I showed a bunch of you the clip on the bottom of this post a while ago. It’s the best Stephen Colbert interview I’ve ever seen. The video above it is the newest update on the Stephen Colbert and Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Washington D.C. voting rights “feud”. It’s pretty freaking amazing. Enjoy. For those on facebook, there are videos here that don’t import over, so you’d have to click on the “view original post” link below.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
This is a snippet from an Easter Service by Erwin McManus of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles. His coffee story pretty much sums up my life. I love it. The rest is a freebie. Enjoy!
Let me know if the audio doesn’t work. It’s about 9 minutes long, so if you have a few minutes to spare, take full advantage of it.
“Beauty: Easter Service” by Erwin McManus (click here for download)
I know I’m late on the whole Valentine’s Day thing, but here’s my contribution to the romance posting in the blogosphere. This is part of an email I wrote a while ago to a really good friend. She was really liking this guy and was about to hang out with him for the first time and was really nervous about how she was going to act during the evening. I wrote this to her and she has since said it was very encouraging. She has returned often since I wrote it. So, with her permission, I’m posting this, hoping it might be helpful to anyone else out there.
___________________
My advice to you: relax, STOP OVERANALYZING, call some people, wear something really cute tonight, drink a beer (not some girly drink – just kidding), and be the flawed and weak sinner you are. Don’t force conversation to just be about Jesus because you think that’s what he would most like. Respond to his initiations. If you end up only talking to him the whole night because he won’t stop talking to you, then that’s a win – don’t freak out. don’t try to put forward some image – don’t. That will make you stressed out, cheesy, and end up walking away feeling like you’ve had your foot in your mouth the whole night.
All that you need to most fully be who you are has been perfectly accomplished on your behalf by another. Your righteousness is in heaven, so you don’t need to seek the approval or affection of any human being because both of those have been bestowed upon you by your Lover and King. So now walk in freedom. Walk in rest. Any man that is meant to love you in this way will love you as Christ does and see your sins and failings and insecurities more as cute quirks than deal-breaking negatives. So freely be the disgusting failure of a human being you are that deserves the full wrath of God to be poured out on her. But know that this same God – out of the cloud of wrath and anger that hung so perilously over your head – has extended a hand of mercy and grace. Know that you have taken that hand. Know that He has granted you to know the highest of all divine wisdom – the most intimate of His secret counsel – the Gospel. Know that he has clothed you in a Beauty far surpassing that of this world – His very own Righteousness. Know that while you were at your worst, He pursued you relentlessly and tirelessly just to bring you to Himself and love you and love you and love you. If you truly believe these things at the heart-faith level, then you’ll be able to do my greatest piece of advice for you and the thing to which i have been building in this email all along:
Relax and enjoy all this. Take in every moment. Take note of everything this raises in your heart. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil but hold fast to what is good.
And know that this is good.
see ya sis,
–paul
Semester 1 Stats:
Less than 4 months (Sept-Dec)Total pages written: 268 (I produced just over 13% of what I consumed)
Ending GPA: 3.2
Wow. This semester. Tomorrow begins semester 2 and I’m both excited and hesitant. This past semester gave me wrestlings and questions I never knew were there. It showed me depths and complexities of my own sin I never knew resided in my heart. I never knew just how undisciplined I am. It seems that the greater the work load, the more things I use to distract myself from doing it. The TV website hulu (that had that great Super Bowl commercial) consumed more hours of my life than did Greek or reading. I think I tripled how many shows I kept up with. It’s embarrassing and difficult for me to admit that, but it’s true. My Bible reading withered down to a few chapters a week. I didn’t get to spend time with anyone from my church. I questioned my place at the church, attempting to leave a few times before God exposed my pride and youthful arrogance and called me to submit to the place he had called me to. I realized I am self-willed, addicted to control and self-pleasure, and unwilling to properly steward the relationships and opportunities God places in my life.
In short: this semester was the most amazing 4 months of my life.
I just want to use the rest of this post to list out the main take-aways I got from this semester. If this is what just one semester does to me, I have no idea what 6 or 7 more will do. This is going to be an incredible experience. So I hope these lessons and wrestlings find a place in all your hearts as just one sojourner’s path down this bloody, uphill, broken, tear-stained, cross-bearing road called the Christian stumble.
Semester 2 approaches tomorrow with me not as prepared for Greek as I should be, but with a fire in my bones and a grace upon my heart to find the discipline and time management to fully take advantage of all this semester has to offer. If you get this far down this post, please pray for me, that I might remain conscious of my finitude and weakness, trusting alone in all my Savior has accomplished on my behalf that I might freely enjoy Him and every nuance of who He is.
Grace and peace. (oh the beauty of those words!)
This is my church. I love them so much. I became an official member last week, and with seminary has come a greater sense of how big of a deal church is to God, so this was a really significant thing for me. Oh the places God takes us! He is so good. This is a video with some of our members “going through” our core values. Enjoy. You will.
Hey Tim, thanks for the link.
the long way home 