Love... by George Herbert

George Herbert (1593-1633)

Love Bade Me Welcome

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back

    Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

    From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

    If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here";

    Love said, "You shall be he."

"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? Ah my dear, 

    I cannot look on thee."

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

    "Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame

    Go where it doth deserve."

"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"

    "My dear, then I will serve."

"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."

    So I did sit and eat.

I hope this encourages you as it does me. Thank you Christ for loving my marred eyes...

A remembrance of Christ's work.

"26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,3 not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being4 might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him5 you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”


1 Corinthians: 26-31


     I became a Christian soon after I graduated High School. I was raised in a Christian home. We attended a Southern Baptist church faithfully through out my elementary, middle, and high school years. Regardless of the attendance to church and morality in life, I wasn't a changed life. Soon after high school I was working in a Summer Camp where I had the chance to observe the life of a young man be changed into following Christ. This young man seemed to change within the week that I was there. I realized that I wanted that, and regardless of my faithful participation to church I didn't have the change that Christ brings. Around this time, in an obvious working of the Spirit, I heard a sermon dissecting 2 Corinthians 5:17, which led me to really think about my hearts desire and if Christ had changed them. I asked Christ to do so, and be the master of my life. I then began seeking Him and not reputation before men. My reputation had been the motivation behind my pursuing anything of God. I had wanted to look good to people, not look good before God. Christ brought reconciliation to my life by converging the life I led on the outside before people to the life I led behind closed doors. He taught me integrity.

    He led me to Tennessee Tech. University where I got involved in Campus Outreach. After much school work and all my summer spent on Campus Outreach Summer Projects, I graduated. I went to live in Brazil for about 5 months. It was suppose to be a year, but I came home early to get married to my wonderful wife, Katie.

   We have been following Christ around Tennessee for the last 4 years. From Cookeville to Athens, He has been faithfully leading us and growing us. We are now members at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville where we seek to serve the body by loving our neighbors and serving our small group when we can.

To my love, for my Love

To my love, for my Love

The one who shows me much of Love married me today.
Not today exactly, but four years ago, today.
I'm not sure how to explain her... I am speechless in love with my love.
A perfect picture of true love.
Proof of the seventh point: the best of all worlds.
Proof of Psalm eighty four: eleven.
Proof that love never fails.
Proof of Proof.
Abundantly, lovingly, quietly, she helps me serve Love.
Grace abounds in our gospel picture.
Clinging we step out, our faith will be strengthen in our pursuit of the path less traveled.

Bless us with a hundred more expounding upon the last four, then when its our time, Lord of Love, build my mansion next to hers above.

-David

Psalm 71

1 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.
7 I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together
11 and say, "God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him."
12 O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.
22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.
24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.

I was encouraged by this Psalm today. Lord, will you encourage the believers today? Help us to be aware of our need for you. Protect us from materialism and the "American Dream" during the sales push of the holidays. Help our gaze to be fixed on you; grace us to proclaim your name to the next generation. Thank you for proclaiming yourself to us through King David!

In Christ Alone,
-David (a lesser one)

Jesus' Narrow Gate

Reflections on Matthew 7

I'm loving the study though Matthew Katie and I are attempting. I can feel the person of Christ coming through these scriptures during the times I read this gospel. This morning Jesus was taking me through multi-faceted corrections and encouragement in my walk with him. He starts with an encouragement to interactions with other believers (with implications to interactions with non-believers), a pushing to trust God, moving then to guidelines for living in righteousness, with a line to walk with cautions about the dangers of falling off either side.

Jesus starts off with an awe striking thought on judgement. Don't judge unless you want to be judged. When I do judge people, I will be judged by God with the same rigor I use. Then Jesus clarifies why; we do the same things we so readily judge in others (see Romans 2 as a cross-reference). How can I so harshly judge when I'm also to blame? Just to emphasize correctly, Jesus doesn't forbid judgement but attacks the heart behind it. He seems to ask the question: Do you really want to crush someone who does the same things you do? Then don't crush them. Help them as one beggar to another. Then Christ wisely adds, "Do not give to dogs what is holy..." (Matt. 7:6). I take from this to wait for teachable moments to share observations in someone's life. Two reasons why: 1. I run the risk of pressuring out performance in believers who aren't convinced by God of their actions. 2. Calling into righteousness is the effect of the Holy Spirit not the effect of judgmental corrections. I'm not going to accomplish my agenda on people; the Spirit is going to accomplish His.

