Your Love is Strong

Heavenly Father, you always amaze me

Let your Kingdom come in my world and in my life

Give me the food I need to live through today

And forgive me as I forgive the people that wrong me

Lead me far from temptation

Deliver me from the evil one

I look out the window the birds are composing

Not a note is out of tune or out of place

I walk to the meadow and stare at the flowers

Better dressed than any girl on her wedding day

So why should I worry?

Why do I freak out?

God knows what I need

You know what I need

Your Love is,

Your Love is,

Your love is strong

The Kingdom of the Heavens is now advancing

Invade my heart, invade this broken town

The Kingdom of the Heavens is buried treasure

Would you sell yourself to buy the one you've found?

Two things you told me

That you are strong

And you love me

Yes you Love me

Your Love is,

Your Love is,

Your Love is strong

Our God in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy name above all names

Your Kingdom come!

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us today our Daily Bread

Forgive us weary sinners

Keep us far from our vices

And Deliver us from these prisons!

Your Love is Strong, by Jon Foreman

This song has set the frame for my prayers the last few weeks. I am so amazed at God, in so many areas, I think my brain is starting to short circuit. Yesterday I was doing my handwriting of Genesis and I was just blown away by how faithful God is, how he upholds all creation, daily fulfilling his covenant with Noah.

I need His Kingdom and His gospel to come in and tear me apart. I am so proud.

I am so weak, I cannot try to plan another day without his help.

I so need forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation and sin.

I live on a mountain top. How amazing and gorgeous is that?

And yet I worry about tomorrow, how I'm performing, what certain girls might think of me. I get all worked up about stuff that has little or no significance. He knows what I really need, how I need to rely on Him.

The Lord's Prayer set to music is so much more alive in day to day life. His Love is Strong.

If I made mixed tapes (CD's), this would be a cassette (disk).

Thoughts on Life

Currently listening to: Instead of a show, by Jon Foreman

I am so happy with life. I'm more blessed then I know, and I'm so happy to be back on my mountain. I've had an busy week of RA training and New Student move-in, but it has been really fantastic.

My impression of the work of an RA is definitely different then I originally thought it would be, but I have no doubt God will give me the strength. I knew about the administrative aspect, but that really is a pretty small part of the job. I find that the biggest assignment is to be intentional about every conversation, situation, and decision that it works for the building of the residents on my hall, the college community, and that Christ is proclaimed in act and word. Man, that is so tough. I called my Dad on move-in day and he said that is really what a life of ministry is. Its really the life the Christian is called to, and I believe thats really true. Check out I Peter 3:15, it really has some great insight into this.

In other news, I've found a new favorite on-campus activity: Swimming in Jackson Pond at night. Simply fantastic.

Follow up: Man, stealing is tempting. So far so good, but dang its tough. I just want to watch this one movie once, or help out a friend and reinstall his operating system. Crud, this is hard. But Grooveshark is fantastic.

Next Post: The Sabbath, does it really matter?

When it hurts

I had an wonderful few days hanging out with my friend Laura in Delaware last weekend, and I think I'm coming off of cloud 9, so everything else seems a little dull.

On my flight home from Baltimore to Grand Rapids, I had a very thoughtful conversation with the lady sitting next to me. She started out asking me where I was from, where I went to school, and the usual stuff like that. I pulled out my student ID to show her my campus and when she saw it, she said "oh, Covenant! That's a Christian school, right? Why did you want to go there?" I got to telling her about how I wanted to be like the people I had met while visiting; people of conviction and an active faith. She asked a few questions about what my plans were after school, and other general life questions, and I went on saying I was excited about life and my options. About how I've been blessed in so many ways, and excited to see what God would have for me. She smiled and said, "I was you before. I know how that is." She now has 2 kids and is married to her 6th grade sweetheart.

The interesting part of the conversation was when she started talking about how she introduced herself as having 3 kids. She lost a brother at age 4, and seeing what it did to her parents she prayed to God her whole life, through her teenage rebellion and coming back to God, that he would not ever do that to her. In May of this year, 4 days before her due date, the umbilical cord had a quarter inch twist and her baby died. "I could have said, 'ok God, at least he is with you', if he was deformed or something, but he was perfect. I was so angry at God. 1 in 10,000. Medically, thats the statistic. I was that 1 in 10,000."

"There's a secret that God doesn't tell you when you sign up. When you're at your weakest, he teaches you what you couldn't otherwise learn."

I don't have any idea how to deal with that loss, but she has gotten over her anger toward God. Our hope is in the resurrection. That is where we place our trust so when the storms of life come, we know that we have the victory over death.

