I thought I would share with everyone a hymn that I wrote about a year ago. I wrote it during a family studies class while I was thinking about how many modern worship songs have left meaningful words in favor of a catchy repeatable chorus. I return to it now, because I was thinking about some of the same issues again. I’d love comments and if anyone wants to actually write music to go with the words, that would be great.

Praise to the Father King, my lover and my judge.
What wrath He ought to owe; how great His mercy shown.
But oh what joy and sorrow, to see Him hanging there.
The Prince of Glory’s blood paid what I could not bear.

By His law I am condemned. By His grace I’m saved.
Oh His spirit I have hungered. Oh His life I’ve craved.
Now in His resurrection, I find my soul fulfilled.
To see my sins forgiven is to watch my lover killed.

Oh He rules in perfect justice. How He’s shown his perfect love.
Who deserves to be His child? Who has earned their crown above?
But a cry is in the desert; joy is found in tearful eye.
For God has seen the lowly, and sent His lamb to die.

His pain was not to please us, but to draw us unto Him.
His death was not to hinder, but to do away with sin.
Oh you wretched generation, that would greet this grace with pride.
Come to Him low and humble, come to the cross and die. jouer au poker sans telechargementjeu pc pokerpoker texas holden gratuitesjouez au pokerpoker en casino,poker casino,casino poker texas holdemtelecharger logiciel de pokerregles du jeu pokeromaha poker,jeux poker omaha,omaha poker r?glesjeu poker francaisstreap poker gratuitesjouer au poker casinojouer streap pokerpoker en ligne debutanttournoi de poker casinostrip poker onlinepoker multijoueur en lignecasino poker texasregles officielles pokertelecharger jeux poker texaspoker sur le netpoker machine casinologiciel de poker gratuitesjeu poker online gratuitesjeu de cartes pokerjouer poker tourle poker gratuites a t?l?chargerjouer aux pokerpoker gratuites bruelpoker texas holdem gratuitespoker gratuites argent virtuelpoker gratuites sur le netjugar poker omaha en lineaeuropean pokerreglas de juego pokerjuego cartasbonus de poker onlinepoquer poquerjuegos de poli pokerjuego al instante portal webtexas holdem rulesjuegos strep pokerjuego al instante portales internetreglas poker omahastrep pokerjugar poker en internetpoker webjuego del poker librejuego al instante portalpoker brokerpoker play money

Starting Sunday night at 10 PM, in the UK free speech area, we began with “in the beginning.” UCF will be continuing from there, non-stop, until we reach the “amen” in Revelation. We expect that this will take about three days and we will be able to end before UCF on Wednesday night. We are all taking turns with the reading, and some people are camping out over night. I am excited that we are proclaiming the word of God over UK’s campus and declaring the truth in a secular environment. All of this is to say, that over the past week I have had much bigger ministry activities than this site to worry about. Hopefully, once I get settled in with this semester I will be able to take up regular writing again. For the time being, there are plenty of articles to read back over. Come join us out in the free speech area even if it is not your slot to read. We have a table where we are handing out free bibles and talking to people so your presence is always useful.

As many of you know, this is not the only site that I am in charge of running. I have been a bit sluggish on posting to this site over the past week, because I have been putting most of my time into the UCF site. Several people have written wonderful articles for The University Christian, which is a campus newspaper that we publish annually. Rather than write something new, I thought, for now, I would refer you over to the UCF site. Take a look around the whole site, but especially check out the “press” section.

