Switching over

See you guys on tumblr. http://zach-rose.tumblr.com

Validated

Pick up your Armor

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore,having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints

Love in perspective

"To Love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--- safe, dark, motionless, airless---it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, inpenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation."
CS Lewis - The Four Loves

Scholar's Prayer

C.G. Moule
Anglican Bishop of Durham, 1901

Lord and Saviour, true and kind,
Be the master of my mind;
Bless and guide and strengthen still,
All my powers of thought and will.

While I ply the scholar's task.
Jesus Christ be near, I ask;
Help the memory, clear the brain,
Knowledge still to seek and gain.

Here I train for life's swift race;
Let me do it in Thy Grace;
Here I arm me for life's fight;
Let me do it in Thy might.

Thou hast made me mind and soul;
I for three would use the whole:
Thou hast died that I might live;
All my powers to Thee I give.

Striving, thinking, learning still,
Let me follow thus Thy will.
Till my whole glad nature be.
Trained for duty and for Thee.

The Beginning

Proverbs 1:7
The Fear of God is the beginning of Knowledge.

For the rest of our lives, I believe we'll be on a journey that will lead us to a deeper understanding of God, a better, more fulfilled and purposeful life than we could ever imagine.

This is the beginning of knowledge: Knowing God.
We see who we are when we realize who God is.
We see others as God sees them when we realize who we are because of Him.

Intimacy with God

This is a great video. Hope you enjoy

Alive

"It's not until you fully die to yourself, that you live the life God wanted you to live." Becky Wauson paraphrasing CS Lewis

Colossians 3:1-3
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 2:13-14

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Perceptions

drawn by mike erre

Tonight at church was a good reminder about reality. Because, Have you ever been been under the perception that something was one way, but in reality, it's completely not true at all.


Reading from Acts 17, we gleaned from scripture that God is at the center of it all. Paul is in athens at the time preaching and teaching about God, the true God. The athenians were under the perception that they directly influenced the gods, with their worship, with their crafts and with their speech, as if their gods wouldn't be complete without them. But Paul shows them what is reality. In verses 24, Paul explains to the athenians that God is the one at the center of the universe, ruling and reigning, not needing anything. My perception of reality, where I am at the center and not God, forces me to be perfect. It frustrates me because it isn't. I have to be successful. I have to be powerful. To find worth, everything has to be right....But, In reality, we are given the opportunity to partake in a relationship with God. We are met with grace. We are free, Free to worship.


A universe that puts me in the center is the last place I want to be. Fortunately, Reality reigns.

Krochet Kids

First day of work at The Krochet Kids office has been exciting and inspiring. We've set high goals and are dreaming even bigger. First things first, I found out that on Saturday I will have the opportunity to present the story of Krochet Kids on stage at Fish Fest. I'm stoked. I'm working on what I'm going to say right now.

Prayer needed.

The power of the cross is transforming!
In light of that, I was reminded of the beauty of the cross, which is captured by this song



Nothing but the Blood
Matt Redman


(Lyrics)
Your blood speaks a better word
Than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth
Speaks righteousness for me
And stands in my defense
Jesus it’s Your blood

[Chorus]
What can wash away our sins?
What can make us whole again?
Nothing but the blood
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can wash us pure as snow?
Welcomed as the friends of God
Nothing but Your blood
Nothing but Your blood King Jesus

Your cross testifies in grace
Tells of the Father’s heart to make a way for us
Now boldly we approach
Not by earthly confidence
It’s only Your blood

[Chorus]

We thank You for the blood
We thank You for the blood

We praise You for the blood
We praise You for the blood

Nothing but Your blood
Nothing but Your blood King Jesus

Some ideas

A lot of my blogs are inspired by one word, or one thought, or maybe a series of thoughts...What I'm trying to say is, my blogs are inspired by life and then I take a lot of time to chew on them. Well, these are some of my most recent ideas...

A blog about Giving results over to God. For, we know that it's God who brings the increase to our ministry; therefore, I our only duty is to be faithful to God and everything else is God.

A blog about Heaven. I love thinking about the Kingdom. I forget that this world isn't going to last forever. We know that Christ is coming back, how should we live now with that in mind?

A blog that asks and answers the question, "God what do you want from me?" In both Zechariah and Isaiah, God is clear, he wants our hearts and all the words, all the things that we could do, don't mean anything unless we give over our hearts to God.

and one last blog about Taking God seriously. In john 10:10b it says that Jesus came to bring life. I'm wondering how we can reach that now. What is it that God is calling us to that will bring us to a life with him. I've been reading over the Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning and a lot this blog will be inspired by what I've read in that book.

Pretty Radical Video of the Volcano in Iceland

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Getting It Right

An excerpt from Brennan Manning's The Signature of Jesus, a book that has been challenging me to take my walk with Jesus deeper still.

