Don't get angry......you know your Mom is real

I was talking to a young man today at school, and we were on the subject of the reality of God.  I asked a few of them standing there if they thought that there was a God.  One boy said that he was agnostic and another one said that he knew there was a God and that it ticked him off to hear people say that there is not.  He said that he didn't like to talk to people about the subject because it got him ticked off when others said that there was not a God or that they didn't believe in Jesus.  So I was thinking....... if someone walked up to you and said, "hey you know that your Mom is not real," would that make you mad?  It may concern you that the person may be out of touch with reality, but I don't think it would make you mad.  Well, is God not as real as our Mothers?  If we say that He is indeed as real as our Mothers, then anger should not be an emotion that arises within us if we hear someone say that there is no God.  I could be completely judgmental here but, I think that many folks get angry at the person who says there is no God, because of their own insecurity.  Maybe this is a stretch, but if we see the argument of whether God is real or not as mostly a battle of being of the right opinion, then it would certainly make us angry if we hear someone saying that they don't believe He's real.  But if we know He is real, then we have no need to be angry.  We should be very concerned, but not angry.  We know that everyone knows in their heart that there is a God if we believe the Bible, so let us be patient with the ones we come in contact with that use "there is no God" as a smoke screen to continue in there own way.  We all used many smoke screens to hide our rebellion at one point in our life too.  Maybe we should all pause and let the reality of God sink in.  Lord help me.  I need to the most.

Get Up!

I was talking to Mr. Glen, a good friend and father so-to-speak in the faith a while back, and I remember him saying that if we could hear the Holy Spirit audibly, we would hear him say "Get Up!" on a regular basis.  I guess I think about things in a weird way sometimes.  Its crazy how I get to things in my thought process at times.  I was just sitting here thinking about how I feel contradictory sometimes by some of the things that I like.  Some of the things I like are not normally in the same camps; like football and poetry.  Well that got me to thinking about the football players and coaches on my team right now.  That lead me to the rest of this post.  I struggle quite often with the guilt of my past sins and failures.  I have to look many folks in the eye all the time who have saw me do things and say things not in sink with my profession of Christ.  In all of my failures I am reminded however of what Mr. Glen told me, and what the Bible says......if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.  He convicts me and disciplines me as a loving father does his children, but He has paid the price for my debt.  To be sure there is another voice that I have to fight telling me that He hasn't forgiven me and that He doesn't love me anymore now that I have done it again, but all the while the Holy Spirit is saying...."Get up! Get up!  Because I love you!

In one of the Rocky movies Rocky is getting beat pretty bad and he falls down.  He lays there for a while and he can't hardly move.  Then he hears Mickey his trainer scream at him, "Get up! Get up you son of #####, cause Mickey loves ya."  Now I am not trying to equate Mickey with Jesus, but if we can find the strength to get up when a human that we love and admire so much encourages us, how much more would we if we let it sink in and thought often about the fact that God is there in the middle of our biggest falls and He is not only convicting our hearts but also trying to encourage us to get back up because He loves us!

Thanks for reading again,

Ryan

Psychology=Reality?

I am not planning on this being a long post, but I could get carried away.  Anyway as the title implies I have a lot of questions about psychology and its current descriptions of what reality actually is for its patients.  Before I go any further I think this is a super sensitive subject for a lot of folks so I will keep that in mind as I go on.  In the following paragraph I will try to explain why I have some questions with many psychological theories.  This will not be a complete explanation of what I think, but it will I think show you why I question.

Today we have grown so accustomed to listening to 'professionals' that I think we may second-guess our own reasoning.  This is not the only question but it is definitely one big one.  Psychology is a soft science, meaning that it can not be examined completely by the scientific method.  For years and years people have not had near as many labels and seemed to have made i at least as good if not better than our current generation with its many labels.  One of two things is true about the last statement.  Either people have new 'disorders' that have not always been around or they have always had these 'disorders' but no one called them that.  Or there is a third option actually; that psychologists have conveyed a reality to people that is not real.  To be sure it may have some aspects of reality, but the cause of the 'disorder' if you will is not really the cause.  Another question I have is a little more subjective, but I worry that if I believed wholeheartedly in psychology then I may begin to believe that the emotional problems that I have sometimes and the bad attitude that I have sometimes and the lack of attention that I have sometimes may in fact be out of my control anyway.  That type of thinking to me is one of the biggest crippling effects that psychological labels can do.

Now for some arguments I have in defense of psychology.  There seems to be some physical causes that can mess with a person's emotions.  One pretty common experience I can think of for a lot of women to some degree or another is post-partum depression.  It has been proven that having a baby messes with the hormone levels in mothers.  Hormone levels mess with a person's feelings, so that they feel depressed or irritated or a whole host of other unwanted emotions.  This varies from person to person but I do think it is physically caused.  

Once again I am just being honest about a lot of questions I have.  I respect a heck of a lot of folks that do not agree with me.  I also know from experience that it sucks horribly bad to be depressed for a long period of time.  I am just asking questions.

Anyway, I will finish by sharing something that may give a little insight into what I believe is missing from the psychological viewpoint.  Emily dealt with some post-partum depression after each of the babies.  She is pretty open about it, so I don't think she would mind me saying.  In talking to her this is how she describes the experience.  She said that it was like her brain was having thoughts and her body having feelings that she didn't want them to have, but in the middle of all that she was telling herself, "Emily you shouldn't feel this way.........."  She would continue by telling herself what was reality.  I love my baby.  God is here.  Hopefully, she would say, Ryan loves me.  But you get the point.  Its as if there really is something else beyond this physical body.  Of course I think this is the truth that is missing in the psychological viewpoint.  If the Bible is correct, we are not all just a bunch of bones, organs, flesh, and chemicals.  Yet most psychology does not take into account that we are anything more than just that.....flesh, bones, organs, and chemicals.  

