1. My hope is built on nothing less
   Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
   I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
   But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
   • Refrain:
     On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
     All other ground is sinking sand,
     All other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
   I rest on His unchanging grace;
   In every high and stormy gale,
   My anchor holds within the veil.
3. His oath, His covenant, His blood
   Support me in the whelming flood;
   When all around my soul gives way,
   He then is all my hope and stay.
4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
   Oh, may I then in Him be found;
   Dressed in His righteousness alone,
   Faultless to stand before the throne.

Go Now and Stand Fast In The Advocacy of My Son

I have been battling OCD badly lately. I read an article by Tim Keller about Jesus who is our righteous advocate. After I finished I felt God speak into me "Go now and stand fast in the advocacy of my Son."

Thank You my Jesus

All We Need Is The Word

My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your kinsman.

Proverbs 7:1-5

All we need is the Word.

Will Tattoos Be In Heaven?

I've been thinking about heaven lately. I've also been thinking about the fact that our bodies will be transformed. So I thought what will happen to tattoos? Will they remain or will they be gone?
Interesting question eh?

Do you guys have any feedback on this question?

Ruth

Why am I in love with my wife? There are multiple reasons of course. But I was thinking about one aspect of our relationship today that I would like to share with you. I love her because she gets me. She understands me like no other. We often will be at a social and will look at each other and know immediately what the other is thinking. Many people often misunderstand my intentions or my humor, but it happens seldom with my wife. We can laugh together for hours without saying a word.

Top Eleven Books of All Time ... so far.

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis
Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
Safely Home, Randy Alcorn (Ruth and I just finished this. It will blow you away.)
The Reason for God, Tim Keller
The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
Home to Holly Springs, Jan Karon
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'engle
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Soul Survivor, Philip Yancey
Men Are From Mars, Women are From Venus (not)

Top Eleven Movies of All Time

Here is my top ten list of favorite movies.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (counts as one)
Signs
Gladiator
Batman Begins
The Truman Show
Wall-E
The Professional
Star Wars
Lady in the Water
Unbreakable
Beaches (j.k.)

Seek Out The Lonely Places

Luke 15:16 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

This scripture spoke to me today. It reminds me that we are dependant on the times that we spend away from people and plans. If we only spend time doing without refueling we are going to be running on empty. I constantly feel the pressure to be doing more. The worth of people is often evaluated by how much they do with their time. In stark contrast, Jesus reminds us that we need to spend time with the Father. I am cranky, mean, and disillusioned when I don't spend time with my Abba. I need his life flowing through me. The most valuable time we can spend for people is away from people. In these times we can fill up on Jesus. Then we can go back to our friends and family and transfuse to them the Living God.

Ere since by faith I saw the stream
His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

-Hymn

Outside In Or Inside Out?

Today I read this in a book called Godology by Christian George. It blew me away. Here it is.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live outside-in and those who live inside-out. The outside-in folks allow the world to saturate their thinking. They are sponges, absorbing the agendas of this world without a filter. Like the Roman Empire they are destroyed from within. In contrast, those who live inside-out change the world with what's inside them. They splurge in truth and spill it to everyone around. It's the difference between a black hole and a burning star. It's more beautiful to explode in light than to implode in darkness. And we all know that there are enough black holes in this world already.

It also made me think of the scripture:

Philippians 2:14-16 Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.

Powerful stuff.

Let me suggest to you that God uses suffering to draw us into his presence. It is often far better to be held by God than to be healed by Him.

-Christian George

Only Love could leave such a mark, only Love can heal this scar.

To Tell You The Truth

If the truth is worth telling, it is worth making a fool of yourself to tell - Frederick Buechner

Unchanging Covenant of God's Grace

The Father fixed his gaze on me, Foreknew my soul that I should be At first ashamed before his face, And then a vessel for his grace; And in the Holy Trinity Engaged a glad conspiracy Of love that all the energy Of God should be employed to see That I, when all his work is done, Would bear the image of his Son. By John Piper

One of the truths that God has saturated me in today is that of his covenant grace with his people. Into eternity past within the Trinity, the Father and the Son throught the Spirit, planned the cross so that Jesus might receive what you and I deserve namely the wrath of God. By his death he bore our complete punishment and by his resurrection he conquered death itself. He did this because he planned to save you and I. We know that this was always his plan. You can know that you were always his plan by these words.

Hebrews 13:20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

In Revelation 13:8 Jesus is "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."

^{Eph 1:4 says} For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

You were chosen by God before the creation of the world through His eternal covenant. His covenant preceeded the fall of man. His covenant came before your sin. You cannot be seperated from His love because the unchanging purpose of his covenant was to save you. May this truth stimulate us to right thinking. We need not fear that one day he will be dissapointed with us. We can be confident that he is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. This truth leads us into a new relationship with Jesus. A relationship not based on my obedience for his acceptance but because of his acceptance I can now obey without fear.

Glory to God for his grace that saw me, his grace that chose me, and his grace that keeps me.

Your loss will be met with a hurricane of love.

I am tired today.

Arena Diary

Hello Blog World! I have finally broken down and joined the blog wagon. I have named my first post, Arena Diary because blogging is like writing a diary but for everyone to see. Prepare to be amazed! Just kidding. Seriously though, I feel that this probably a good way to talk about matters that are close to my heart. One hope that I have is that I can engage with people on matters of Faith. I think it's healthy to discuss our faith. There are different questions that I have wanted to ask people but have never gotten the opportunity. So maybe this is it! It would also be good to talk about culture, literature, world events, and maybe even a little celebrity gossip. Wink, wink. G.K. Chesterton once said that an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. Perhaps blogging is the art of perceiving inconveniences as adventures. May we all be wrapped up in HIS adventure.