Richard Dahlstrom

*melancholy sigh*

Though I dont agree with every single part of his theology, the pastor from my home church in Seattle, Richard Dahlstrom has some really good things to say. He has a fantastic blog that I really occasionally. Read a few of his entries just now, GOOD WORDS! Here's one about abstinance and here's another about arguments over non-crucial things within the church


I miss it :(

SO GOOD!

http://realtruthmatters.com/blog/index.php?title=grace-s-embrace-of-the-law&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Something I'm learning

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering

That is a quote I heard today from some early Moravian missionaries.

*sigh* oh the weight and GLORY of God in Jesus Christ my Lord.

More and more and more it seems everyday I'm realizing just how much I need my eyes opened by Christ. How much more there is of Him and how much everything is for, about, pointing to Him. I was reminded today in a sermon I watched... of the absolute power and sigularity of just the straight-forward GOSPEL of Jesus Christ... we have NOTHING GOOD in us. Yes, we were created for good but WE messed up and even our good works are tainted with pride. D a r k n e s s ... but O a marvelous Light! The WORD of GOD, His FIRST and ONLY Begotton!! CARRIED ALL OUR: disobedience, lust, fornication, pride, judgementalism, gossiping tongue, murdering hands, apathetic heart = S I N, carried it on His human... human body as our just desserts, the horrible wrath of PERFECT ETERNAL YHWH was poured out on Him. He. DIED.

but now He's alive!!!

So that me: prideful, gossiper, blasphemer, judgmental, hateful apathetic me... can be lavished..... do you know what that word means?


lav·ish   /ˈlævɪʃ/

–adjective

1. expended, bestowed, or occurring in profusion: lavish spending.

2. using or giving in great amounts; prodigal (often fol. by of ): lavish of his time; lavish of affection.

–verb (used with object)

3. to expend or give in great amounts or without limit: to lavish gifts on a person.
 
This love and grace and M E R C Y and power.... unspeakable. Can be LAVISHED on ME!!!??
 
O  N  L  Y.... only only only... if:
 
1. I REPENT of my sin.... not only confess (which needs to happen to repent anyway) but repent of them... repent or metanoeō in the Greek means to change ones mind. Telling God you DONT WANT TO DO IT ANYMORE and seek to NOT do it anymore

2. BELIEVE!!! Yes!! Its that good of news!!! the power of JESUS is THAT poweful! He can make you COMPLETELY PERFECT before God! He can! He can! and He did!!! 2,000 years ago!

I read a very familiar story the other day.. but what really stood out to me in this reading was just how much of a gospel story it was... and... man..... just suprised and crushed and so so deeply moved.... by the GRACE

John 8:1-11 (English Standard Version)


1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" 6 This they said to test him,that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

One step forward, two steps back

Isn't that just how life is? Isn't that how our walk with God is? We come to a place where we think we know it all, God then shows us we don't. We don't at all.

I just got back from a great weekend with some of my best friends and met some new amazing people. God has shown me SO much from these people. He's given me a greater revelation of His presence, a greater fuller understanding of His body/ family/ church. He's revealed even more sin I need to confess and bring before Him and repent of. He has confimed to me the huge, overwhelming need for me to WAIT on Him durring this time of uncertanty and unknownness (if thats a word...) about many things in my life right now. And it seems when I do wait... He just proves Himself that much more faithful than I thought He was. Most importantly, He has shown me though an extremely wise man named Jerry who I met that THE most important thing in life to remember and do is NOT: doing good things, trying not to do bad things, being right about everything, having all knowledge, telling people they are wrong, having the best life or repentance... it is simply this:

remain in the Vine

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  John 15:4-6

All those things that mentioned above come flowing out of you if you do that one thing. Making sure you are constantly drawing from, dwelling with, crying out to, looking at the life of, comparing your life to, meditating on, filling your mind soul and life with:

J E S U S  C H R I S T

I have so many questions about my future. Will I finally learn from all of these huge mistakes I've made? Where am I going with this life? Will I live here forever or live in different places? What will I be doing? Who will I be doing it with? Will I ever stop being so selfish, idoloutrous and judgmental?? (I hope so) Will I get married? Will I ever go to Africa? What will happen to my family?