Hopefully I'll be able to type some more on this at another time.  I would love any comments that could show me something I am missing.

Ryan

Life is not that simple

I was just reading a blog post from a guy I have been reading a little lately.  He was sharing how when he was little and throughout the rest of his life he related to this sad intro song that had a little dog all by himself just walking alone.  He went on to explain some of why he thinks he felt a connection with the little lonely dog when he first saw it when he was about 5 or 6.  He finished by writing that we ought to make sure we reach out to someone today, (especially little kids).  You see, he had some rough things happen when he was little and he had a really tough time communicating his words which added to the misery.  He felt, even as a little 5 year old boy, all alone.  We are so quick to judge that someone just needs to get over things that we avoid real issues that hurt people badly.  We present cookie-cutter concepts that attempt to fix all without really getting into the uncomfortable parts of relationships with people.  We are so quick to say "no one has an excuse, I had a rough upbringing and I still learned how to live responsibly."  Maybe the reason is that we never have really dealt with the hard issues and therefore don't have any really close relationships with anyone.  We just live a life of self-protection which inevitably leads to numbness.  

I'm not looking down my nose here either.  There are many many days that I avoid talking to some people because I know it might get uncomfortable, and I would just rather chill out in my numb little mood for the day.  But here's a wake up call.  Many of the people you and I avoid are hurting and need desperately for someone to care.  When we do this we at least for the moment bring to the forefront of their conscience what they no down deep, that God really does care about them too.  God works through people loving people.  Of course this hits another spot in my heart now that I have children.  Garrison is almost 2 and he will soon be a little 5 year old, and if I try I can imagine him sitting there watching a little lonely dog walk by himself and think that he is pretty much like him.  That's where it hurts.  People, especially little ones need to be loved uncomfortably.  Anyone that has ever really loved someone else knows that at times it just downright awkward to be there for someone.  Its awkward but it is needed.  God help us go love some people this week, especially little kids.

Ryan

Lord help us be more than trees

I am so convicted tonight of my need to feel.  We are called worship in spirit and in truth.  It is not either or.  It is both.  Help us Lord worship You.  

Let the following lyrics sink deep into your heart.  We were created to enjoy Him.

Once again these lyrics are by the David Crowder Band.

Lyrics to God Of Creation :
It’s the way Your stars shine
Sometimes so bright that I swear I could hear
It’s the way Your moonlight
Falls on this mountain lake so clear and
It’s the way Your sunshine
Paints Your evening sky and 
It’s the way Your rain falls
To sing me to sleep at night and
I fall, I fall into You

CHORUS
God of creation
Take my breath away
God of the heavens
In this very space

It’s the way You lead me
The way we walk by Your waters still and
It’s the way You hold me
The way You’ve felt all that I feel and
It’s the way You touch me
The way You know when 
It’s needed most
It’s the way You form Your words
On my heart while I rest in You 
Carry me away

CHORUS

You enter suddenly
And I am lost again
Inside the majesty
Oh, I am lost again
And you come suddenly
‘Cause I am lost again
Inside the mystery,
Oh, I am lost again
Inside the majesty
Inside the mystery

I hope these words have blessed you,

Ryan

Beautiful God

Here is a beautiful song about Jesus and His awesome love that draws us. 

The lyrics are by the David Crowder Band

Lyrics to You're Everything :
You’re everything
I could want
That I could need
If I could see
You want me 
Could I believe
‘Cause You’re perfectly
All I want
And all I need
If I could just feel Your touch
Could I be free

Why do You shine so?
Can a blind man see?
Why do you call?
Why do You beckon me?
Can the deaf hear
The voice of love?
Would You have me come?
Can the cripple run?
Are You the one?

CHORUS 
To raise me up from this grave
Touch my tongue and then I’ll sing
Heal my limbs then joyfully I’ll run to You

You’re everything
I could want
That I could need
And I can just
Feel Your touch
And I can’t breathe

Look how You shine so
The blind can see
And how you call
How You beckon me
The deaf hear
The voice of love
You bid me come 
And the cripple run
You’re the one

CHORUS 

‘Cause You’re everything

And I’m alive and I’ll sing
And I’m alive and I’m free…

You should look the song up and listen to it.  It is beautiful.

Ryan

Finally something in common!

It just occurred to me that me and Emily actually have something in common.  Well we actually have a few other things in common too; i.e. we worship Jesus, we love our kids, we both now enjoy coffee.  But honestly we are very different on a lot of issues.  I think we have both learned to enjoy some of the things that we each like that we didn't prior to being together.  It tends to happen when your in love with someone.  Anyway the new found common ground is that we both have the integrity of our jobs questioned all the time.  I'm really not bitter.  Its kind of funny really.  I've learned to chime right in.  I love the gym teacher jokes.  Nothing gets my day going better than a student asking me, "Coach Little did you have to go school to be a P.E. teacher?"  Or this is the slightly kinder question.  "Coach Little did you have to go to school as long as the teachers do?"  Notice that I am not included as one of the teachers, but at least the second question submits the possibility that I might have went to some school.  Its pretty funny isn't it.  I actually thought about trying to become certified in a really difficult subject so I could earn some respect.  However, the Drivers Education class was already filled.  I'm just kidding Driver's Ed. people.

