Matt Chandler Quote: Brilliant

“The Holy Spirit uses Driscoll in a lot of ways. Driscoll can tell you that you are stupid on a Sunday morning and everyone will say, 'yes I am, how can I be saved?' But, if you try and be Mark, instead of who God has called you to be, you are going to look like a bunch of jackasses!”

(Matt Chandler - quote from the Contend Earnestly Blog, which is also awesome)

Love has come down, Grace has a name.

We sang my favorite song on Sunday. "You are the Light" ohmysweemercy! I listen to that song nearly every morning and still it continues to slap me across the face. Love it. AND not only did we sing that, but it was Bleekerized and at the end of "You are the Light, he went straight into "Hosanna", but not the blechy parts, the GOOD part!! You know, the "Heal my heart and make it clean..." part! I rarely listen to "Hosanna" on my phone because it's sooo long and the only part of that song that I even like is that verse, but I really LOVE that verse, it always makes me cry.  So he blended "You are the Light" and the good part of "Hosanna" and my soul exploded all over the place. Such a wonderful Sunday. WONDERFUL!
 And Matt's sermon was spot-on and I don't know why, but I teetered on springing a leak the whole time. I'm lame like that. He just makes me love Jesus so much. Doesn't take much to make me cry the happy tears. (Ironically, it takes a lot for me to cry sad tears.)
        I would also like to say that I was at that Michael W. Smith/dc talk concert that Matt talked about attending back in the good ole days, but instead of thinking it was lame, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen in my entire life and it launched a disturbingly unhealthy obsession with dc Talk. I remember that concert. It was at Reunion Arena. It was the first time I saw dc talk. It was after Nu Thang came out. Man they were so radical! I remember them saying something about D-boy Rodriguez, who was a Christian rapper who'd been killed in Dallas recently. I was a little tiny kid, but I remember this concert clearlyish.
        Another thing Matt mentioned is how ridiculous the "Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words" quote is. I was glad to hear him say that because I've always had problems with that saying, yet it's practically been canonized by the Christian world.
It was really great to hear more of Matt's story too. I've heard most of it several times. I feel like I know Jeff Fairclaw personally. Ha! But Matt opened up and filled in some small gaps, so that was awesome.
It was just great. It was an amazing sermon, and an amazing Sunday.

I have the whole week off from school. Why? Because of MLK day, I think. nice!

On the way home (before we stopped at Panda Express of course!) Joel was looking through this new book that I bought to keep in my car. It's called The Conversation Piece and it's filled with intriguing questions like "What is one thing you wish had never been invented?" and "If you had the opportunity to walk through one celebrity's house, who would it be?"
So he's flipping through it and reading the questions to himself and he finally turned to me said, "Where are the answers??"  Hahahaha!! I hope he was kidding, but he looked so serious that I don't think he was.
That little fella never ceases to make me laugh!


I feel like I have a lot more inside of me that is dying to get out, but I don't know what it is, and this post is long enough, so I'll just leave you in peace. [smiley face, ya'll]

Here's a random picture of Matt standing next to the radiation machine. He's completely bald now. It works. He has the most awesome scar I've ever seen. I'm almost jealous.

Days like today remind me of how truly weak I am and how I don't know crap about anything. It's one of I'll-never-fully-understand-myself days and I have to throw myself on the mercy of the cross because I can see my patheticness oozing out of me.

Any human would think I'm insane and wouldn't understand. Including myself.

But thank God that He loves and loves and loves. Thank God it's about Him and not me. Thank God nothing is dependent on me and my strength. Ha!




Here's our family's Christmas card this year.
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Church & Truth

I went to some church yesterday to hear J.I. Packer.  Yeah I have no idea what church it was. Hillcrest something or something. It was an Anglican church, which was very interesting to me.