The next section is teaching how to trust God. Just keep asking. Just keep coming to God because he is trustworthy. What a great promise for me as I look to God for where I should go! He will answer with GOOD things! He loves me and will keep me. How good is it that the world has no secrets that will just jump out and get me, but that GOD is in control of it all.

After the trusting God section, I found the narrow path. Narrow: doing to others what I would have them do to me. Narrow: hard. Narrow: faith in God. Narrow: walking in mercy. Narrow: asking God for things, not forcing my wants to happen.

False prophets? What the heck does all this stuff have to do with false prophets? I think Jesus has given me the outlines for holy living in the following section. Holy living defined by him. He doesn't want me to live according to a man's design for me. He tells me I will know false teachers by their fruits. What fruits come from false teaching? Bad ones. Galatians 5 expounds this idea:

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (Galatians 5: 19-25)."

I'll leave it up to you to see the connection between false teaching and fruits. Jesus makes it clear; he's smarter than I am. Let those who have ears hear the Lord's word. 

This is the line: Follow Jesus through the narrow gate. Falling off on one side lands me in self-centered sinfulness. Falling off the other lands me in a self-centered pharisaical position. Pharisees are the ones Jesus speaks to in the next section. Depart from me you worker's of lawlessness. Pharisee's through teaching too much law (really their own versions of law) became the thing they were trying to prevent, lawless. 

Do you see the line of thought all the way through the chapter? I thought it was cool. Leave a comment, I want to read it!

-David

Koral X-Trech BJJ Pants

The background
After 3 months of searching and reading forums, my expedition for a new pair of BJJ pants ended like a fairy tale. It all started about 6 months ago back in April-ish, while at class. We were doing some squats to warm up with when all the sudden I heard a rippppppp followed by a cool breeze. Don't get me wrong, I loved my A-5 Fuji gi. I'd worn it for about 3 years, but now the pants had a ginormous crack right next to mine.

The arrival
So, after many visits to the KoralUSA website, I decided to purchase a pair of the "X-Trech" black ripstop pants. A whopping $70.00 later they arrived in all their glory. My first thought when I touched them was how good they were going to feel while I was rolling an omaplata on a poor unsuspecting soul at Jiu-jitsu class.

The fit
As soon as I tried them on I was in love. They were the best fitting BJJ pants I've ever had. I did have a couple of concerns before buying them. One, I know Koral is notorious for having tight fitting pants. They taper the legs so to have less of a grip for would be pants grabbers. This isn't a problem for the "X-Trech" pants. The A5s I have don't have a noticeable taper, if they even have one at all. Two, I'm a big guy. 6'4"-265 lbs. Don't get me wrong I don't have a gut (well not a big one anyway) I'm just a large human. These pants are meant for me. They will fit a taller and rounder person than I am by far.

The material
I was also concerned with the durability of the ripstop fabric. After the first class, I'm not concerned any more. They took everything without budging a bit.

Conclusion
Koral has made an excellent pair of BJJ pants. If they were to match up the "X-Trech" pants with one of their ripstop Gi tops in a package deal then I think they would be the top selling Gi world wide!

Koral "X-Trech" pants are worth every penny and will last me for years. This blog post is a sweet little shout out to them for doing their job well. THANKS!

Satisfied

Discontentment...

Been trying to sell our house; year 2, no offers yet.

Been doing jiu-jitsu for 4 years; no black belt yet. Got another 8 years to go.

I've got a '94 Honda 'Gas port' with 199k. The thing screams, "get another car!"

Contentment
Been teaching for 4 1/2 years. This year was my first rehire.

Got a beautiful wife who loves me. Got a beautiful daughter and a button in a belly (who will come out in 9).

Been a Christ follower for 8 years.

With all this you'd think I'm the most content man on earth, but I'm not all the time.

Rambles:
Contentment must be another name for happiness.

Why do I search for contentment when the things in my grasp don't satisfy contentment's thirst? I look. I grasp. I'm not satisfied.

It's so weird how I keep coming back to the same things as if they will help me. It's like the difference between eating chocolate covered, creme filled donuts or eggs, bacon, toast and OJ for breakfast. They both have the same effect, but the effect of one lasts most of the day. So where's the good meal? I don't think I can live on donuts alone.

Matthew 4:4
"...It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

I know I will not be satisfied by any good (or bad) thing on this earth for very long. Jesus has got to keep teaching me about how he helped Paul say in 2 Corinthians 2:9-10 "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Jesus, please teach me, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."