My wife also gets questioned about the value of her job.  I guess a lot of folks think you get to sit around and eat bon bons all day while your 21 month old and 4 month old just pacify themselves.  Garrison and Allie-Parker are really good at pacifying themselves.  She sits quietly in her bouncer and stares at the T.V. in delight.  Garrison also loves sitting in place for hours on end.  Its amazing to watch really.  I can't believe Emily is ever tired, even after 12 hour days of stuff like this (like during football season).  Well its not even 12 full hours.  Garrison and Allie-Parker both sleep until 11 am every morning, and no one ever wakes up during the night.  During the remaining hours of the day the T.V. does all the teaching necessary.  I mean I guess Emily would get up and do something if it were necessary.  (Just a little sarcasm on the last paragraph)

Really and truly though, it is funny when I get asked the questions about P.E. and I guess it is sometimes funny, when people that don't have one smidgen of an idea of the work it is to take care of two very small children and keep the house clean and pay bills on time and run errands and cook dinner and make your husband lunches and anything else that needs to be done, make light of staying home with your kids.  But honestly the questioning about Emily's job ticks me off a little, (actually a lot).  You see, I see first hand everyday how much effort she puts into raising our children and making our house feel like a home and all the other stuff that goes unnoticed like making me lunches to take to work.  Emily asked me not to write anything about her other than the funny stuff, but I can't help it.  I think it is right for people to know.  I didn't mean to get serious on this one.  I'm  Sorry.  My wife deserves the praise though.  I don't tell her nearly enough how much I appreciate everything she does.  

With all that said, please keep the P.E. jokes coming.  I've got to go for now though.  I need to go practice blowing my whistle before I go to bed.

Ryan

Imperfect Knowledge

I get hung up sometimes on not being able to understand certain things in God's Word.  I mean I see the truth there, but then I go and try to fill in blanks that have not been filled to bring the seeming contrast together for myself.  The one thought that always seems to jump around in my head is how God can be in total control, (and He is) and man be in control of his actions as well.  This is a paradox.  The trouble I get myself into is trying to force the two together into some formula that seems to make sense.  I say 'seems' to make sense, because let me tell you I've tried for 7 years to put the the two concepts together and I always find a flaw in the formula.  You know why, because there is no formula.  The Bible says in Deuteronomy that there are secret things that belong to Him only, but it also says that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.  ( 2 Peter 1:3)  The Bible takes for granted man's responsibility and says all over the place that God is sovereign.  There is a lot to say about this topic that I have left out.  It is definitely not an easy topic to just brush off.  However, from experience I have found that if I let the two concepts lay side by side the mystery seems more beautiful than dreadful.  When we start filling in blanks that the Bible does not fill in we may be in danger of seeing God as something He is not.  We must take God as He is revealed in His Word, but let us be careful not to add or take what is there to make it fit into what seems to make sense.  Part of worship to our God is found in adoring His mysterious ways.  I'll leave you with a few quotes that hopefully will renew a fresh look at God and His wonderful mystery.

"Shoreless ocean who can sound Thee, Thine own eternity is round Thee,

Majesty Divine."  (Frederick Faber)

"He works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform, His foot is on the sea shore, He's riding on the storm"  (William Cowper)  

My precious great-grandmother always quoted the first part of that line to me any time she talked about God answering prayer.  She went to be with Him last May.  If there was one thing she left me believing is that God works in mystery in the lives of His creation.

Ryan

 

Prenuptial with God

This will hopefully be a short post.  I was thinking about the common thought process of some christians I have talked to.  It goes like this.......even if it turns out that there is in fact is no heaven and hell,  we christians would have lived a good life anyway.  At first this argument sounds decent, but I think it leads to a prenuptial agreement with God in your heart.  You see, people who make prenuptial agreements with their soon to be spouse are afraid that their husband or wife will not keep their promise.  I think this will always keep a mind-set of holding back a little just in case.  That is exactly what the thought process above does with God.  I pray I will have Paul's mind-set instead.........."If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1Corinthians 15:19)  It is hard to be completely sold out for someone that you think might not really exist. 

Thanks for reading,

Ryan

Feels like coming home

You know sometimes when you hear christian apologist arguments it seems that they are trying to convince people that honestly do not believe there is a God that there is in fact one.  Sorry Emily, I know that was a very wordy sentence.  I love you.  Anyway, one day maybe I will be able to be more concise.  My point is this...Every single human being knows that there is a God.  As I've heard preachers say 'in your heart of hearts you know.'  That is not an oversimplification of a complex matter.  It is just as true as every other line in Scripture that we all as christians hold to.  Every coherent man and woman knows that there is a God.  Forgive me for being brutally honest here,but it has been too long since I have studied my Bible.  Today I opened up and read the first couple of chapters of Romans.  Listen to this........"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them."  (Romans 1: 18-19) 

It goes on to explain how He has shown it to them, but that last statement is enough to see that God has shown all people that He is here.  If I am reading this right, this means everyone.  Chapter 2 explains how gentiles, (that is everyone who were not jews at that time and now) have this knowledge as well even without the law.  Paul through God's inspiration is arguing that even those who have not heard of the God of the Bible know that there is a God.  

