Do You Know Him?

My King is a seven way King
He’s a King of the Jews – That’s a racial King
He’s a King of Israel – That’s a national King
He’s the King of righteousness
He’s the King of the Ages
He’s the King of Heaven
He’s the King of Glory
He’s the King of kings
And He’s the Lord of lords.
I wonder, do you know Him?

David said, “The heavens declare the Glory of God
And the firmaments show His handiwork.”

My King is a sovereign King
No means of measure can define His limitless love
No far-seeing telescope can bring into visibility
The coastline of His shoreless supplies
No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings

He’s enduringly strong
He’s entirely sincere
He’s eternally steadfast
He’s immortally graceful
He’s imperially powerful
He’s impartially merciful
Do you know Him?
He’s the greatest phenomenon to ever cross this world

He’s God’s son
He’s the Sinner’s savior
He’s the centerpiece of civilization
He stands in the solitude of Himself
He’s August and He’s Unique
He’s unparalleled
He’s unprecedented
He is the loftiest idea in literature
He’s the highest personality in philosophy
He is the supreme problem in high criticism
He’s the fundamental doctrine of true theology
He is the necessity of spiritual religion
He’s the miracle of the age
He is the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him
He’s the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Savior
I wonder, do you know Him?

He supplies strength for the weak
He’s available for the tempted and the tried
He sympathizes and He saves
He strengthens and sustains

He guards and He guides
He heals the sick
He cleansed the lepers
He forgives sinners
He discharges debtors
He delivers the captive
He defends the feeble
He blesses the young
He serves the unfortunate
He regards the aged
He rewards the diligent
He beautifies the meek
I wonder, do you know Him?

He’s the key to knowledge
He’s the well spring of wisdom
He’s the doorway of deliverance
He’s the pathway of peace
He’s the roadway of righteousness
He’s the highway of holiness
He’s the gateway of glory
Do you know Him?

His office is manifold
His promise is sure
His life is matchless
His goodness is limitless
His mercy is everlasting
His love never changes
His word is enough
His grace is sufficient
His reign is righteous
His yoke is easy
His burden is light

I wish I could describe Him to you

But He’s indescribable
He’s incomprehensible
He’s invincible
He’s irresistible

You can’t get Him out of your mind
You can’t get Him off of your hands
You can’t outlive Him
You can’t live without Him

The Pharisees couldn’t stand Him
But they found out
They couldn’t stop Him

Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him
The witnesses couldn’t get their testimonies to agree
Herod couldn’t kill Him
Death couldn’t handle Him
The grave couldn’t hold Him
I wonder, do you know Him?

Pix from Halloween Fall Festival

Well here are some pictures from my churches fall festival. There are more but I only put a few on my flash drive. Enjoy!! Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Jesus in a Gay Bar

If you check out the cool stuff over to the right, you'll see a link to AudioJunky's blog. Click on it and you'll discover someone who is extremely profound in his thinking and writing. In one of his blogs, he makes the following comment:

Does that mean we need to be going into the bars, clubs, porn shops, etc. No, but it means that we need to be sitting down and concentrating on how we can reach the people who's lives are ripped apart by these things instead of pointing out their sins.

Well before I say anything, let me state that this is not an argument and is not intended to be read with any sort of malice or malcontent. It is merely a statement of my opinion.

I truly believe that if Jesus were alive today you would see Him in some very unlikely places, such as gay bars, clubs, and crack houses. Look at His ministry and the crowd He was around. Prostitutes. Tax collectors. Thieves and whores. He very plainly said that healthy people dont need a doctor, sick people do. I wouldn't be surprised if people would expect to see Jesus at a church conference being held by one of America's Mega Churchporations. Well that's not the case. You would find Him in the alley, holding the hand of the dope fiend, telling him that He offers the bread of life.

Well we are called to do the same, are we not?

We are called to go into all the world and tell them all the wonderful news of His love for us and the sacrifice He made. At what point did we forget how He witnessed? Yeah ok, Jesus went to the temple and read from scripture. He spoke to the masses. He did of few of the things that Churchporations do now, but that wasn't His focus. His focus was on the sick.

