Finally Back to Blogging? Random Thoughts...

You'll have to forgive me for my lack of posts lately. I've gotten 121 emails, 3 voice messages, 2 text messages, and even 1 hand-written letter about my lack of posts lately! I didn't know that many people read this thing. Oh, wait a minute...I'd be lucky to get 127 people to read this blog in my lifetime! Yeah, so I totally made up something to kick off my latest post. Why haven't I posted lately? Not really sure. I guess I've been pretty busy lately and therefore pretty tired, and therefore my late night activities seem to get pushed aside.

The JJ Heller CD give away was a success. The package was mailed and received. Crazy thing is, they accidentally sent me two of the CD I wanted in the first place, so I got to give yet another JJ Heller CD away, this one the "Songs That I Know" album, and my sister was the beneficiary. Anyway, I sort of ran into a blog rut over the last few weeks, and I was tempted to quit, but I don't want to be a quitter, and I know that I get a lot out of writing all this stuff down and keeping a record of it. Hopefully, I can encourage someone every now and then as well.

There seems to be a lot going on with friends of mine lately. In the past 2 or 3 weeks, I've had a friend lose her father, a friend lose his grandfather, a friend about to have her first baby, a friend who found out his wife has been cheating on him, a friend who is going to alcohol/drug rehab, a friend who asked for prayer with his job situation, another friend started a new job, and a friend who just got back from China. Wow. Lots of things to pray about -- crazy part is that I'm actually remembering to pray for these people! Thanks be to God.

Yeah I know this whole post is totally random, but here's another thought. The folks from Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL, are coming to my church to lead worship on March 11th. After several emails back and forth with their piano player, it's a done deal it seems. I'm pretty excited about this, and my wife and I are going to try and get out of greeter duty for that day so we don't have to miss the first song. I can only hope that they sing at least one of my top 30 hymns. Big ups to my church for busting out two of my top 30 hymns last Sunday, "And Can it Be" and "Come, Ye Sinners."

I'm thinking about writing letters to my friend going to rehab for the next three months. It could be a good way to share the good news with him. If I end up doing this, I may in fact post the letters on here for some feedback.

Any Directv users out there notice the great stuff coming on channel 378 lately? Sure, there is still a lot of junk on that channel, but lately I've found R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and Ravi Zacharias all on the TV. What's next, John Piper? Gotta love it.

January is almost gone, and I'm still going through "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. Short readings everyday but great in content. I really hope I can keep this up all year. It's so easy but rewarding at the same time.

I'm sort of in a sports depression right now. It may be hard for anyone to understand this. But I follow my teams very passionately. My Minnesota Vikings looked terrible to end the season and have lost their defensive coordinator. My Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team is one of the worst teams they've put together in a long time. They won tonight, but it's sad watching them play sometimes. I think this sports depression is giving me some good perspective though. I made it through 3 straight Vikings losses and 4 straight Illini losses without yelling. That is monumental. Is it because I've stopped caring or because God is finally giving me the grace to calm my useless unrighteous anger?

I guess I shouldn't leave without a fresh spiritual thought. These are fun. I'm going to find a random book on the shelf and get something useful for you and for me....and wow, did I just find a gem! From "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" by John Bunyan after several pages of talking about his terrible life of sin --

But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ was at God's right hand, there, I say, as my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a doing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, not yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse: for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).

Oh Pastor Piper, Why Should We Pray?

I'm pretty exhausted tonight. It's a good night to take 10 minutes and find a good link that some may find helpful. We're going through the book of James in our Monday night Bible study group, and a great question was brought up last night that generated a lot of discussion. While the group answered it pretty well in my opinion, I figured I could always find some reinforcements. The question was something like this, "If God's will must always be done, how can we pray with full sincerity?" It's not exactly the question of "If God is sovereign and in control, then why pray?," but it's close and related. Some of the answers to why we should pray are obvious: Jesus tells us to, Jesus did it, it shows dependence on God, etc. But there always seems to be a mystery at the very deepest part of the answer to this sort of question. About 10 years ago, John Piper challenged his flock to make prayer a new priority in 1997 and answers some of the tough questions on prayer. So I will link this sermon and challenge myself and any who read this to really make prayer a new priority in 2007. Enjoy.