But in thoes rare and beautiful moments of pure clarity, all I can see is the Person/God/King named about: Jesus Christ. And then, nothing else matters. They really don't.

Are you upset with yourself? Are you upset with life? Are you upset with someone else? Are you scared about what's to come? Are you just beat up and downtrodden in general?

If you know Him, seek Him once again. Ask Him only for one thing: Himself. And I promise you will find that He is everying. All justice and mercy are found completed in Him. And that is beutiful wonderful news friends





This blog entry is brought you by a beautiful trip with Holly Starr, one of my best friends and sister in Christ, Josh Garrells who's music I was listening to while writting this blog, Bible Gateway they are SUCH a great resource and:

Jesus

Equivalent to a Journal Entry

"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow"



He paid. it. ALL.

He paid it all!! He PAID IT ALL!!

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

Oh how these words soothe my soul... because there really is no one righeous... not even ONE. And I am the worst of these... but He paid it!!! He didnt just feel sorry for me!!! He WAS NOT just an example for me to follow!! He has began to put His own perfect life in me... even as we speak there is life, pure, real, beautiful life being given to my dead rotting soul and body...... oh but not by anything I've done... not by ANYTHING I've done... Oh MAN this is so hard for us to grasp... many people end up dying unsaved because we think its too good to be true or its just plain impossible. If we truly with uncovered eyes look upon ourselves we know the monstrosity that is our own hearts. If we truly look we see and know that it doesnt matter how many good things we've done in a row or how good our attitiude is or how good we think our motives are we know they're really not. We know that even if some of the things we have done are good we're going to mess it all up tomorow, there will be a time when we lash out or think a horrifically vengeful and murderous thought or we will refrain from doing something worthy and noble because we want to look good in front of the wrong people. I'm sorry to say this but there will be a day when we have to stand before a perfect righeous judge that demands perfect justice. And if we dont have the One who paid it all living inside of us we will not measure up. And there wont be anymore second chances. But right now Oh there is a marvelous second chance!! To explain this the best way I can I have to borrow from a wonderful theologian Oswald Chambers,

"Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin...and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power...The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son "to be sin" that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race.

Oh... myself and anyone who is reading this... REPENT AND BELIEVE!! Be saved!

He can do it!