Personally, I take great comfort in the life stories of the first disciples, their response was flawed by fear and hesitation. What they shared in common was dullness, an embarrassing inability to understand what Jesus was all about. Their track record was not good: They complained, they misunderstood, they quarreled, they wavered, they deserted, they denied. Christ's reaction to their broken inconsistent discipleship was one of unending love. The good news is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.

Rest

Hebrews 4 commands the believer to take part in the sabbath of Jesus and I forgot, and it's not just a physical rest.

Do you ever feel tired like me when even though you've gotten plenty of sleep you exhausted--- emotionally? I was experiencing that a little bit today. Sometimes my brain just goes nuts and follows a train of rabbit holes all over a hyperreal whiteboard somewhere around my head (like a thought bubble) and sometimes it wears me out. I can tell you that someone can get plenty of "sleep" yet wake up even more exhausted then they went to bed. In my own case, this happens especially because of uncontrollable circumstances or some big thought, I'll often times catch myself wearing myself out because I'm thinking about something. Well, what I need to remember is, is that I can find rest in Jesus.

Jesus gives us the ability to partake in physical rest, but it's also more than that. The rest we are given is capable of bringing rest to our souls... our whole person. When Jesus came and died and rose again, he brought with him this privilege Why must I look further than Him? For the truth of Jesus tells me much more than that. Because of the cross, I don't have to worry about the hypothetical world and the big "what ifs?" that plague so many people, because I know the truth. Jesus tells his disciples, in john 8:32 You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. I am free from the bondage of doubt because of Jesus.

When Jesus died he reconciled the whole person to God, not just part and I can be confident in Him, therefore I rest.

A great invitation

CH Spurgeon invites his church to boldly enter into the throne room of grace. When I read this quote it got me excited.

We have known the washing of water by the Word, and we have been sanctified by the Spirit of his grace; therefore let us enter into the holiest. Why should we stay away? Hearts sprinkled with blood, bodies washed with pure water—these are the ordained preparations for acceptable entrance. Come near, beloved! May the Holy Spirit be the spirit of access to you now. Come to your God, and then abide with him! He is your Father, your all in all. Sit down and rejoice in him; take your fill of love; and let not your communion be broken between here and heaven. Why should it be? Why not begin to-day that sweet enjoyment of perfect reconciliation and delight in God which shall go on increasing in intensity until you behold the Lord in open vision, and go no more out? Heaven will bring a great change in condition, but not in our standing, if even now we stand within the veil. It will be only such a change as there is between the perfect day and the daybreak; for we have the same sun, and the same light from the sun, and the same privilege of walking in the light. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Division.” Amen, and Amen.

Amen

My own psalm of Praise

Praise God, for He is good.
Praise God, For He is faithful
Praise God, because He is just.
Praise God, because He gives.
Praise God because He loves.
Praise God because He is a God of glory!

You are always faithful,
You are consistently and constantly just.
You love Me.
Praise God.

It Takes Courage to Be Courageous

I think a common misconception about courage is that for the courageous, being brave, and doing the right thing, is easy, this is not the case at all. Being courageous is exactly the opposite. Being courageous by definition is feeling weak, feeling incapable and against all odds, yet continuing anyway.

It takes courage to be a Christian.
I don't always feel like I have the strength, or the tools, or the power to change anything, but I want to have enough courage to act.

"God give me your courage!" sings Tim Hughes.

I need courage to do what God wants. I need courage when I see the hurting, I need courage to do the right thing when I see the weak.


"Then He said, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:17b-19

Feeling empowered

For the last week or so I have to admit I've felt pretty empowered. I generally battle feelings of exhaustion and being over-stretched but not lately. So I've been filling my time with things that I love. I've been volunteering at Krochet Kids, Reading, hanging out at church... all kinds of stuff. Also, Collective lights launched today. that's something I've been working on for a while and it finally got rolling today.

I'm confident that it's been God who's been giving me strength, for, it wasn't until after I listened and relistened to a message by Tim Kellar about doing work that I prayed that God would give me the strength I needed to do his will that I started rested. Hebrews 3 and 4 commands us to have rest. David in the psalms constantly states that he desires rest or is finding rest. Rest, before we work, is finding out place in God trusting in Him.

The rest I've found has led me to action. One of the books I've been reading has really challenged me lately and maybe that's a reason to push on. The book is Good news about Injustice and it's a great read and should be read by every Christian I think. The book is reminding me of God's will for my life and his church and it's giving me a mission to do, therefore, I'm using what I have been given to give back to Him.

Jesus is Alive

The one thing that separates Christianity from everything else, is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. While Mohammed and Buddha, Ghandi, Nietzche, Sartre and rest have made claims about God, existence and Truth, Jesus is different. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead turns a dead faith into a living faith with the Almighty God.