In the verses quoted above he says that men suppress the truth by their unrighteousness.  The truth is there but they don't like it, so they press it down deeper and deeper and harden their hearts more and more.  The opposite could be true: that is that they could acknowledge the truth and seek God and He would give them the light they need to come to the gospel.  

I don't want to get away from my main point.  When you tell someone, when hopefully I tell someone here in the next few days about Jesus, we need not worry that they genuinely do not believe there is a God.  They know He exists.  You do not have to worry about that.  As you begin to tell them they will either begin to be drawn to the message and feel like they are coming back home to their wonderful Father that they knew was there all along but didn't want to be with, or they will harden their heart to the God that they know exists but don't want to follow.  Now I do believe christian apologetics have their place.  Sometimes we need to be re-taught the things we already know, and so many lies are flying around us all the time it is good for christian scientists to prove what we already know.  It is true we all know it.  Whether we only know Him as a Being that is out there or as our Heavenly Father, He is here.

I'll leave you with these verses.

Thanks, 

Ryan

"For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their hearts were darkened.  Claming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."  (Romans 1:20-23)

Thanks Jody

So I was talking to a good friend of mine about the topic that I have been writing about lately on these last few notes.  (Facebook notes)  He brought up the a theologian and philosopher that I had never read or heard of before. (Saint Anselm) Anyway I looked up some of what he thought and found it very interesting. He was argued that existence precedes essence. I read a little of what he thought about it and I also read some others that disagreed with him and some that agreed. Most of the arguments were centered around the existence of God. If any of this interests you just google Anselm and you will get a ton of information about him. However, the most interesting couple of sentences that I read on the website were found in conclusion of the arguments. After listing several philosophers for and against the existence of God, the conductor finishes like this

"Classical theism states that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect. Ontological arguments, both old and revised, have also assumed this explicitly or implicitly. Many philosophers are skeptical about the underlying assumption, as described by Leibniz, "that this idea of the all-great or all-perfect being is possible and implies no contradiction."
For example, moral perfection is thought to imply being both perfectly merciful and perfectly just. But these two properties seem to contradict each other. To be perfectly just is always to give every person exactly what he deserves. But to be perfectly merciful is to give at least a person less punishment than he deserves. If so, then a being cannot be perfectly just and perfectly merciful.[30]"

The argument above is a sound one. God can not be perfectly just if he is allows any of the ones deserving punishment to go free while punishing others. He can not be a just judge if He allows anyone deserving punishment to go free. This is where the wonderful truth of Jesus comes in. 'At the foot of the cross, where justice and mercy meet.' This is the absolute 
divider between the God of the Bible and the god of all others. No other religion shows a god of absolute justice and unconditional love. Search it out. You will find none. 
I'll finish with one of my favorite songs

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocing voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that helf Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I knoww that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast inJesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Thanks for reading,
Ryan

Education

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

John Dewey

How many folks would enjoy school more and teachers teach better and parents free themselves from guilt and children enjoy learning if we looked at education a little more like this.  Now there are certainly some things that I disagree with that John Dewey believed about education, but the quote above gets the essence of what I believe we are definitely missing in public schools and could be missing in many private schools.  

Ashes for Beauty

In talking to people, even very sincere Christians, I have found that we all have a hard time with the eternality of things.  We have a hard time with thinking of deserving hell for eternity.  Now I can't dive off into that right now, but try this out for a different angle.  Can you imagine feeling at home in a place of utter beauty and holiness where Jesus lives with His Father and the Holy Spirit, if it were not for the cross.  Honestly, I feel like Peter felt when he saw how awesome and holy Jesus was.  He said, "Go away from me Lord.  I am a sinful man."  If I'm dead honest, the eternality of things doesn't settle well for me all the time, but feeling comfortable in heaven with my sin is absolutely unthinkable.  I can't imagine it.  One thing I am certain of is that I don't deserve real Beauty.  I am not fit for a place like heaven, and I feel deep within my heart that I will go on forever somewhere.  So my only hope is that Jesus took my place of darkness and ugliness.  Without that, any hope of going to heaven when I leave this earth is gone.  I am certain.  Jesus is the only way.

Ryan 

Temples 'In Wait'

You know if I'm honest I have a hard time loving everyone I meet, but I shouldn't.  In fact, sometimes I have a hard time loving those that are the closest to me.  When I am unloving it is a sure sign of the fact that I have lost sight of God's love for me.  It is still there, but just not within my awareness like it ought to be.  Sometimes I feel especially aware of how blessed I really am and usually at the same time how much I don't deserve it.  This is one of those times.  This is not being over humble.  We sometimes think that people who think that they don't deserve anything good are being false humble; I pray I'm not.  I'm just aware that the love I've been given wasn't deserved or earned.  When God awakens my senses to where they ought to be is when I feel like this.  This state of being is not depressing though, and that may sound very weird.  I feel the most free to love when I don't go around thinking of my deserving love back.  When I realize that I am loved by this Awesome Creator who made all things and knows all things about me then I am free to really love people around me.  This is the state I think Jesus describes when He tells us that if someone sues us and takes our tunic (like a jacket) to give him our cloak (like a shirt) as well, or when He tells us to not turn away someone who borrows from us.  He also tells us to have dinners and make sure to invite folks that you know can not pay you back.  Some how for so long I have reshaped these verses to fit the my own American view.  I have quoted this many times almost as if it is a Bible verse.  'Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him to fish you feed him the rest of his life.'  Well that has some wisdom in it, but it should not reshape the plain meaning of the verses I just quoted.  Well this is not the direction I planned on going with this post.  

