The Blogging Blaze: Beneficial?


Phil Johnson, director of Grace to You, calls his blog "Pyromaniac." Under the title of his blog he quotes Jeremiah 23:29, which says, "'Is not my word like a fire?' says the Lord." The word of the Lord is indeed a fire that burns brighter than any other, but lately I have also been seeing the effects of the blogging blaze.

As my family, my friends, and I have become swallowed in this proverbial sea of blogging, I have started to have some questions about blogging. I asked myself, "Are all these hours of composing, reading, commenting, and tinkering with our templates really worth the time?" I was musing on this earlier in the week as I was cleaning out the gutter in the back of our house, and the only answer I could come up with was a resounding, "Yes!"

"Why is blogging beneficial?" you might wisely ask. Well, I will give you just a few reasons. First, blogging helps you think. During a scholarship interview at The Master's College this February, Professor Jim Owen and I discussed the importance of education, particularly the skills of reading and writing. We thought these two skills were so important because they help us to think at a deeper level. I believe this is especially true of writing. Before we write something coherent, we must first understand it in our own minds. Whatever you write about, whether it be sports, politics, music, or the Bible, you will find yourself having to think more about it as you put your thoughts down on paper, or the keyboard, if you will. The fact that writing and blogging helps us to think more deeply is also a reason why the fire of God's Word should be at the center of the blogging blaze. The Bible should constantly be our meditation (Psalm 1), and we should be seeking to use our thoughts as a tool in order to delve deeper and deeper into this inexhaustible treasure mine.

Second, blogging helps us understand others. One of the certain joys of blogging is not only making your own, but always checking up on those of your friends. As you read their blogs, you are getting a deeper glimpse of what they are thinking. This helps us to better understand them and hopefully deepen relationships with them. Whether it is a friend or family member that I see daily or someone that lives far away, I count it a blessing to listen to the thoughts of others via blogging, and I have found myself encouraged many times by the thoughts of others about the Bible.

I also believe that blogging is simply fun and enjoyable. If we are all honest, I think we will all admit that we get quite excited when we see a new comment on our site, quite satisfied after we've made a sweet post, or quite bummed when someone hasn't updated their site for two weeks.

I certainly enjoy being a part of the blogging community, for I belive it has many benefits. So if you are reading and do not have a blog, I encourage you to start one. If you are a bonafide blogger, keep posting! Keep thinking, keep writing, and keep reading. May you mine a wealth of posting material from what the Lord has been teaching you. I'm looking forward to reading all about it.

"God, your Word is good/ It is of benefit to me"

Snapshot
Currently listening to: Ben's Soundtrack for the Summer '05





1. For All Who Will Follow- Godsong
2. Sparkle- Rubyhorse
3. She Don't Want Nobody Near- Counting Crows
4. Better Together- Jack Johnson
5. Daughters- John Mayer
6. Sunday Morning- Maroon 5
7. Groovin'- The Young Rascals
8. Seeing You- Matt Redman
9. Swallowed in the Sea- Coldplay
10. Come Downstairs & Say Hello- Guster
11. Justified- Godsong
12. Sway- The Perishers
13. Gravity- Embrace
14. Indescribable- Chris Tomlin
15. Free Fallin'- Tom Petty
16. Never You Mind- Semisonic
17. Chase the Sun- The OC Supertones
18. Safe- Travis
19. Kingdom Come- Coldplay

This is a list of some of the music I've been listening to so far this summer. "Seeing You" is a great worship song by Matt Redman. The chorus says, "Worship starts with seeing you/ Worship starts with seeing you/ Our hearts respond to your revelation." These lyrics are a great reminder that worship is not based on some subjective feeling, but the on the objective revelation of God's Word, the revelation which tells us about the glory of a holy God and the wondrous news of the gospel.

"Swallowed in the Sea" and "Kingdom Come" are two of my new favorites off the new Coldplay CD, X&Y.

Two of these songs I heard for the first time during tubing excursions. I can still remember sitting on Canyon Lake, hearing "Daughters" for the first time, and thinking, "That's a good song." It still is. "She Don't Want Nobody Near" is from the Counting Crows Best of... CD, which I first heard for the first time while tubing on Jack's boat at Survival Camp.

"Indescrible" is one of my favorites off the "Passion '05 CD." The song talks about the glory of God, specifically through creation, and the wonder of how this "amazing God" sees the depths of our hearts and loves us.

The three songs "Sparkle," "Sway," and "Gravity," are all the only songs I have really heard by those band, but they're good songs.

"For All Who Will Follow" is the first song off Godsong's new album. It's a great song to wake up to in the morning.

"Never You Mind" is a great song from Semisonic that my brother Bobby and jammed to a lot back in the day.