Jesus' resurrection exclusively separates Christianity from every other religion simply because he is alive.

Paul said in I Corinthians 15:17 that if Christ is not risen our faith is futile and we are still as lost as ever, we are dead and we are alone, but Christ did rise.

I know that this is elementary, but for me, it was this that really made an impact on me today. Although I heard a lot about the hope of Jesus Christ this weekend, it just didn't really sink in til I started thinking about the mystery of his resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus did a few different things
1. It was the proof of God's acceptance for the work done on the cross.
2. It was Jesus opening up the door to a relationship with God.
3. It was Jesus proving who He said he was.
4. it was representation of the victory over the cross.
and these are just a few...

If Jesus didn't rise, we'd be hopelessly lost. But, he most definitely rose and it's by that authority we can claim the Life God intended for us.

An exciting new beginning

This week marks the beginning of the 2010 spring quarter, which I am very excited about. This quarter I'll be taking some interesting classes, diving deeper into Krochet Kids and Kingsfield. I know that God has something to teach me as he has every other quarter up to this, but also a time of more opportunities to share as well. One opportunity I have to share will be in my religious studies course which is focussing on interfaith dialogue. Interfaith dialogue will be a class that will teach me a lot about other religions but also give me an opportunity to share in front of class as well about what I believe.
About 100 years ago, there was a world fair in Chicago, Illinois. For the first time in contemporary history the world gathered in chicago and witnessed 10 of the world's religions share about their faith, famous theologian D. L. Moody preached about Christianity really believed to thousands upon thousands at the world fair defending a christianity in one of the most worldly environments of it's day. Researching D.L Moody's life has encouraged me and inspired me because of his heart for the lost, his courage to preach, and his impact. Of Moody, R.A Torrey one of his best friends, theologians, and world evangalist who also founded Biola University, wrote about him as a man who (1) fully surrendered, (2) man of prayer,(3) student of the Word of God, (4) humble man, (5) freedom from love of money, (6) consuming passion for the lost, (7) definite endument with power from on high. How I want to be like D.L. Moody! Moody jumped on the opportunity at the world fair to preach the gospel, and that's what's getting me excited about this class.
In class our first discussion was about Truth, next week it will be God, then Jesus, Buddah and Mohammed and from there it keeps going. I'll be needing the Lord's help to be bold, to be compelling, and to be fight for truth. I've been encouraged by Psalm 23 this week as I've realized that God is always with me.

Strength for those in need

I found this passage really hitting home yesterday so I thought I'd share.
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind.
Isaiah 40:29-31 (The Message)

I can become tired so quickly, but God is my strength.

Fillin' Up

I realize that God wants to shape and form my life according to him. I also know that God has given me a purpose, but sometimes, I try and make ends meet all by myself. Do you ever do that?
I'm often overwhelmed by what I have to do to make my life actually mean something. Tim Keller would probably note that, in all of my searching, what's really going on is that I'm desperately and superficially searching for something that only Christ can satisfy. Or in other words, I'm making idols that replace Jesus' work on the cross. So, there I am, I'm at the bottom of Mt. Sinai waiting for Moses to come down with the law and I'm molding an idol to worship and obey rather than waiting on God.
But, this is learning process and what I constantly must remind myself of is that, that only Christ can satisfy.
We sang this song in church and I really liked it. it's chorus was just a proclamation that Only Jesus can satisfy. How true is that? Only Jesus can curb my anxiety about the future. Only Jesus can give me the power to grow. Only Jesus can push me into a life worthy of the gospel.
I pray that I can remember this week,at least, to put God first, and trust Him.

Thoughts on justice

Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore, His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; the coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob. Says the Lord.

Isaiah 59:15b-20

Surely, Justice was seen on the cross when our sins were paid for, and one day, all things will be made right.

Running Forward.

God has been stirring up my heart lately and it's been making me hungry for him.
I see who I am; yet, I'm reassured by what I know about His Love for me. I want to know Him more, I want to dig deeper, to run farther in.

1 Peter 2:2&3
As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

I'm hungry because of the gospel and I want to live like someone who has been affected by it. And I want to share with you guys in the experience.