LINK TO PIPER'S SERMON

A Free CD & More Pink

My last two song spotlights have been from the pictured JJ Heller CD, "Only Love Remains." I'm a brand new fan but a big one. I loved this CD so much that I ordered her other two earlier albums the other day. I was delighted to get the package from Arizona today -- but to my surprise, instead of her first two albums in the package, I received the first and the third (Only Love Remains, which I obviously already have). After double checking my order, I notified them of their mistake, and they told that they would immediately send her second CD and to give the Only Love Remains CD to a friend. So here's your chance. The first person to comment on this post gets it. If I don't see you often, be sure to leave your address. I'll pay for the shipping. Hey, it's what friends do, right?

Still plodding my way through Arthur Pink's book on Elijah....I've got all these new books to start reading, but I'm making myself finish this one, and with every chapter I'm reminded that it's worth it. What makes the book great is that even though I've read the Bible on Elijah several times, even with much concentration, Pink always brings up things that I never thought about. He amazes me with the depth he gives each verse in the Scriptures. Maybe if I didn't spend so much time doing meaningless things, I too could do that one day. Anyway, the verse in mind is 1 Kings 18:30, which is the moment right in the middle of the great showdown between Baal and Jehovah, right before Elijah called on the one true God. The first thing he did was to repair the altar of the Lord --- sure, because it was broken --- my simple mind tells me. But why was it broken? Of course, because Israel had just about completely abandoned their God -- the same God that brought them out of slavery in Egypt! We wouldn't do that, would we? Or would we? The words of Pink:

And reader, this is recorded for our instruction: Elijah began by repairing the broken altar. And that is where we must begin if the blessing of Heaven is to come again on the churches and on our land. In many a professing Christian home there is a neglected altar of God. There was a time when the family gathered together and owned God in the authority of His Law, in the goodness of His daily providence, in the love of His redemption and continuing grace, but the sound of united worship no longer is heard ascending from that home. Prosperity, worldliness, pleasure, has silenced the accents of devotion. The altar has fallen down: the dark shadow of sin rests on that house. And there can be no approach to God while sin in unconfessed. They who hide sin cannot prosper, Prov. 28:13. Sin must be confessed before God will respond with holy fire. And sin must be confessed in deed as well as in word: the altar must be set up again. The Christian must go back to the place of beginning. See Genesis 13:1-4; Revelation 2:4,5.

I Have A Dream Too

My wife had to work 11 1/2 hours today. I barely saw her. I had the day off because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Now that I'm no longer in college or in high school, I try to appreciate, all the more, the days that I get off. So I make a habit of spending at least 15 minutes of my day, if not a lot more, honoring those who are being honored in the holiday. I don't claim to know much on King, and I can't honestly claim that he has impacted my life greatly. But what I can say is that from most of the things I've read, I have respect for him and certainly for his cause. His "I Have A Dream" speech is wonderful, and as I read it today, I was reminded of a dream that I have too. Here's an excerpt of the famous speech:

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

King obviously had to deal with a different type of freedom than I do today as a white American male. But is there is one aspect of life we all have to live with every day -- and that is our sinful natures. Unfortunately, without the mighty work of God in our lives, we are all also slaves -- slaves to this sinful nature. In the 4th and 5th chapters of Galatians, Paul speaks much on the subject of slavery and freedom. The "foolish Galatians" (3:1) unfortunately were believing in a false gospel that was persuading some to go back to a righteousness-by-the-law-type of thinking that is the very type of thinking Christ came to abolish! So, yes, Paul was very passionate about setting them straight. But don't we do the same type of thing today?

Galatians 5:1-5 - "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

You can replace circumcision there without about any other "righteous" deed. Don't we find ourselves doing the same thing, trying to make ourselves righteous by the deeds that we do? Let it never be! Christ is all my righteousness! (See the hymn "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus"). We also have another type of 'freedom' problem.

Galatians 5:16-18 - " So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law."