Please dont think I'm saying this stuff as an excuse to go party like a rockstar or anything like that. I'm only saying that Christians need to get out there and get their fingernails dirty.

I do have more to say on this matter but I have to get to work.

Eustace

You may or may not know this, but the hit movie The Chronicles of Narnia is based off of a series of books written by the great theologian C. S. Lewis. It's a series of seven books that, if you look closely, you will see similarities to stories from the bible and all kinds of Christian undertones.

In the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we are introduced to a character named Eustace. He is the cousin of the four children in the first movie. The younger brother and sister, Edmund and Lucy, go to live with him for a while and could not be any more upset about it. Eustace is a jerk. He's the only child of a rich mother and father and is used to getting everything he wants. He has no consideration for anyone but himself.

Through a series of events, the three children find themselves in the magical land of Narnia once again and on a voyage to the end of the world. They are in a huge galleon with the king of Narnia and are travelling into uncharted territories in search of missing noblemen. On one particular island, the crew of the Dawn Treader are exploring in search of supplies to repair their ship, which was unfortunately attacked by a giant sea monster.

Eustace, being the jerk that he is, wanders off on his own, not wanting to do any work. He walks around in the jungle, mumbling and grumbling horrible things about his cousins, the king, and other various crew members. Before long he stumbles upon the edge of a small cliff and sees a small pond nearby. There is also a small cave, and a terrible dragon is making it's way outside towards the water. Eustace is terrified. He stays perfectly still and watches the dragon die a horrible death.
Eustace, still scared stiff, doesn't move for quite a while. He finally works up the nerve to descend the small cliff and make his way to the pool and cave. He enters the cave and is surprised to be met by more gold then he could ever imagine! He celebrates his new found wealth and ends up falling asleep on one of the piles of gold.

Without getting into the next scene, which is pretty suspensful, Eustace wakes up to discover he has turned into a dragon!
Eustace spends some time upset and angry and terrified at his new fate. He makes his way back to the camp only to be met with fear from his shipmates. As time goes on, Eustace realizes that he was turned into what he already was. He was a beast on the inside and the magic of the island made him a beast on the outside. He learns from the error of his mistakes and the crew begins to see a change in his character. He is helping gather supplies and does more then his share in repairing the ship.
Then the night comes where he meets Aslan.

He is wandering through the jungle and comes upon the pool once more. Standing near the pool is the mighty lion, Aslan, who represents Christt in the series. He tells Eustace to shed his skin. So Eustace does. He takes his massive claws and digs into his scales and peels off a layer of skin. Proud of himself, he looks to Aslan. Aslan looks back and says, "That is not enough. You must dig deeper."
So Eustace digs deeper. He digs till it hurts. And yet still Aslan says, "No. You must dig deeper."

He digs. Not enough. He digs deeper. Still not enough. Eustace can no longer take the pain. And yet still it is not deep enough.

Finally Aslan looks at him, love in his eyes, and tells him, "I will do it." His huge, imposing claws dig deeper than Eustace could ever possibly do or even imagine. He strips Eustace to the core. To the bone. Aslan then asks him to bathe himself in the pool. He submerges into the water and resurfaces as a human once again!
This is what we go through when we are transformed by the power of Christ. Every single one of us is a monster, through and through. When we meet Him, He wants us to be holy, just as He is. We try and we try and we try but we can never go deep enough. All of our efforts are like rags to Him. It is only through His hand that we can truely be transformed. He is the only One who has the means to transform us to the holy and perfect creation we were meant to be.

No One Like Him

God Is, without help.

Hence, He always is. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. (Psalms 90.2, NKJV).

God never began and will never cease. He exists endlessly, always. "The number of His years is unsearchable" (Job 36:26, NASB).