The original idea I wanted to type about was the fact that every person that I come in contact with is either a temple of God or a temple 'in wait of God'.  Christians are the temples that God dwells in on earth, but people living today that are not yet Christians are just as valuable temples as those already occupied by God today.  The difference is not in the temple, but in the God who dwells in them.  Something very serious for me to think about is the fact that I have two beautiful little temples 'in wait' looking at their father and mother to show them in the next few years Who it is who made them and is waiting to move in and live with them.   I pray that God would help me and all of us see where our value comes from, and that it is not from within ourselves, but from the one who created us.  I think that if I really was aware of that all the time I would love people in ways that would make them want the source of my love.  It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that I can not escape this command to love others as myself and that this type of love goes hand in hand with loving the Lord my God with all my strength, soul, and mind.  I am always a little timid at typing stuff like this, because it puts the bulls eye on me.  One way I am always attacked when I sin is by being reminded of what I have said or typed or written to others and fail to do myself.  Nevertheless, the truth is the truth.  My standing does not make it stand.  It stands apart from me and without me.  

At any rate, it is the most exciting thing in the world to think about loving people with Jesus type love.  I hope my actions will begin to express my ideals more and more.

God bless yall,

Ryan

Just wanted to say

I just wanted to say that I have been convicted of my attitude lately.  It has reflected especially in the last two posts.  I'm not saying that I necessarily disagree with what I said, but I was not close to God when I typed either of them and it shows I think.  I am very aware again that its is not just what you say or type for that matter but the way in which you do as well.  I have wasted enough time on these trivial matters that will not be present in heaven for sure.  I read a wonderful devotional the other day that has been hanging around in my heart.  The thing that stood out to me and has been very precious and encouraging when I think about is this: we never sin and it only be ours anymore.  Every time I sin it placed on the Lord Jesus, or rather was placed there before the foundation of the world.  Even before I was aware of His love for me this was true.  "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6)

The argument that God would be just to send us to hell even if He had not sent His own Son to die for us has never been a consideration to God, since He had determined to have Jesus die for us before the foundation of the world.  Sin has always, when rightly seen cost God much more than us.  Without saying much more, I am sorry for anyone that has come possibly searching for life and found only a fading argument in the last two posts.  That is not to say that arguing is all bad, but I feel compelled to say that I know my attitude was wrong and I'm sure it came across.  There is a beautiful reality of a living Saviour that I would like to get back to.  He loves us all.  Do you know that?  I doubt it sometimes, but it remains true.  He loves us.  Ain't that awesome!  

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)

A Tribute To The David Crowder Band

If you can't tell already by the numerous David Crowder Band songs I have on my blog, I am a huge David Crowder Band fan.  I love their music.  I think their music is such a refreshing reminder that not all of what is new is shallow.  Not that all 'shallow' music is wrong, but in a day where lyrics are often said to be overlooked for a good beat, it is nice to see a band that I believe has both awesome music and possibly even more awesome lyrics.  Before I start, I must warn you that I may not be able to control myself once I get started.  Anyway here I go.

 Just a couple years ago they put out a CD called "A Collision."  I can honestly let the CD play from 1 to 22 and never want to skip to the next song.  I don't know if they meant to or not, but the CD progresses it seems from our first call to worship to the great entrance into the new Jerusalem.  Before I get off on all twenty two songs, I would like to highlight one.  It is one of the two songs that actually became popular on 88.5 the local christian station.  I can't recall the actual song title.  I think it is 'Wholly Yours,' but I could be wrong.  Here are the opening lines.....

I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From the broken earth flowers come up 
Pushing through the dirt

You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are

You are everything that is bright and clean
And You’re covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man
But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean

Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
Yours

I hope you are as blessed by this as I have been.

Thanks again,

Rya

Justice on the open market

Derek Webb said in a song "when justice is bought and sold like weapons of war the ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor."  He was specifically talking about the majority of poor people that are always killed in physical war, but there is another war going on around us now, in which justice is being sold and the weakest of the weak are paying the price.  I read an article in the newspaper last week that made me angry, but most of all broke my heart.  The article was giving examples of how the down economy is affecting abortion rates.  The examples were from an abortion clinic in California.  One story was told of a woman that came in to abort her planned fourth child because after re-evaluating their budget her and her husband had decided they just could not afford another child.  Another story was told of a woman that walked all the way to the clinic because she could not afford the bus ticket.  She interrupted one of the doctors half way through his normal spill of what this abortion would mean.  She would not let him continue any more on any talk about possibly not aborting the baby.  The article said she stopped him and through tears said that she had walked all the way there and that she was sure of her decision.  The article also tells of how the economy is making some abortions be pushed to the second trimester, because of insufficient funds from the families to pay for them.  In other words they are having to save for the abortion which pushes the baby further along its way before he or she is killed.  I am not using harsh language either.  That is what is happening.  Justice is for little ones is being sold in return for there parents convenience or the slight bit higher 'avoidance of a really hard time'.  God help us!  Have we become so numb that we can't see that we as a nation perform daily what would be considered grotesque if the babies were snatched unwillingly from the mother's womb, or if the same was done one second after delivery.  We have been numbed by scientific hoopla that makes things seem less cruel than they are.  Abortion sounds much better than murdering babies or the dissecting of infants.  We can handle the term abortion, because it sounds like you're getting your tonsils taken out.  This however is not the case.  Something as gross as the holocaust is happening daily and we shrug our shoulders.  Lord forgive me!  I may have just lost most of my readers with the last statement so let me explain.  What is it that makes murder wrong?  Is it the intentional physical pain it causes to another human?  Is it the pain it causes to the family of the victim?  Is it the robbing of the life that person could have lived?  Is it all of these things I have just listed? Yes, but there is something else much greater that we must see in order for murder to be as heinous as it truly is.  Knowing that each person born and unborn is first and foremost God's makes murder eternally horrible.  When the nazis committed all those poor people to gas chambers and other torturous deaths they in effect counted God as an unworthy Creator to create such people, and when we here in America dismember infants in the womb we do the same.  I am totally convinced that the only infallible argument that gives the dignity and value to every single human life is the fact that God has created us all.  He is the owner.  We have no right.  He forms their inward parts in their mothers' wombs the Scripture says and we here in 

