many feelings that are worse than feeling no hope. I mean, I can at least cope with something terrible in my life if I have some shred of hope that things are going to get better. But when you are in a "no-hope vacuum," it will force you to dig your own grave. It is a vicious circle leading to burn out.
   If you know what I am talking about, you know that it is impossible to face this on your own. So I wanted to share with you three things that I have learned are essential when going through a hopeless time in your life: the Word of God, a work of God, and the people of God.

Preach the Gospel to yourself.

   1. The Word of God is given to us as a lamp unto our feet and light to our path (Psalm 119:105). In its pages we find the hope of the Gospel. And yes, Christian, the Gospel is for you. Often we think that it is just for evangelism, like a screwdriver is just for fastening screws. But it is more like a Leatherman tool, useful for everything pertaining to life and godliness. The Gospel is our hope. In it we find strength, peace, power, grace, truth, and hope. When you are finding great joy, preach the Gospel to yourself. When you are at your breaking point, preach the Gospel to yourself. When you are in community, preach the Gospel to yourself. When you are in isolation, preach the Gospel to yourself. When you feel close to God, preach the Gospel to yourself. When you don't think he can even hear you, preach the Gospel to yourself. Why do I say preach the Gospel to yourself so often? Because in it we find absolute truth, amazing grace, and the hope of glory. In it, God proved his live, continues to prove his love, and promise to keep proving his love. When you ask where God during this dark time in your life, remember that he is in the same place he was when his own son was experiencing awful horrors on the cross on your behalf. He is continually working out everything that goes on for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
   So try this: repeat to yourself, "I am extremely valuable to God. He loved me so greatly that he died to pay the infinite sin debt that I can never pay in a hundred lifetimes. And if he loved me that much before I was his child, how much more does he have extreme delight in me. And no matter what I do, I am still his. And because of that, I will always have the hope of his affection, no matter how dark life becomes for me."
   Whenever the devil comes to taunt you and remind you of your past, stare him back in the face and remind him of his future. Believe this: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." (2 Corinthians 3:5)

"You do not have because you do not ask."
James 4:2

   2. Our God is not dead. Our God is not distant. And Our God is not weak. He is the living, near, powerful God of the entire universe. And we are on his side. He is not against us. It is not wrong to ask him for a mighty work on your behalf. Often times, our situation is so bad that we see no way out. There is no hope...apart from the mighty hand of God. But equally often, we neglect God to intervene on our behalf. We just go through life complaining instead of trusting. The writer of Hebrews said that "without faith it is impossible to please God (11:6)." God loves it when his children respond to their circumstances (that he sovereignly ordained) with active trust in him. Be encouraged, my friends, it is not the size, weight, height, depth, or greatness of your faith that matters. It is the object of your faith that is paramount. And the object of our faith is none other than the infinite Potentate of the entire created order. Even a small amount of faith in him goes a long way (Luke 17:6). Ask him for divine intervention. Ask him to act on your behalf.And ask him to give you hope. James exhorted the Jewish believers of the dispersion saying, "You don have because you do not ask (4:2)." So seek a work of God today.

You cannot do the Christian life
by yourself.

   3. Finally, we have been given the privilege of being a part of the people of God. It is for good reason that we are called the body of Christ. We cannot function without each other. Just like the head cannot function without the neck, the hand cannot function without the arm, and the toes cannot function without the foot, so the people of God cannot function without each other. Often we sing in worship songs that "Jesus is all I need." And I recognize the good and worshipful intention behind this kind of song, but I disagree. We are created to also need the people of God. You cannot do the Christian life by yourself. You can't!!! In good times and bad, you need the people of God around you. This is why I am such a firm believer in the local church. This is an age where it is increasingly easier to become disconnected from each other because of technology. People can now say, "Well, I listened to the sermon from my podcast and song along with some worship songs that I played from my own iPod. I am doing church just fine." WRONG! You need to be a part of the people of God...especially when you are feeling hopeless. When you feel like you cannot possible make it past tonight, God has given you a beautiful, wonderful treasure: his redeemed children who know what it is like to be broken and ashamed. I urge you, friend, turn to them. Find the love and strength of Christ in them. Sure, they are not perfect, but they are redeemed. And you need them, whether you believe it or not.

So where can you find love and grace and strength and hope for tomorrow? You find it in the Word of God, the works of God, and the people of God. Do you simply complain and blame others and God? Or do you seek hope in the Word, works, and people of God? If you do not find it here. I encourage you to turn to God. He is a God who defends the weak. If you do, keep it up! God will show himself strong on your behalf.

P.S. I just want you to know that I have been praying for you if you are reading this. I am praying that God will intervene in your situation and prove himself strong on your behalf.