Even so, let's try to search them. Let every speck of sand, from the Sahara to South Beach, represent a billion years of God's existence. With some super vacuum, suck and then blow all the particles into a mountain, and count how many you have. Multiply your total by a billion and listen as God reminds, "They don't represent a fraction of my existence."

From 3:16 by Max Lucado

a poem by james mcdonald

The problems not mine
I will not admit it
I’d rather blame you
You’re the reason I did it

And if you were more Godly and righteous and true
You’d admit when you’re wrong
I know I always do

And so with a wave we dismiss the suggestion
That we are at fault for the latest congestion
Refusing to see where the real problem lies
We sink deeper in sin
And God’s work in us dies

Thoughts by Adrian Palacios

Sometimes when you think, it is like your not thinking at all. You sit down to contemplate, but in reality, contemplating nothing. People tend to worry about the things that are really of no importance and the things that will not benefit them. So I ask this question, why put time into something if it is of no significance.
Daily we become overwhelmed with people and the things they say and do. We become stressed, pressured and locked down. We hear the gossip of the people around us trying to tear us down and destroy us, and in return we do the same. If people really sat down and contemplated their own words and actions, they would not feel as condemned as they feel. People become devoted to being on top of everything, trying to be perfect, trying to be the best. Society has laid down an impression that everyone has to be better than the next, and with that, people become enticed by being better than the person next to them. Constantly, we think about what to say and how to say it, to make ourselves seem superior over another. We have jobs and make money in order to have nice things to make people look at us in hope that people will notice us and accept us. We spend ridiculous amounts of money trying to impress others. Then, when we have been accepted, we become even more stressed trying to keep up with the new you, the new you that was accepted. We believe that these people are our “friends” and we are willing to do anything in order to keep them. The new things that we get ourselves into are an even bigger burden on us on top of the other things. After being used and abused, we begin to feel disgusted with ourselves, and that’s when the real contemplation begins.
When we are at the bottom, we begin to think about the things around us, the real things around us. If I had not done this, I would not have done that. If I had not said this, they would not have said that. If we really sat down and contemplated the things that mattered we would not be where a lot of us are today. The thing about people is that they will never change. People will always judge, discriminate, and reject. If we think about the people we called friends two years ago, not many of them are worthy of the title of friend at this point. Not to say that there is no such thing as a real friend, but what I am saying is that they are rare. If you have to try to be someone’s friend, I would not call them a friend at all. If someone wanted to be your friend, you would not have to TRY to be their friend, they would be your friend automatically. Also, be careful when choosing your friends, not all people are who they seem to be. People can be backstabbers, liars, blackmailers, and users of you. If there is anyone who has ever had a friend like that, I feel your pain. But, there are also the good ones. The ones that care about you and take care of you and the ones who are always there for you, but like I said, they are rare to find, but when you do find one, do not let go of them. If people talk about you, do not be like them. Many people have the mentality that because people talk about them that it is acceptable for them to do also.
In the end, it all comes down to who we are as a person. If people really thought about the things that mattered they would be happy. We spend half of our life trying to be someone that we are not. Were the things that we did to fit in really worth it? Did those things really make a difference in the daily lives that we live today? I can honestly say that they did make a difference in my life today, but I am not saying that it’s a good difference. There are many things I wish I could go back and change. In our lives we have to come to the conclusion that everything we do must be thouroghly contemplated. If we come to the conclusion that a certain thing will not benefit us, we should get rid of it. Sometimes that means getting rid of certain friends. Overall, people make decisions based off of emotions and how we feel. The things we do are based on the emotions we allow ourselves to have. I believe the only emotion we should have is joy. Other emotions allow us to do the stupid things that we do. For example, fear holds us back from doing the things we are capable of doing. Sadness allows you to go into depression that will eventually lead to suicide. Hatred towards something or someone will allow you to be hurtful whether it be physically or verbally. In conclusion, do not let your life be run off of emotions instead of your heart. There is nothing worse than doing something based on how you are feeling at that very second and regret it later on. In all you do, contemplate your decisions and choose accordingly to what will benefit you later, not now.