Often we also live as Christians confused about who we really are and why Christ came to die. Did he simply die just so some could go to heaven? Hardly. Not even close. For starters, one reason he came to die for us and be raised again is that so we can have the freedom to fight the sin in our lives. So often I hear amongst my brethren and within my own mind excuses for sin and complacency in the speech concerning sinful habits and actions. Let it never be! We have the freedom to live radical, holy, and pure lives! Yet so few do.

So I have a dream too. It's twofold and not that much different than that of Martin Luther King. I have a dream that as Christians, we everywhere will 1.) stop living as though we are under law, trying to gain justification by works instead of relying on the grace of God alone, and 2.) stop living as though sin is more powerful than the Holy Spirit -- that we would get up and fight to mortify the sins in our wretched bodies. The dream is mainly for myself. But also for you if you care. And also to the other "Christians" in the world who give the religion a bad name. Let us repent and enjoy the freedom that is ours so that we can too can say "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Song Spotlight - "Only Love Remains"

Song Title: Only Love Remains
Artist: JJ Heller
Album: Only Love Remains
Writer: JJ Heller

Scenes of you come rushing through
You are breaking me down
So break me into pieces
That will grow in the ground
I know that I deserve to die
For the murder in my heart
So be gentle with me Jesus
As you tear me apart

Please kill the liar
Kill the thief in me
You know that I am tired of their cruelty
Breathe into my spirit
Breathe into my veins
Until only love remains

You burn away the ropes that bind
And hold me to the earth
The fire only leaves behind whatever is of worth
I begin to see reality
For the first time in my life
I know that I’m a shadow
But I’m dancing in your light

Teach me to be humble
Call me from the grave
Show me how to walk with you upon the waves
Breathe into my spirit
Breathe into my veins
Until only love remains

Audio Sample: HERE or HERE

Why I Like & Chose This Song: There's a lot to like about this song. Just like her song "Love Me" that I spotlighted earlier, JJ really sings well again, and this song really has a great sound to it. That stuff is important, for no one would want to listen to me sing any of these songs regardless of what they were about. What I really like though is how this song seems to fit with what I'm going through right now. Ligonier Ministries, a ministry of R.C. Sproul, puts out a monthly magazine, and this month the theme is mortification. So God and I have really been working on mortifying the sin that unfortunately still resides in my body. Whether I'm a thief or a liar like the song depicts or just an angry man -- these things don't belong in the Christian! And, to makes things even better (or tougher), it's not good enough for us to simply kill the sin in our body, but we need to put on righteousness as well. And I really think this is what this song is about -- or it's at least what I get out of it. I woke up Monday morning and the first words to my mind weren't "Oh, another Monday" but instead "Teach me to be humble. Call me from the grave. Show me how to walk with you upon the waves. Breathe into my spirit. Breathe into my veins. Until only love remains." And that's when I knew this song would be the next one under my spotlight.

Related Scripture: Colossians 3:5, Colossians 3:12-14, 1 Corinthians 3:10-16

Favorite Line: "Please kill the liar. Kill the thief in me. You know that I am tired of their cruelty." Believe it or not, I actually don't lie or steal that much. Wow, that's probably a much bigger lie than I know. But I what I like to do sometimes when listening/singing this song is to replace the "liar" and "thief" with something else that is plaguing me at the time. "Please kill the _____. Kill the ______ in me. You know that I am tired of their ______." I'll let you fill in your own blanks instead of wondering what mine are. This song has a bit of almost everything, but what I like best is identifying my sin with its purpose now that I'm a Christian -- it's purpose now is to die. But it doesn't want to die at all, but instead it wants to spread and multiply like Gremlins. Toss your anger problems in the microwave I guess. Alas, if it was only that easy.

Final Thoughts: JJ Heller really has a great CD here. I highly recommend it. As a man who likes variety (except with my women), I found myself listening to this CD in my car for probably 9 straight days. Christian, if you are reading this and are not finding yourself fighting aggressively to kill the sin that resides in your body (even the "little" ones), then I implore you now to get with God, kill the sin, and put on love. For we Christians should be known by our love and little else.