I Guess After All, We're All Just Groaning

Throwing bible verses at certain situations seems a bit inconsiderate sometimes, because who really knows pain?
I didn't really think too much of the tragic earthquake in Haiti til I checked my twitter just a few minutes ago and realized somehow I had just closed my eyes to the pain out there in the world over this incident. My heart really goes out for the situation now, and so I will be praying for the people of Haiti.
But, I feel like I ought to share this. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt that God is there(Gen 28:15; Ps 9:10; Ps 94:14; Matt 28:19 ), He is suffering ( Isaiah 53:4-6; Hebrews 12:1, Luke 24:26; and that He has not forsaken us (Hebrews 4:14-16;5:8-11) and He loves us (Romans 8:18-28&32; 1 John 4:10.
It makes a whole lot of sense to me when I read that all of creation is groaning (Romans 8:22) and it's groaning for justice and righteousness. But all of creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in Hope (Romans 8:20). And so creation groans. And we groan. And they groan. We all grown.
Shouldn't there be something... Shouldn't it be... different? We can't even express the words... Why is there so much pain? We groan... and the Spirit hears us. (Romans 8:26) The Spirit intercedes for us. He cries out to God what we can't.
Now, In Luke 4 Jesus introduces his purpose for being here on earth. He says, " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." and do you see the justice of his coming. Luke 24:7 is when the disciples remembered what Jesus said before he died, He said, " The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Jesus came and died so that we can be reunited with our heavily father. The death on the cross is our security that all wrongs will be made right. AW Tozer said, in his book knowledge of the Holy, "Thy justice upholds the order of the universe and guarantees the safety of all who put their trust in Thee. We live because Thou art just - and merciful." He makes an argument in his chapter on the justice of God that it's God's justice itself that has identified Christ's payment as payment enough for all the injustice, all the sin, all the broken hearts, the sick the lame the abused... it's Jesus' debt on the cross that brings justice! We all live in the grace of God's ultimate sacrifice. And so, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) and "He who did not even spare his own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
Sometimes giving quick bibles answers is inconsiderate, but when you really look at it, I think the bible defends itself. This situation in Haiti is horrific and questioning why is a response that a lot of people do. But we need to look to scripture and see what it really says and then come to people on terms of understanding. John Piper said on a sermon i just listened to, "When you come to somebody who is suffering the first thing you do is hug. you hug for a really long time. then you hug some more. But your hug has to be founded upon firm ground, and we know that ground to be Jesus."

"For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Christ wins.

At this point, I am asking myself what I'm really known for. Over the last couple weeks, I've had two falls, one snowboarding, and the other skating, that have both hurt my wrist. Now, I don't mean to tell you that for pity's sake, but to share with you the question that arose, "Where do I find my identity?" and then share with you my answer.

Now, Snowboarding is one things I love doing. To be honest, I've put a lot of money into it so that I can enjoy it and experience the joy of hanging out with friends doing so. But, not only that, I believe I've put a lot of effort into developing myself as a skater/surfer/boarder which kinda all goes hand in hand. I've invested in the clothes, I have the gear, I can even carry on a conversation with any boarder mostly about the newest technology for snowboarding that might "revolutionize" the entire world of boarding. Anyway, point being, I feel as though I can identify myself as a boarder.
And so over break it was clear, I was gonna hit the slopes. I wasn't pushing myself like I did last year but I still managed to fall doing a simple boardslide on a down box, which is something I've done hundreds of times it seems. Well when I fell off, I landed on my wrist and could feel it start throbbing immediately. The first thing I thought about was guitar (my baby). And I was facing a real question. Ignorantly I told myself, it's not broken it will just go away, because the consequences of a broken arm were much too tragic. Not being able to play guitar for 6 weeks at least is what I was looking at. Because I wanted to play guitar for youth group over the weekend I just kinda sucked it up and wore a brace and battled through it for sunday.
So a couple days later I was hanging out with one of my best friends Mike Johns. I told him about the fall and how worried I was about guitar but it led into a pretty cool conversation. Psychology tells me that between the years 18-24 I will be searching for what I find my identity in; so, at this age, a lot of change takes place. And I can totally see that as being true and identifiable.Follow me now as I take a very large step back. I can tell you I'd love to be known as a musician in one sense but also at the same time keep some other influences in there too, but is that really who I am? What if those things were taken away and I really wasn't able to do them for an extended of period of time. Who would I be? Well this is where my conversation with Mike went, who is a professional drummer and aspiring sound technician. "Where does our identity come from?" Maybe a better question to ask is, "In what should our identity lie?" The simple is answer is Christ. Matt 7:24 says "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock."
But I don't think I find my identity on the rock all the time. Tim Keller, a influential theologian says, " a counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living." I'm not that extreme about snowboarding or guitar but I'm sure you can understand the importance of it. He continues, " An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources , on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money or achievement," and it goes on for quiet a bit longer. Where I find my identity is a much bigger issue at hand because it shows what really is ruling over my heart. Constantly Christ must be put on the throne of my heart. So how do we free ourselves, well we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith and, Tim Keller says this as well, " The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God who revealed himself at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and if you fail him, can truly forgive you."
So, I'm going to get my wrist checked out tomorrow after falling again yesterday, but no matter what I can be confident in the fact, that I am the Lord's. Eph:1 4-6 says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestined himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." More importantly than anything else, God loves us and that's our identity. We are saved by grace even though we don't deserve it, He loves us and thats all we need to worry about.