Personal Convictions

I've been musing a lot lately about a number of issues, and I have not been sure where I really stand on them. I have a feeling that outlining them here would help to bring some organization to my thoughts and maybe even help lead to some conclusions.

I'll also say that my purpose is not to condemn or belittle anyone, or to promote myself. I really want to not only know what is right, but to do it. (See James 2:20) I want to have an informed position, one that I am confident is building up my Christian witness, and one that honors Christ.

I have really been avoiding the application of the 8th commandment to my life.

"You shall not steal." (Ex 20:15)

This may be surprising, but this it is much more applicable then one might first think. I think the ease, ubiquity, and acceptance of online piracy has made people (by people, I mean Micah Hausler) numb to the application of this commandment. I'll admit, I have frequently downloaded, "acquired", and "borrowed" software, music, and video that I have not paid anything for. Is this a sin? Is this wrong?

I first will say that I've never heard an argument or position that I feel holds water on the the side of using torrent sites, personal music copying (Mojo), or any other form copying copyrighted electronic data.

A frequent position is "Its there! (for the taking)" or "I don't want to pay for it", but that clearly doesn't stand up any more then trying to walk out of WalMart without paying for DVDs would.

Another position I've heard goes something like, "the artist/company makes so much money, what does me copying music over Mojo really do?" Well since you ask, lets add up the numbers. Often when you look at someone's library over Mojo, they'll have anywhere between 1,000 - 5,000 songs in their iTunes library, maybe more. Even if you were to buy all those tracks on the iTunes store, which is typically cheaper then buying the CD, that would probably cost you nearly $5000. That is $5000 that somebody is not making. I don't know about you, but if somebody took $5K from me, I'd be pretty upset. And does taking (COUGH... stealing) from someone who has lots of money make it right?

I have also heard, "I can't get this movie anywhere else!" I believe there is always another way. It may be hard to find, it may not be cheap, but there is a term for that. "Cost prohibitive." You can't always get what you want. Yea, I love watching obscure cartoons from my childhood, but does my desire to indulge nostalgia make it right?

My justification to myself has really been none of these. I have just not wanted to think about it. It has been a lot easier to float along without thinking about what I'm doing, and just focus on my own enjoyment.

Ok, so its wrong. What now?

I think the first step for myself is to stop sinning. (John 8:11) This means no more downloading. No more torrents.

The next step is even harder. Check out Luke 19 and what Zacchaeus's reaction to the gospel on his life was. I don't think his five-fold return reaction is mandated, but it shows the state of his heart. I have to give up what I've taken. This will hit my 100GB of video on my external drive, and my nearly 12GB iTunes library including 10 out of my 15 most listend to songs.

I realize I haven't even touched on the legal ramifications of all this, and I am really not even positive what they exactly are so I won't comment, but I know they are quite serious.

I will say, this is not the end of the world. There is always Hulu, Grooveshark, Pandora, OpenOffice, and Google Docs. I'll still listen to my favorite songs, watch movies, and open .doc files, but it will be a little different.

May Christ be honored in my life.

Things I love about summer

Things I love about summer:

• Sleeping in on Saturday
• Frozen Juice Pops
• Kayaking
• Mowing the grass in the sunshine
• Frisbee with Joey and Daniel
• 4th of July Parade in Ada
• Paychecks
• Summer rain
• Eating wild raspberries
• Skype
• Roadtrips
• Reading software books
• Driving my truck with the windows down and the radio on
• Peeing in the grass
• Open Houses
• Jazz at outdoor cafés
• Summer action flicks (The good guy must win and kiss the girl in the end)
• Hobo dinners
• Homemade Ice Cream
• Summer College Group @ Redeemer
• Family Vacations
• Sunsets at 9:30pm
• Bonfires at the fire ring
• Sleeping with the window open and the fan on

Dessert: French Crepes with strawberry yogurt, fresh

strawberries, chocolate syrup, and powdered sugar

Thoughts on life - 1st Edition

In our family devotions the other night, we read II Timothy 4:22. It is Paul's last book that he wrote, and he knew he was going to Rome to be executed. His last written words in the Bible are

"The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with y'all."

It is interesting that Paul prays for Timothy's spirit, it is not something we normally ask God for. It sounds a little weird to say "I'm praying for your spirit", but so much of our emotion and disposition comes from our spirit. What a great way to pray for someone!

In other news... I got a pair of Chacos, and I love them! I'll be camping this weekend with my brothers on North Manitou Island. It is going to be great :)