The Heavy-Laden's Top 30 Hymns

Ok, so this really did take a lot of thought -- and a lot of listening. I have so many great hymns in my collection now that I just didn't know which one to blog about next. So I figured that I would make a top 30 list and go in order (skipping the ones I've already written about). The engineer in me wanted to find some sort of five-part ranking system and add up all the numbers in a spreadsheet to make the determinations, but since I know nothing about music, I figured that wouldn't be fair. Yes, I realize that for a top 3o list there are very few CDs represented here and very few artists as well. Well, sorry. It's a top 30 list, and sometimes some people are just that good. I don't claim to have every hymn CD or even close, but I have a enough to make my own top 30 list.

Disclaimers: 1.) Once again, I know nothing about music. I don't even know what the following words mean: harmony, rhythm (but I can spell it), pitch, tune, etc. I know the Bible, and I know what sounds good to me. 2.) I am not getting paid by Sandra McCracken or Red Mountain Music...I don't even know them. 3.) For a hymn to qualify, it had to be in my CD collection. 4.) Songs that aren't hymns were excluded. For the borderline ones, my opinion rules. 5.) I had a lot of duplicates in my collection. For example, it was really hard to choose which "Thy Mercy, My God" I like best: Caedmon's Call or Sandra McCracken1 or Sandra McCracken2. 6.) Finally, there are a lot of hymns that I love that didn't make this list. That means that these are the absolute top of the pile. Hymns like "It Is Well With My Soul" and "What Wondrous Love Is This" among others are great but got left out.

Without Any Further Ado...

Rank Hymn Artist Album
1 Jesus, I Long For Thee Red Mountain Church The Gadsby Project
2 Sometimes a Light Surprises Derek Webb Indelible Grace II: Pilgrim Days
3 Whatever My God Ordains Is Right Matthew Perryman Jones Indelible Grace
4 Thy Mercy, My God Sandra McCracken The Builder and the Architect
5 A Debtor to Mercy Alone Sandra McCracken Indelible Grace
6 No Sweeter Subject Red Mountain Church The Gadsby Project
7 There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood Red Mountain Church Depth of Mercy
8 Rock of Ages Sandra McCracken The Builder and the Architect
9 Friend of Sinners Red Mountain Church The Gadsby Project
10 Help My Unbelief Red Mountain Church Help My Unbelief
11 The Love of Christ Derek Webb Indelible Grace III: For All the Saints
12 Arise, My Soul, Arise Matthew Perryman Jones Indelible Grace
13 His Love Can Never Fail Derek Webb Indelible Grace IV: Beams of Heaven
14 Nothing But The Blood Matthew Smith All I Owe
15 Be Thou My Vision Matthew Smith Even When My Heart is Breaking
16 O Love That Will Not Let Me Go Sandra McCracken Indelible Grace
17 Grace Upon Grace Sandra McCracken The Builder and the Architect
18 My Jesus, I Love Thee Red Mountain Church Depth of Mercy
19 And Can It Be Sandra McCracken Indelible Grace
20 Abiding City Sandra McCracken The Builder and the Architect
21 Jesus, Lover Of My Soul Red Mountain Church Depth of Mercy
22 Psalm 73 Matthew Perryman Jones Indelible Grace II: Pilgrim Days
23 Lord, Dissolve My Frozen Heart Red Mountain Church Help My Unbelief
24 All I Owe Matthew Smith Even When My Heart is Breaking
25 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing Matthew Smith All I Owe
26 God Be Merciful (Psalm 51) Jars of Clay Redemption Songs
27 Jesus, Thou Joy Of Loving Hearts Red Mountain Church Depth of Mercy
28 In the Secret of His Presence Sandra McCracken The Builder and the Architect
29 Depth Of Mercy Red Mountain Church Depth of Mercy
30 Come Ye Disconsolate Rachel Briggs Indelible Grace IV: Beams of Heaven

Thoughts from Oswald Chambers for Today + A Movie Review

I sort of started something new this year, and as of January 6th, it's stuck. Every morning, with my breakfast, I'm taking an extra couple of minutes to read Oswald Chambers in his book "My Utmost for His Highest," as he has very short but impactful daily readings. It's a famous book that perhaps you have already read through. Anyway, I really liked a portion of what he had to say today, based on the Bible verse Genesis 12:8.