"Safe" is a mellow Travis tune from The Invisible Band, which was a soundtrack of a summer long ago.

"Chase the Sun" is a song about going to California that used to be the theme song of our annual treks to CA. I put this on here because this summer we are chasing the sun for good and heading back to California to stay.

My Blakeys, where you from?
THE MIGHTY WEST SIDE!

A Book Review of...

The Cross Centered Life
By C.J. Mahaney


This year at the Believers Fellowship High School Retreat, Derek Brown spoke his last message of the weekend on “Living in the Power of the Gospel.” In this message he discussed the importance of the gospel and how even believers need to hear it regularly. This talk got me thinking about living life each day under the influence of the gospel, and so I started to read The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney.

Mahaney starts his book by painting a vivid picture of Timothy reading what would be Paul’s last epistle, 2 Timothy. He portrays Timothy as looking for some final insight from his dear friend and mentor while he reads. And what he finds is Paul reiterating the one truth of the gospel. “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.” (2 Timothy 2:8)

Mahaney then shows that “the cross was the centerpiece of Paul’s theology.” He quotes D.A. Carson as saying, “[Paul] cannot long talk about Christian joy, or Christian ethics, or Christian fellowship, or the Christian doctrine of God, or anything else, without finally tying it to the cross. Paul is gospel-centered; he is cross centered.”

Paul certainly is a prime example of a cross centered life. Paul’s theology was very deep; think of all the myriads of books on Pauline theology. However, he never moves on from the gospel. The cross certainly was the center of Paul’s theology, and not only that, it was the center of all that he did.

Throughout the first and second chapters, builds the theme for his book. Mahaney explains how the gospel should be our focal point. He says that the cross should be of first importance to us. He says the gospel is “one transcendent truth that should define our lives.”

I believe the theme of this book is accurate because it is also the theme of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is built around the person of Jesus Christ and the good news of his redemptive work. Therefore the gospel should also be the center of our lives.

After building an accurate premise for the book, Mahaney discusses many practical ways having a cross centered life will affect us. In chapters four through six, he discusses three tendencies that will try and draw us away from the cross: legalism, condemnation, and subjectivism. In each chapter he makes good points. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on subjectivism, entitled “What you feel vs. What is real.” He says that we need to rely on biblical thinking instead of subjective feelings. My dad calls this talking to yourself instead of listening to yourself. We need to be reminding ourselves of the truth of the Scripture and the good news of the gospel instead of listening to the thoughts in our quite confused heads.

Mahaney also gives solid practical advice in a chapter called “The Cross Centered Day” on how we can “build a cross centered life one day at a time. One particular point that I thought was good was “Study the Gospel.” The truth of the gospel is simple, but its wonders are amazing and deep. We should never cease to study them.

In the final chapter entitled “Never Move On,” Mahaney says, “The gospel isn’t just for unbelievers. It’s for Christians, too.” This is very similar to what Derek Brown said when he first got me thinking about this topic, and I’m grateful for what I’ve learned and what I will continue to learn about the gospel. Indeed, we should never move on from the gospel. Too often we think that the gospel is something we master in a “Fundamental’s of the Faith” class, and then we move on to things like Marriage and Family, Personal Holiness, Bible Study, and the like. We should certainly study these things, but we should never move on from the gospel. Mahaney says, “The gospel isn’t just one class among many that you’ll attend during your life as a Christian—the gospel is the whole building that all the classes take place in.”

The cross should be the center of our lives; we should never move on from the gospel. That is what C.J. Mahaney says in this book, and he is simply echoing the theme of the Bible.

Currently listening to Passion: How Great is Our God


Free (WHOOO!)

I wanna clap my hands
Stomp my feet
Pound on a drum
Swing on a tree (WHOOO!)
I am so free 'cause the Father loves me

Embracing the chaos at Vacation Bible School is over for this year, and the week went very well, despite one kid losing his two front teeth in games. About one hundred thirty kids came each day and heard lessons from the Bible, ate awesome snacks, made creative crafts, and played fabulously fun games. Also, many parents who do not attend our church came to Parents Night even though it was the same night as the final Spurs game!

My week on this Prayer Safari has left me quite tired, yet refreshed at the same time. I did learn many things about prayer, but toward the end of the week my thoughts started to turn to the freedom we have as Christians. Many of these thoughts were spurred on by one of the songs the kids sang called, "The Father Loves Me". (quoted above) The song talks about being free and also being children of God. I have been studying through Galatians this summer with Tyler Sultze, and this epistle also speaks at length about being free and children of God. "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith." -Galatians 3:26

My musings on this topic led me to start making a mental list of some of the things we are free from and also some of the things we are free to do. I thought I'd share it here.

Free from...