Things are once again starting up here on UK’s campus. Fall semester is always fun, and I am looking forward to the classes that I am taking. It is interesting to see thousands of freshmen pouring in to campus trying to figure out what is “cool” in their new environment. They wear their best Abercrombie for the first couple of weeks, but this is soon overcome by laziness and the sweatpants come out. I was a freshmen only two years ago, but it seems like a lifetime. God has done so much in those two short years and everything has changed. I vividly remember that first day, though. I couldn’t wait for my parents to finally leave. I couldn’t wait to be on my own so that I could do what I wanted with my life. Little did I know that a week later Jesus Christ himself would demand it from me. As we start our campus outreach, I thought I would share a bit of my story and also give some details and suggestions about what is going on around campus where students can be reached. (more…)

I picked up the Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence, yesterday after a few months break. It is a rather inspiring book and I recommend it to anyone. I like it because it is short and can be finished in an afternoon. I also like it because it takes a very practical approach (as the title implies) to something that is often handled mystically. I don’t like it when a book gives you a bunch of theory but then does not tell you how to actually live it out. This book is quite the opposite. Brother Lawrence’s suggestions are very encouraging, because he shares how he was personally able to grow closer to God. Brother Lawrence died in 1691 and this book was compiled from his own writings and accounts of his friends shortly after. It has remained a Christian classic for the last 300 years and has been quite helpful to me. (more…)

I realize that I can often give a rather unbalanced view of God on this site. I often portray the holiness of God and his expectations of us much more than I talk about his grace and mercy. This is largely reactionary. What I see in the culture around me is an unbalanced perspective on the side of God’s love and forgiveness. However, my reactionary unbalance can be just as harmful as the other extreme. In my life I cherish the mercy and grace of my father. Without his forgiveness I have nothing. I am constantly amazed when I come into the presence and God and commune with him. I am amazed when he blesses me, rather than destroying me. Based on the things that I have done against him, he has every right to condemn me, but shockingly I find forgiveness. (more…)

Judgment is a common theme in the Bible, but one that we are hesitant to talk about today. When judgment is brought up in conversation people end up feeling awkward. They generally feel, well… judged. The fact is that we will all be judged one day by a perfect Judge. We try to ignore this fact or rework it to make us feel more comfortable, but sooner or later we must stop and face this truth. When Paul preached the gospel in Athens he told them, “the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.” If this is the case, then it is important for us to know how we will be judged. (more…)

Whenever we talk about sin we also need to talk about righteousness. It doesn’t help someone very much when you tell them what they shouldn’t do if you don’t give them an alternative course of action. Yesterday, I looked at the nature of sin a bit. To summarize, sin is an addiction to the self and only Jesus Christ can set us free. We talk about this side of things a lot, but the natural question to ask is, “great, what now?” We must live for something other than ourselves. The purpose and drive behind our actions must be a love for Jesus Christ rather than our flesh. Christ’s version of righteousness is pretty simple. He told us to love God and love other people. (more…)

The bible says that the Holy Spirit is in the world now convicting people of sin, righteousness and judgment. Guilt is undeniable. I know a lot of people who try to fight it or create complex systems so that they can deal with it. However, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt it. Sometimes when we are sharing the gospel with people you run across someone who claims that they live their life without regrets or that they simply don’t feel guilty for their actions. Usually we find out later in the conversation that the person needed to be able to say that so that they could support whatever philosophical position they were trying to use. When you dig into their real lives instead of the life they put up for the purpose of debate, you find that most people are deeply hurting inside. Usually this is because they are addicted in some form or another. This is the basic problem of the human condition: sin. (more…)

I thought it would be a good idea to follow up the last post about fatherhood by talking about the story of the prodigal son. I like this story because Jesus uses it to show a lot of things about fatherhood all at once. First he uses the first son to show us how we can be rebellious and try to do things our own way. Then he shows us how we can be rebellious but make it look like we are doing things God’s way with the second son.  Finally he shows how the father really desires to know both his sons and have a relationship with them. I’ve heard quite a few sermons on this particular parable and they usually try to stress one son or the other. I think this is a bit of a mistake, because both sons clearly don’t understand the father’s heart for them and are simply walking in different kinds of rebellion. I think we can often fall into the same mistakes that these two sons make and miss the relationship with the father that is there for us. (more…)