We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three stages in spiritual life -- worship, waiting, and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs; we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of our Lord. He was unhasting and unresting. It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once.

Good stuff, probably written a little less than a hundred years ago, when the world wasn't nearly as busy as it is today, which is why, all the more, we should take this warning to heart.

On a totally separate note, I went to watch a movie on the big screen last night, which is rare, considering the rapidly declining quality of movies the last few years as well as the rapid increase of the prices. I really thought that We Are Marshall was a very good movie. I have linked a very conservative review for any that may be interested in taking a family to watch. When I was a senior in high school and a captain of the football team, we lost a young sophomore running back to a totally unexpected death before the season started officially but while we were bonding as a team in preseason three-a-day practices. It was really rough, and I couldn't help but think of that when watching this movie. The PG rating was a little loose considering the 30 or so profanities, but all in all a good movie, though certainly a tear-jerker. Anyway, it goes down as the first recommended movie from The Heavy-Laden.

Pink Is My Favorite Color

Ok, no not really...it's actually Illini orange (though not much to get excited about tonight). But I am a huge fan of Arthur Pink and his writings, as I'm still going through his book on Elijah, a chapter here and there. Chapter 13 proved to be a very good one, so good in fact, that I thought I would share a couple of his thoughts.

Ephesians 2:1-5 - "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved..."

Excerpt from A.W. Pink's Elijah, Chapter 13 - "...we are reminded of those searching words, 'Who maketh thee to differ from another?' (1 Cor. 4:7) There is but one answer: a sovereign God, in the plenitude of His amazing grace. And how the realization of this should humble us into the dust, for by nature and by practice there was no difference between us and them: (Ephesians 2:2-3). It was distinguishing mercy which sought us out when we were 'without Christ.' It was distinguishing love which quickened us into newness of life when we were 'dead in trespasses and sins.' Thus we have no cause for boasting and no ground for self-complacency. Rather we must walk softly and penitently before Him who has saved us from ourselves."

Final Thoughts: Amen. I indeed have no cause for boasting and no ground for complacency. As I embark on another day tomorrow, I pray that I can live for at least a day without either in my heart. Stay tuned, dear reader, for hopefully a good year of blogging here at The Heavy-Laden. There are still a lot of great hymns and songs to ponder over and a million insightful pages to glean from saints old and new -- and the Bible is still the Bible....still telling wonders of God's grace and mercy to wretched wicked sinners like me.

Starting the Year Off Right

New Year's Day - what's it mean to you? To be honest, for me, it's literally just another day. I've never been one for new beginnings or for resolutions and the like; it's just not me. I don't even go out of my way to call anyone to wish them a happy new year or anything like that. For many, New Year's Day is about watching football, and I can certainly relate to that being a big football fan myself even though my favorite college football team couldn't beat some high school teams. But anyway, something caught my eye the other day while watching football and has been on my mind off and on for a few days now. I was watching the Clemson vs. Kentucky football game on Friday when Tyler Grisham caught a TD pass for Clemson late in the 4th quarter. Fantastic catch. He even got hurt on the play. While the cameras zoomed in on him lying injured on the ground, I noticed the writing "ROM" and "9:17" underneath his eye written in his eye black. I was quite excited, as I had never seen that Bible verse at a football game before. One of my first thoughts was, "Why is this kid taking a verse about Pharaoh and putting it on his face for the world to see?" Then I looked it up, and it made a lot of sense.

Romans 9:17 - "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

The context of course is a difficult passage in which Paul justifies God and his sovereign choices. What's interesting about the verse at hand is that God raised Pharaoh up for a purpose unlike one Christians will face today. Pharaoh was raised up to harm the Israelites so that God's power and name would be known among his people - a phenomenal story and one we shouldn't forget (like some of the Israelites did). What I can take from this verse as I head into a new year is that I too have been raised up to whatever position and place I find myself in today, not necessarily to fulfill whatever dreams I may have for myself but for a bigger purpose -- to be used so that God would show his power and proclaim his name to the world, however small my world may be. So if there's one thing I'll be thinking of as I start my new year off, it will be this. After all, as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."