...sin.
...the law and legalism.
...anxiety.
...death.
...the fear of man.
...a futile life.
...selfishness.
...lust.

Free to...
...step onto liquid and live by faith in Jesus Christ.
...love others with sincerity.
...know a perfect peace that surpasses understanding.
...experience true joy that is deep and different from a happiness tied only to circumstances.
...wake up in the morning with a purpose because we are alive.
...read the Word of God, study it, meditate on it, and live it.
...tell of his salvation from day to day. (Psalm 96:2)
...sing songs of praise from a heart of worship.

This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it contains a few of the things I've been thinking about this week. I hope it encourages you.

With love, peace, and JOY!

Embrace the chaos. That is what I was telling myself this morning as I drove to church for the first day of Vacation Bible School, and I found myself repeating it thoughout the day. 130 kids were storming across Believers Fellowship today, and I got to lead them all in playing some super-fun games. This year's theme for VBS is Kingdom of the Sun, a Prayer Safari, and even as the kids are learning about prayer, I have learned so much about it myself in helping to prepare for this week's VBS. I have seen God change my perspective through prayer from one of business and anxiety to one that is willing to embrace the chaos of leading 130 kids in games and to be excited about having fun with them.

Over the past week as I have been helping get our house ready to sell and assisting in turning BF into the Serengeti, I have also had more time to think about living a life of stepping on to liquid, a life of faith. I began by thinking about faith itself--what is faith? Sadly, in today's society it has become very ambiguous and almost mystical. People talk a lot about "having faith," but they usually fail to mention the object of that faith. If they do, it's usually have a little faith in yourself or just trust the system.

In truth, faith's object is its most important element. Your faith can only be as strong as what or whom your are placing your faith in. That is where the news gets good for Christians. Our faith is not placed in science. It is not resting on a political party, nor in the "goodness" of man. Our faith rests in God himself, and that is a only secure place for it to be. We have faith in the "indescribable, uncontainable" God that created the universe and knows the stars by name.

Now that we've established where our faith lies, how do we show this faith? We show it by taking God at his word. In a Bible study at my house on Monday nights, we have been studying the life of Elijah, and he show us what taking God at his word looks like. He believed God, and God always provided for him in miraculous ways. God said he would withhold rain, Elijah believed. God told him he would provide for him at the Brook Cherith, Elijah went there. God commanded Elijah to go live with a widow who would provide for him, he obeyed, and God provided. Imagine the incredible things that could happen if we took God at his word like Elijah did.

Faith is only as strong as its object, and when we step onto liquid and live by faith in the God's word, then we are standing on a rock. Our strength should be strengthened because God is faithful, and he will do what he says.

I hope all this has encouraged you as much as it has encouraged me. If you want to read more about Elijah, check out 1 Kings 17-18. If you want to check out another great blog, visit Evan Winslow's site.

"With God we shall do valiantly;it is he who will tread down our foes."
-Psalm 108:13

Hello. Welcome to my new blog, Step Onto Liquid. Last summer, I attended Survival Camp, and it's theme was "Walk on Water." About the same time, I began to get interested in surfing and a particular surfing DVD called "Step Into Liquid." It was about that time I started thinking about a life of stepping onto liquid.

Step onto liquid basically means "live by faith." Survival Camp got it's Walk on Water theme from Matthew 14. In this passage, we learn about a time when Jesus walked on water and calmed a storm. We also see Peter walk out on the water to Jesus. Now Jesus is not calling us to go to the nearest lake and see how we fare at this, but he is calling us to walk by faith, not sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) Like Peter, Jesus calls us to step out in faith on a pathway we do not know. We cannot always trust what we can see, but we must always trust Jesus and what he tells us through his word. We must believe that salvation is through faith alone, and we must humble ourselves and admit that we cannot be saved by our own works. And we must daily put feet to our faith by taking up our cross and following him. We must faithfully make the hard decisions and follow Christ even when we cannot see where it will lead. But day by day as we choose to step onto liquid, we will find that there is no other way to live, for he who loses his life shall find it!

This is my new blog. If you read it, you will get a snapshot of my thoughts. You will probably read about random happenings, sports, politics, music, or movies, but mostly I hope to share thoughts about the Lord and things he is teaching me as I walk by faith.

This is not my first blog, previously I have used Xanga. Feel free to check out the archives at www.xanga.com/dolphinboy54 But from now on I will be posting here.

Please feel free to comment on any of my posts. Outside of Blogger, you can reach me by e-mail at stepontoliquid@yahoo.com or on AIM at StepOntoLiquid. I hope that isn't too hard to remember.

I encourage you all to step onto liquid and to walk by faith (Galatians 5), for if you do, you will find abudant life in the Lord. Thank you so much for visiting my site, God bless.