America think it is our right to take them apart.  Do not think that just because you have not directly killed an unborn baby that you have no part in where we are here in this country.  We all have at least played some part with our nonchalant attitudes about it.  

   Before I end this I want to say a few things.  This is without a doubt a very sensitive issue.  I know it is quite possible that someone that may read this has had an abortion.  If you have read this far you are probably very broke up about it.  I am not trying to be harsh, but it does no good to tell you something that is not true.  If you are broken about it know that I do not wish to throw stones at you.  If I could I would hug you and tell you that there is wonderful news for you though.  If you are alive today it is because God is being patient with you.  Let His kindness lead you to repentance.  He loves you.  He created you.  He has promised that if you will receive Him as your Lord and Saviour He will forgive you.  He sent His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world and that means there is enough room for yours.  I personally believe that all little ones that die go to be with Him.  You may see your child one day singing a great welcome home song for you.  I don't know, but I do know for a fact that whosoever believes in Him shall not be disappointed.   

Thanks again,

Ryan

A Tree Is A Stick To Garrison

Yesterday afternoon I went out in the back yard with my little boy Garrison.  We had an awesome time.  Its amazing what an amusement park a 40ft by 40ft patio home yard can be to a 17 month old.  He loves going outside.  As a matter of fact, me and my wife have been having to spell it out to each other when talking about it because when he hears the word he runs to the back door and tries to turn the handle to go all the while looking and whining at us.  So we are now at the spelling words stage I guess.  Anyway, so we are outside and I set down in a chair and just watch him.  He just staggers all over the yard jabbering about everything.  He is starting to sound out words, (when he wants to) which is pretty cool.  So he starts bringing me all the sticks in the yard and saying something like 'ick' or sometimes if he's doing good 'tick.'  Well after he brings me about five he walks over to one of our two trees and points and says 'ick.'  So I say 'no buddy that is a tree.'  He shakes his head walks in a circle and points at it again...'tick'.  I never did convince him that what he thought was a big stick was actually a tree.  He heard nothing of it.  It was an ick to him and that was that.  

Well that got me to thinking.  So many times in teaching and learning we get caught up on terms and miss the understanding.  We teach children the rules without the life.  We memorize without attaching it to life.  Sure we make a distinction in the English language between a live tree and a dead tree.  We call the live one a tree and the dead one a stick or a log or something else, but the fact is Garrison is right.  The tree is just a big live 'ick.'  Now of course later on I'll explain that we call the live one a tree and all that good english stuff, but for now he has the foundation to build on.  I just think we teachers discourage our students because we teach the rule the rule the rule without it meaning anything more that crammed memory for a test.  Rules attached to life are all that matters to children and adults.  Information unless it affects us has not benefitted us.  Well now I am going off a little on another talk.  Hopefully my point is clear.  This is not only for formal school teachers.  This is for all of us who ever have the opportunity to help teach anyone anything.  Everyone you come in contact with can learn.  We  make it seem so difficult.  It does take some discipline to excel, but it is much easier to do so if all of the information we are trying to learn is not just memorized, and the terms taught just because they are to be taught.  Understanding will take us much further that memorizing.

I really do think all of this goes back to your foundation.  I am absolutely sure that things can never be seen completely right until the Creator-creation relationship is restored.  It is amazing how much clearer everything is when my mind has been renewed by Him and His word.  This stretches to every facet of life.  

Thanks for reading,

Ryan

A People Pleaser; the biggest slave of all

There is a big difference between being and appearing to be.  These may overlap sometimes, but they are not the same.  I had a situation that reminded me of that this weekend.  I won't go into detail, but I told myself that I am done trying to appear as anything.  I'm going to be.  Now that is a heck of a lot easier said than done, but that is my new resolution.  So many times I have let what I appear to be dictate instead of acting the way I ought before God.  I'm now wondering if the whole thought process of wanting to appear christian is good at all.  Now hopefully if I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart and love those around me then someone will ask about the hope that is in me, like it says in Peter.  But going around tip-toeing is not loving.  It is self/image protecting.  I'm not here promoting the idea of using liberty as a cover to sin either.  I pray that if that is in any of my motive that God will break me of it.  It didn't seem to bother Jesus that some called Him a wine-bibber and a glutton.  As a matter of fact as I was typing a verse popped in my head that He said.  Beware when all men speak well of you.  So I should not hold the opinion of all as my measuring stick.  Jesus must have drank and ate with sinners.  I think the Bible says that.  I know He turned water into wine.  He put Himself in places that at first glance could have looked like He was doing something wrong, and some folks accused Him of sin.  Yet we know He was absolutely perfect.  He did not concern Himself with appearing in any way.  He just was.  He always pleased the Father.  