Dont Know, Just DO

I have seen a better way

and i am not in that way

I have seen a fuller life

and i am not living it

I have seen a more pure Country

and i am not really a citizen



Oh that we all may be humbled as i have just been humbled. I feel as if i have seen Jesus just a few minutes ago. I took a walk to under the Fremont bridge to pray. Halfway through my time i decided it would be good to go to another spot next time i did this, as probably close to 100 people at one time or another passed by. But i was placed there for a reason today. The thing i've struggled with the most spiritualy the past while and really through most of my walk with Christ is simply knowing His voice and obeying it when I hear Him tell me to do something. As I was praying on the bench I heard someone come up the little hill, I looked and it was an older, might be homeless looking man who nodded a few times at me, picked up some garbage off the ground to throw away sat down and sat down with his backback and thermus for lunch. I felt God telling me to offer a granola bar i had to him after i was done praying ( i have little post its on the bars with Matthew 28:20 on them). So i did that. He said no thanks and showed me the chicken and mashed potatoes that he got from the store and said he was waiting for his friend. He asked if i was from SPU and i said yes and he told me he knew alot of people from SPU and how he would get beer for some of them. He then began telling me all of these stories, one involving a girl who he gave a pot brownie to on accident before she went to class and how he saw a naked guy running around by where we were sitting. Then me, being my fallen and stuck up self, slowly tried to leave after listening to a few more stories. His name was Joe. After i finally left Joe i kept hearing "go back go back" in my head as i prayed and started to feel really conflicted and really wondering what i would say/ what i would do if i went back and just really struggling inwardly like i always do with everything when it comes to obeying God. As i gave in to my selfish self and kept waking i saw a black man laying on another bench without a shirt on and with lots of posessions with him and i thought he was sleeping. I was then going to leave a granola bar for him there but as i got closer he moved around so i saw he was awake. Since i was just battleing with God i must have felt the need to actually listen to His voice this time and went over and offered him the granola bar. He said he would like one then read what i had written on the little peice of paper. He couldnt read the bottom so i told him it was from Matthew and he said, "Oh then you're a Christian" I said yes so he began sharing with me all of these verses similar to the one i had written about Gods consistancy and how He is here yesterday today and forever. He then gave the verse where Jesus says that we will do even greater things then he did. He talked about how the verse that says if we said to a mountian move and it will be done is not talking litterally but figuratively. He gave the example of someone who is obsessed with sex and how when gives that to God, whenever a thought comes to tempt him, he can move that thought from his mind. He said that our God is bigger and more awesome than any bad thing we can come across. He said "I talked to God today and he said I should work on my tan!" He asked me if i knew the reference to some of the scriptures and i said i didnt. I got out the Bible that I carry around with me and said that he could have it to use for that. He said thank you very much to me not only for giving him the granola bar and Bible but that because I gave that to him, he intern will share it with others. After learning his name, Mr. Jones, told him to have a good day and enjoy his tan. As i walked off i began to weep, bitterly. All the way home i was crying, my heart too full with blessing from this man who is living it, living this life that i say that i am living but am actually not. See the pure and beautiful eyes of Jesus Christ in this man has made me realize how far off we are from what Jesus wants in this society. And I think we all know it. The love and knowledge of the Lovely One this man showed to me, a perfect stranger, is of SO much more value than the little candy bar with a verse on it that i was pridefully going to give to him *out of the kindness of my heart* we are SCUM...... and the people we view as SCUM got it more right than we will ever hope to get it. It is so true. Any missionary or field worker you will ever talk to will tell you it: there is SO much more the poor can give us than we can ever hope to give to them. ITS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. the last ARE first, the first ARE last! It is incredible to me to see this already healed shining glorious kingdom inside the eyes of this man Mr. Jones....

i... am SO... unworthy

my disobedience... to the simplest of request

I added Joe and Mr. Jones to my prayer list.... I find it incredible the little that I did for them out of the pridefulness of myself is just shattered to peices by the things I've learned from them from less then 10 minutes of conversation.

I hope and pray if i learned anything from this event..... is to just follow where God leads. to not worry even about the state of your own life... just follow.........just follow

How Glorious Our God!

I am AMAZED

DUMBFOUNDED

and AWESTRUCK

By the sheer realiability of God... and His power, glory, presence... and everything else of course, but as of late, if He has proved Himself to be anything He has proved Himself FAITHFUL. I have fell into this hole time and time again, obsessing and wanting something now that God is asking me to wait till He gives it to me. I've been through this same situation MANY many times, thinking that I've learned it. "Next time, I will be faithful to you God. Whenever this distraction comes I'll just give it fully to You." And of course this time I thought I was doing that... not at all.
Something God has been teaching me this year not only through that situation but many others is PATIENCE. God is removed from time, He's above it. Every moment in time to Him is happening all the time. There is NO way we can understand that! BUT... with the power of the Holy Spirits life through us we are able to cope with the unknown of that. And I really think God was trying (and is still trying) to teach me that fact with putting me in situations that require me to be patient. Whats AWESOME about that is there was a point a few years ago durring my prayer time when I remember pleading with God to grow the gift of the Spirit patience within me.

HE IS FAITHFUL!

and we are NOT.

Its so beautiful, God... how everything You've made and are about is so diverse, yet so interconnected... I cannot begin to understand how anyone would doubt Your existatnce.

Triune God... I THANK YOU... eternally... for your Grace-filled presence that has been near to me all day. There is not other way possible that I would have been able to deal with this let down in my life without it. And whats even more beautiful is that Your presence is THOUSANDS of times better, more fulfilling and more complete than anything I think I'm missing out on.


.-On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand-.