   Hey all, I know that I just posted some of my thoughts recently, but God just brought something really amazing into my life and I want to share it with you. For the last 5 or 6 years, I have been pressing hard into what it means to love God with all of my heart. I truly desire to be the best lover of God that I possibly can be. And as you probably figured out in my post "A Theology of Romance," I believe that to love God well, I have to learn the art of love. That applies to my whole life, including my relationship with my lover. If you are married, this applies to your relationship with your spouse. If you are engaged, this applies to your relationship with your fiance. If you are dating, this applies to your relationship with your date... and so on. You need to learn how to love the people in your life, especially your if you are to love God well. So to learn intimate love for God, we can learn a lot from our romantic relationships.
   So I would challenge you to set aside an hour of your time. This video from Mark & Grace Driscoll is very worth your time. It reveals a lot about the basic foundation that any healthy marriage (but you don't have to be married to watch this) is built upon: friendship. It is the second message in his Real Marriage series called "Friend with Benefits."
http://marshill.com/media/real-marriage/friend-with-benefits

"How blessed is the man who does not
   walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!


But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.


He will be like a tree firmly planted by
   streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers."
~Psalm 1:1-3~


   When I read these three simple verses tonight, two amazing things jumped out at me: 1) The man (in this post I am going to use the word "man" loosely. I am really referring to my brothers and my sisters.) of God runs from sin, and 2) he runs to the Word.

Keep walking.

   In my life, I have noticed how easy it is to walk away from the Lord when I follow the pattern described in verse 1. We all have to walk through the ways of the wicked sometimes. It is just part of living in this world. But when we begin to stand there, instead of continuing to walk through, we make it so much easier to observe their sin. And then, the more we stand there, and watch them sinning, the easier it is to get involved. So for example, if I walk up to someone because I need to tell him something, and that person is slandering another, I have just taken the first step. But that is inevitable. I didn't know ahead of time that he would be sinning like that. However, if I stand there and listen, I am now entering phase two - "standing in the path of sinners." The longer I stand there, the easier it is to get involved in that conversation and tear someone down. 
   The journey into sin is often a gradual one. It starts off small. King David recognized this. That is why he warned the wise reader about the early stages of sin. In order to avoid this deadly cancer called sin, we must hate it and run from it at its earliest stages. Don't be one who walks in the counsel of the wicked. Look ahead of you and walk the other way. Don't be one who stands in the path of sinners. If you got that far, just keep walking. And don't, please don't, be one who sits in the seat of scoffers. Once you are this far, you need to repent, get up, and walk away. Sometimes this is super hard to do. I know. I've been there. This is where you need to cling to the Word of God, pray for a work of God, and run to the people of God. God designed all of these to draw you closer to Himself.
   And speaking of the Word of God, this is the second thing that jumped out at me. The man of God runs to the Word of God. It is his delight. He is continually thinking about it. It is almost like David is describing a love story here. The man of God loves God's Word. He isn't saying that the man of God reads it often, has a daily read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan (though that is a good thing), owns 20 Bibles, or even preaches the Bible. He is saying that he loves it. It is a matter of the heart. And this is shown by his actions. He is constantly meditating on it: when he wakes up, when he is eating his Wheaties, as he drives to work, when he is opening his lunchbox, when he arrives home at home to an emergency in the kitchen, as he plays with his kids before bed, and as he kisses his wife goodnight. You get the picture. This guy has God's Word on his mind all the time (just a thought: he probably doesn't have it memorized all the time, it is probably written on little scraps of paper here, and in a notebook there, etc.). He loves God's word. And the people around him can tell.

The man of God is like the tree.
He is steadfast, fruitful, faithful, and prosperous.

   And the combination of avoiding sin and loving God's Word leads to fruitfulness. Picture the biggest tree you have ever seen. It's roots go deep and long. It has 300 rings. It is old, but sturdy. It has been at that particular river bank for the last 3 centuries. It is almost a legend itself. And on the outside, it produces the most delicious fruit year after year. The farmers in the area all have a share in its fruit. That's how big and productive it is. Every year, farmers, kids, and animals a like go to this tree to eat of its delicious dainties. This is kind of what verse 3 is talking about. The man of God is like this tree. He is steadfast, fruitful, faithful, and prosperous. He is indeed blessed by God.
   So what about you? Do you see a pattern in your life of running from sin? Or do you find yourself often walking by, standing with, or sitting next to sinners?
   Do you love the Word of God or do you just read it every once in a while because your pastor or priest told you it was a good thing to do? Or do you even read the Bible at all?
   I challenge you: Hate sin. Run as hard as you can from it. And love the Word of God. Run to it as often as you can.
   Because this is a heart issue, it isn't something that is going to turn on like a switch overnight. But stay faithful, your discipline will soon turn into your desire.