My point is this.  There will always be folks around questioning my motives and even actions if I really go out and love people.  If I love people and tell them about the holy God of Scripture, not the American replica, that we including myself at the forefront have presented, then I will not be accepted by everyone.  But what am I losing.  I have lived the other side too, and found that no matter how hard I try please everyone and avoid every single possible appearance of evil, someone will be offended.  And all to often my motive becomes hoping that I appear Christian in the way the audience I'm around at the time defines it.  I'm sick of it.  God help me just love Him and everyone I can around me.  I would love any insight or comments anyone would like to offer on the subject.

Ryan

A Who From Whoville

So we teachers at MGM high are giving graduation exams this week, well some of us.  I don't guess they trust the P.E. guy to give tests, so I am holding some who are not taking it.  Anyway, what this means is we try to find something interesting to do for four hours.  Today we watched two movies.  One was "Horton hears a Who."  I actually really enjoyed it.  Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I couldn't help noticing the constant parallels between the movie and God and us.  I am not referring to God as an Elephant that talks.  Thankfully He is not that.  But we certainly are a lot like little whos from whoville or however you spell it.  I can't see it in my head right now.  Anywho....its not that we look like that much like them, most of us, but that our situation is very similar.  We think we are so much bigger and that our affairs are so much grander than they actually are.  We are just a speck in a humongous jungle on a humongous earth in an even more humongous universe.  But we don't know it, or at least we don't act like it; that is usually until something tragic happens and we realize afresh just how small and fragile we really are.  For those of you who have not seen the movie you are missing out.  From another slant in the movie, the mother kangaroo keeps bashing Horton for believing in something he can't see. (another christian parallel)  I was just reminded today again that I am small and insignificant in this whole big thing we call life.  I have some anthill size accomplishment that I love to turn into mountains, or at least hope they will one day.  How really silly we all are with our big chest poked out and our nose poked up.  We are really just tiny little puffs of smoke.  

Now that news can be either freeing or depressing.  Either way I think it is a fact, so ignoring won't help.  It is depressing if we have no one who really is significant that knows us and cares about our little speck of existence, but it is freeing if we allow it to break us away from the slavery of trying to make it, trying to prove that I am important in the big picture, that I matter.  Because the truth is that one day the most well known well respected of us all will die and those that think we are like that will too.  However, we can not only be freed from the slavery of trying to make it, but be freed to know the One who is high above the stars and stretches to the furthest galaxy.  We can stop trying to matter, because we do matter to One that truly is significant.  We can then laugh and really not mind to much being a who from whoville.  Man, I'm telling you.  The times when I am most freed to live and love and be joyful is when I am so secure in Him that the stings of fallen reputation to those around or whatever may come just doesn't matter that much.  We have a perfect example in Jesus.  In phillipians chapter 2 it tells us that the reason Jesus was able to get His hands dirty serving was because He did not have to continually worry about His identity. He knew that He was the Son of 

God, therefore He could bend down and wash His own peoples' feet.  We can be ok with being whos if we find our meaning in something greater.

I appreciate you reading,

Ryan 

Here I Kneel

I will never experience what my wife has.  I will never be able to say with completeness, I understand.  I have never carried a child for 9 months inside me, or one day for that matter.  I have never felt the little wonder moving around inside me late at night so I can't sleep or had heartburn so bad I can't lay down.  I have never loved and cared for a beautiful, but into everything 16 month old while I had another 6lb one inside me taking my energy too.  I have never had to feel the burden of knowing that I work hard every single day for my beautiful little boy that can't say thankyou yet, and for a husband that is to selfish too many times.  I have never had to feel the burden of friends making jokes that 'I must sit around and eat snacks and watch T.V while Garrison plays.'  I have never had the burden of justifying what should come natural to women with little children.  I have never had to have my body scared because I love my babies so much.  There are so many things that you Emily have had to experience that I must just step back and kneel.  You are my princess and I love you,

Ryan 

The Great God of Logic and Feelings

I can't wrap my mind around the concept of a Being that can be personal and loving to one million different people at the same time.  My head and heart stop right here.  I can't possibly understand how this is possible, and I can't possibly feel how real this truly is.  Yet Paul prayed in the New Testament that we would know the width and breadth and depth of the love of Christ which passes all understanding.  Think about that.  He prayed that we would know something that is beyond our ability to understand.  I can remember when Jesus started becoming personal to me that I wrote in a journal that God must dissect seconds to be with His children.  I wasn't at the time writing to explain the concept of the omnipresence of God.  I was just so overwhelmed that the God of the universe cared enough to be personal with everyone of us.  He doesn't just tell us if you do this and this my angels will write it down and you will go to heaven one day.  No!  He comes to us personally and turns our hearts eyes to His.  This is to awesome to fully understand, but man I'm so thankful its true.  As A.W. Tozer says.  We can always be confident that when we look to God we have kind eyes looking back at us.  If we really let this sink in more we our lives would change dramatically.  He is just as present with me while I am calling role at school as He is when I am singing a song in church, though I may not realize it.  