I'm kinda weird. hahaha..."kinda". No, I'm full-blown weird. Stained glass gives me the heebie jeebies like none other. I think it's because it reminds me of old time religion, which also gives me to heeber jeebers. I don't like being reminded of the churches I grew up in and visited when I was younger. Back then there so little heart in church. So many rules and lessons and stories, but so little heart. Anything that jogs my mind of old timey church makes my skin crawl.
 This was a very liturgical church, kinda similar to a Catholic church in many ways, except I really do believe they had good theology. OH! they had an organ! Doesn't that send chills down your spine?? Stained glass AND an organ!! Why on earth did the American church insist for so long that the organ was God's chosen instrument?  I mean really??? The organ has been culturally irrelevant for decades, if not centuries! Yet we clung to that old pipe demon like it was Jesus Himself. yuck. I don't like those things. (and I didn't like how there was no reason or explanation for why things were a certain way in church. "that's just the way it's always been done!")  
   anyway, there was kneeling and standing and corporate response frequently. It was fine, just different. I had to guard my heart from looking down on them or assuming that they believed a lesser Gospel than I simply because they're a little different and perhaps a little more home-schooly. These are my brothers and sisters. It was an interesting experience. I missed Matt, Bleeker and my Village family.
  
During the meet and greet portion (wow, haven't had to partake in one of those in a long time!) I met the girl in front of me, who was maybe my age. eh. I don't know. I'm terrible at judging ages. She wasn't in junior high, I know that much for certain. Anyway, I was talking to her, and she was a visitor from Believer's Bible Chapel just down the road. She asked where I go to church and I said "The Village" and she perked up "Oh my whole church is praying for Matt Chandler!" I thanked her for that, and we talked about JI Packer and John Piper.

I never ceased to be absolutely ASTONISHED at how deep his influence runs. It seems like everyone knows and adores Matt. I know how much God has used him in my life, but it's incredible to see that God has used him so much in other people's lives as well. Why Matt? My parent's pastor has cancer too, yet no one knows him or mentions him. They go to a larger church than mine! It's odd to me. But that little experience in church washed my heart in gratitude for everything God has done in me, and through Matt and through our church.

As I was talking to the girl, I looked ahead a few rows and there was a guy I know from The Village! How dang random is that???? There were maybe a hundred people in that church yesterday. The Village is huge, like 4000 people maybe? I only know a handful of people there, a minuscule percentage, yet there just so happened to one of the people I know at this little church. There was no point to that story, I just thought it was funny.

I enjoyed JI Packer. He's old. He's no Piper, in MY opinion. And my opinion is probably retarded. I was thinking about all the speakers I've gotten to hear. Who's left now? I've seen all my favorites...Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, John Piper, JI Packer, Alister Begg, James McDonald, Brennan Manning.....who's left? I've seen them all. I'd be kinda proud about that, except I know that puts a responsibility on me. I've heard SO much truth, I KNOW so much truth. I know that I will be held accountable for what I've done and what I do with the truth that He has given to me. There's a weight to that. There's so much joy in the truth He's allowed me to hear and know, but there's a weight to it as well.

Yeah, really was pretty much a pointless post. I was just thinking through yesterday and decided to write to down. I didn't really get to share any heart vomit with you. But I guess that's okay.

olden times

So i found this the other day. Apparently I wrote it while Creth and Clint were at my house! hahaha....i was such a loser. why didn't somebody tell me??

3-8-99

I woke up to the thunder. That is really nice. Actually makes you want to get up. I love rainy weather. But then u heard small children's voices. I thought I'd imagined it, but Patrick and Kelsey were here. I kind of helped entertain them. Later, I went to Funcoland and got 3 games. Creth called when I got back and wanted me to go over there. I went. We played 2 rounds of Blitz. Then we sat and talked to his brother for an hour about what he should preach on for disciple now. That was interesting. His brother is a good role model. Jill and Shelly had decided they wanted to go to Souper Salads earlier, so we came back here and me and Creth and Clint and Al and Jessica and Lauren went. I didn't think anyone would be working that I knew. But, Katy and Abby were there. I talked briefly with Katy. I felt weird, because it wasn't actually my idea to go there! I don't know what they thought. I made sure to leave Katy a nice tip. Then we all came here. Al and Creth and Clint went to Hollywood, while me and Lauren and Jessica watch some of Don't Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead. Jess left. They came back with Half Baked. I told them i wouldn't watch it, but told them they could. We ended up watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the garage. Natalie and Olivia came over. Creth and Clint are spending the night, because we were going to roll Paul. The hard part may be getting rid of them tomorrow. I need to clean my room before Renee gets home. Also, she gets home tomorrow (finally!!) I'll be wanting to talk to her or spend some time with her without them around. Anyway, it was nice to see Katy today. I wish we were better friends. I also want Autumn to come back!! But Renee gets home tomorrow!!
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This was in Florida

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