Back from Vacation

I started this blog in Italy as way for me to keep up with my daily bible reading. I went for about a month with it, and then switched to a notebook. So now, after a 9 month vacaction from blogging, I'm going to try to get back into it.

Over the next couple of months I will blogging about my wedding preparations with my beautiful fiance, Ashley Lynn. I will also be starting graduate school on August 17th [Ashley's birthday] at Georgia Tech University, and I'm sure I will be including what I learn there. So to start everything off like I said, here are updates on the wedding planning:

• We are still searching for a reception hall! After being turned down from a place that we had already reserved, we are looking elsewhere around the Clearwater area to find a place that fits in our budget. The Eastlake Woodlands Country Club is at the top of our short list, and we may decide to go with them by the end of the week
• Ashley has her dress, but I have no information beyond that.
• I am trying to finish the invitations so we can mail out the "A-list" batch as soon as possible.

I will be in Tallahassee until July 30, when both Ashley and I go back to Clearwater for a week to have our wisdom teeth removed. Fun!! Then we move to the ATL around the 6th of August! Its going to be a packed two weeks!

God Bless. Be Real.

The Exchange of Grace

"Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"

Romans 6:1

Paul is definately sarcastic.

The point here is that I need to be aware that I traded in my life for a Holy substitute. I cannot live my life as the rest of the world and lean on the infinite grace of God. I must ask Jesus to help me subdue the power of the flesh. I must stay away from those things keeping me from him.

Understanding Weakness

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:9

Human logic runs so far away from His. I think that if I want to be strong, I must strive to be strong. If  I want victory, I must exert power. He makes it clear that my victories must come from His hands, not mine. And for Him to be glorified in my victories, His hands must be  visible.

I fight from a position of strength - in Him - but in a natural state of weakness so that His demonstration of power will not be clouded by my own resources and feeble self-efforts. I am strongest when I am weak.

I have no power from God unless I live in the persuation that I have none of my own.

Life in the Spirit

"After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

Galatians 3:3

It is very easy for me to attempt to do things, even God's things, under my own strength. But I can't do it. Jesus was very clear about it: "Apart from me you can do nothing." [John 15:5]

I must not set my eyes on the result of the Christian life, because if I do, I will forget the means to get there.

Jesus did not come into the world to make me better, He came here to make me new.

I know what a mature Christian looks like: they have the fruits of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-23]. But what I can forget easily is that I am totally dependent on God to obtain theses fruits. No amount of human effort can fulfill His laws.

External Fruit

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

Psalm 1:3

God plants His Spirit within me - I have the eternal Son of God in my being by faith. There should be in my character and lifestyle a clear correspondence to Him.

The fruit of my spirit is not just internally recieved, but should be externally expressed.

Our actions disclose what goes on within us, just as the fruit makes known a tree otherwise unknown to us.

-Thalassios the Libyan

Internal Law

"His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."

Psalm 1:2

The law is not the way I obtain entrance into heaven, but it is a description of what God does in me to make me godly. The law was once an external objective, but now its is an internal work of the spirit.

It is just as important now to study the law as it was during the psalmists' time, but now I must never put it outside myself as something to strive for.

If I fail at a commandment, I must meditate on it, but not strive to fullfil it, but rather pray that He fill it in me.

The Law says "do." Grace says "done."

Righteous Hunger

"The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of teh wicked."

Proverbs 10:3

I am defined by my hunger. Jesus said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness would be filled [Matthew 5:6]. The craving, by His description, is who I am.

What are my hungers? They are an accurate description of who I am and the Kingdom I'd rather live in.

1. Ashley

2. self image

3. Architecture

4. perfection