This is such a freeing concept that ties with another one.  God is.  I may find out different things or see more light to show me Him more clearly but He is and always was the same.  This may be the most stabilizing fact I know.  God is.  Now I can search things without fear that my foundation will prove false.  I now have a sure place to see life from.  His name is 'I am'  

Continuing down the trail

So it has been a good while since I posted something.  I want to continue what I was talking about on my last post.  I was typing about thinking about things in relation to the beginning of creation.  It has been pretty freeing to me.  I say that not like I have found 'new light' but instead rediscovered what has always been here.  Now this may seem silly or over-simplistic, but its valuable to me and maybe it will be to somebody else.  

One thing I was thinking about today was the fact that there was no written language in the beginning.  Now this has a lot of implications.  I'll list a few I can think of.  God must be much more aware to everyone than we tend to think of Him.  Now of course God was more aware to Adam and Eve before they fell into sin, but I am talking about after that.  God was just as present during the unwritten years as He is now in the written years.  Now hold on a minute.  I know that the Word of God is the brightest light to show us Him, and the message of the gospel of Jesus must be believed for us to be born-again and made right with God.  What I am saying weakens none of that truth, instead I thing it strengthens it.  God is so much more aware to those He hasn't saved yet than we think.  I think Romans establishes this fact as well as many other texts.  The whole Bible establishes this fact really.  They know at the deepest root of who they are that God made them and is near.  The gospel breaths on this fact.  It does not come upon us like magic.  The good news about Jesus (the gospel), comes to all people that hear it not as another language, but as more of the same truth leading us to the God who has always been so near.  Once again the Word of God is essential as well as the Holy Spirit of God to convict us and draw us to God, but it all builds off of the light we already know from the beginning of creation.  

That is just one implication.  It also affects the way I think about education as well, which is becoming more and more important the older Garrison and soon to be Allie Parker get.  

Anyways, thanks again for reading

Ryan

New train of thought...

Lately I have been thinking about things with Genesis in mind.  I mean by that, that I have been wondering how did men and women do certain things from the beginning of time.  This has been freeing to me, because I have found in thinking that way that many of the things we take as just matters of the way things should be done may actually just have come around the last century or so.  This is of course very important I think in the way we raise our children.  Unfortunately I will have to continue this later, because my wife needs to use the computer.  I will definitely continue this later.  

Ryan

Best option available

When something is not directly spoken of in the Bible, we as christians have the responsibility to use the principles we know along with the best knowledge we have at the time to make the best decision on the issue at hand.  In all of this we should always ask God to help us think through the decision or set of decisions.  Yet, does God promise to tell us the answer to every question?  I don't think so.  We can however, trust that God is working through us as we trust Him.  "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phillippians 2:12-13).  From this verse and many more I think we find that God is much more concerned with us being concerned with our attitude than the actual decision at hand.  If we seek with honest sincerity to please Jesus then we will please Him in the decision.  This does not mean that we do not need to really think through some decisions.  We do. This means that we can have the assurance of knowing that our Father is in control, that He works through us in our limited frames.  He has never promised that we will have perfect knowledge here on earth.  Instead the new testament says that we see through a glass dimly lit.  However we can have the assurance of knowing that we are never on plan B with God if our heart is turned to Him.  He works even through our mistakes for our good and His glory.  (Romans 8:28)  Now should this lead us to presuming on His grace.  Absolutely Not.  I should never go jump off of a mountain and then pray for God to catch me. 

 I say all of that because, I have found in raising children there are a lot of things that the Bible does not speak specifically to.  It gives us a great set of principles and then says raise them.  There is no labor manual in the Bible.  I'm pretty sure C-sections were not performed during the years when the Bible was written, so many of the babies that are able to survive because of them today would have probably died back then.  So does this mean that needed C-sections that save babies lives are outside of God's will?  Well, if you make that argument you need to go protest the hospitals that are allowing doctors to treat cancer patients too.  I don't think that Luke was condemned for having lack of faith in God for being a physician.  You know he wrote one of the gospels under the Holy Spirit's inspiration.  There is no babywise section there either.  It never shows Sarah laying little Isaac down to cry himself to sleep.  To my knowledge it never tells us about a rocking chair either.  What do you do?  I'll tell you one thing that I don't think is smart:  raising any book to the equivalent of the Bible in instruction.  It seems many of us christian parents have done this with Babywise.  Christian author does not equal inspired author.  I'm not saying the book is wrong.  I don't know.  I will say that some of the instruction tends to make parents go against nurturing instinct, but what do I know.  My B.S. degree is in physical education not child raising.  But that in it self is a good point.  Must we really be educated to know how to care for our newborn baby.  Sometimes I think all the new found insights just make us question our God-given instincts.  I can't imagine

God handing Adam and Eve a manual and saying "now Eve make sure you read this thoroughly prior to Cain's birth.  Man what the heck would she do when she got to the section about feeding every three hours?  She better learn quick on how to read the Sun.  Or maybe clocks came about quicker than what history says.  Now I seem to have contradicted myself, because just a few types ago I was saying how medical knowledge is a good thing, and that God doesn't condemn physicians and stuff like that.  But I think there is a difference between medical science and child raising.  Who knows?   Anyway I kinda went off on a side road for a little bit.  All of the stuff about the question I have with Babywise are mine alone.  In fact we still use some of the methods.  I just have some questions that I'm not afraid to ask anymore.  Pray that the babywise god will not get me.  If you see it differently, and I'm sure many of you good parents do, I will not ask you to meet me somewhere to fight over it.  The second paragraph was just illustrating my point about unspecified issues that we face as christians.