no title

rock, hard, cold
inpenatrable
i pounded on the
rock
i yelled at the
rock
i wrote my message on paper
and tried to slip it through
the cracks in the rock
i wantd to touch
the heart behing the rock
i failed,
turning my eyes to
heaven.
then,
suddenly a great torent
of water poured over
me and the rock
the water ran into the cracks
past all the defences
my message desolved
but
the message penetrated

no splashing

here is an unfinished fragment of some poetry i wrote along time ago while the girls were in the bath tub

warm black coffee
on a cool september eve

two little girls
in a bubble bath

mandy the salamander
joins them in the tub

bad spelling

i know that there are a lot of poorly spelled words in my last post. Bad spelling is a trait that used to be a problem escpecially when i was in school. now that i am an abult its not so bad especially since i have a spell checker! i need a spell checker for my dry erasure board when i teach. that would make life easy i could just go back and rewrite misspelled words. instead a teen usually reminds me or lisa tells me my words are wrong. sometimes i correct them sometimes i don't it is kind of a part of me now.

this is the curituk light house on the out banks of north carolina. that is dad, mom and the girls the day we visited it. me and sarah climb the light house and the view is awesome from the top 

Beautiful Broken World

I was standing on my back porch the other morning looking at the beautiful sunrise. It had turned the sky behind my house into a pink and orange color that is difficult to describe. I was struck by the wonderfulness of it all and was thanking God for the beauty He put into this world when I heard the sirens.

It was probably and ambulance heading up Annandale Road but it broke the peacefulness of the morning. It reminded me that no matter how beautiful or wonderful or special something in this world is it is broken. I don’t mean that this world is cracked or that it is in pieces. Instead I mean this world is broken by sin.

The shadow of sin is everywhere. Open the newspaper, turn on the radio or surf the web and you will find brokenness. In the newspaper we read about a world full of injustice where those with power and money have it easy but those who are poor and powerless struggle everyday to survive. We read about people who are desperately trying to make sense of the world by relying on their own wisdom and not God’s folly. () On the radio we hear songs about people seeking love, looking for direction, destroying their lives with sex, drugs and alcohol. Seeking to fill the void in their heart with the stuff of this world they ultimately fail. Finally as you surf the web you discover how dark the world can be. One can easily find websites that promote hate, pornography and exploit anything and everything to make money.

Now in each of these mediums you can find beauty. In the newspapers there are stories about people triumphing over the injustice of our world. On the radio you can find music about hope and discovering how to fill the God shaped hole in all of us. On the net you can find light, love and purity.

The beauty of the world shows us the brokenness. I think back to Jesus’ statement that we are to be in the world but not of it. We are to be beauty and light in this dark and broken world. It is not our light or our beauty but it is the LORD’s light and beauty we reflect.

my cross

the cross which stands before me
was mine
i was to hang and die
the sin is all mine
the cross which stands before me
is His
He is to hang and die
the sin is all mine
the tomb which stands before me
was mine
i was to lie there dead
the death is all mine
the tomb which stands before me
is His
He is to lie there dead
the death is all mine
He took my cross
He took my tomb
He took my sin
He took my death
the cross stands empty
the tomb lies empty
He is alive
He gave me life

What Does a Holy Life Look Like?

What Does a Holy Life Look Like?

Since we just explored why we as God’s people live a holy live we need to know what that life looks like. Some people feel that to live a holy life you have to follow a list of “don’ts” Don’t do this or don’t do that and if you don’t do all the bad things that you are living a life pleasing to God. That is almost true. It is pleasing to God for us to avoid sin. This theory of holy living is missing an important part. There is more to a life pleasing to God than avoiding sin we also have to do something.

I want us to look at the “do’s” of a holy life. To do this we are first going to see what Paul say’s in the 3^rd chapter of Colossians. In this chapter he talks about setting our hearts right with God in three areas. The first area is setting our hearts on Christ Himself (Colossians 3.1-.4). The next area is setting our heart against sin (3.5-.11). The last area is setting our hearts on pleasing God (3.12-.17)

He begins the chapter by telling us to set our hearts on Christ Himself (3.1-.4). This is the “Why be holy?” question. We are holy because we recognize what Christ has done for us by raising our hearts with Him (3.1) and we set our hearts and minds on thing above. Next we recognize where Christ is. He has been elevated to God's right hand. Then we recognize that we died and our lives are hidden in Christ (3.3). Finally we are holy and set our hearts right with God because we recognize that Christ is our life (3.4).

In the next section of the 3^rd chapter Paul writes about setting our hearts against sin (3.5-.11). These are the “don’ts” of a holy and pleasing life. We put off our old self that died and with it our old sinful practices (3.5-.9a). Then we put on our new self that was raised to life by the blood of Christ (3.9b-.11)

In the last third Paul talks about the “do’s” of a holy and pleasing life by setting our hearts on pleasing Christ (3.12-.17). Here we can see what a holy life looks like by being…

compassionate and kind (3.12)

humble, patient, and gentle.

forgiving (3.13)

loving (3.14)

peaceful and thankful (3.15)

indwelt by the word of Christ (3.16)

an ambassador for Christ (3.17).

As we discuss a holy life we will look at some of these “do’s” more closely.

To live a holy life we must to do the “do’s” and avoid the “don’ts”. We must avoid sin and at the same time live holy! It is important to note that just because you do the “do’s” and don’t do the “don’ts” does not mean you are live a holy life only. More on this to come!

01 Why Be Holy?

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Why Be Holy?

Do we live a holy and pure life in order to be saved?

Do we obey God in order to earn salvation?

If I am forgiven for my sins why should I live a holy life?

Why be Holy?

These are all questions we wrestle with in our lives from time to time. We ask these questions because we are seek to know our true motivations for living a Godly and holy life. The answers to these questions lead us to something deeper that we could ever imagine!

I want to focus on three verses to help answer the “Why be holy?” question and also share some others that will help you in your own discovery.

We are going to start in the small and often-overlooked letter of 3rd John verse11 (RSV) “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen God.” In this verse John answers the holiness question simply. We are holy because people who do good are from God and we are from God.

In another letter John writes, “You know that Jesus [he] appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” (1 John 3.5-.6 RSV) Again the answer is simple. We are God’s people and God’s people do not sin. He doesn’t say God’s people shouldn’t sin or might sin but that no one who abides in Jesus sins.

Finally in Leviticus 11.44 - .45 (RSV) we find the foundational reason for holiness. “For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls upon the earth. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. " We as God’s people are holy because the God is holy! This is the deep end of the pool. When you start to meditate, study and experience God’s holiness you change your perspective on the world. No longer is it about you instead it is about God. No longer do we seek our own glory but we strive to reflect God’s glory.

The realization that the holy and sovereign creator God calls me to be holy like Him blows my mind. There is no way I have the power to do that! You and I don’t have that power but Jesus did. He opens the door for us to be holy by cleansing us and giving us the Holy Spirit.

Now that we know why we are to be holy we have another question to answer; “What does a holy life look like?”

(For further reading on the holiness question read Psalm 119.1-.3, 1^st Corinthians 7.22-.23, Colossians 1.21-.23, 1 Thessalonians 4.7-.8 & .11-.12, Titus 2.11-.14 and 1^st Peter 1.14 - .16, 2.9, & .11 - .12)