People were impressed with 'odious banalities'

So I wanted to blog again tonight. Pretty much just bored. I got some people's comments and most of them had the same general response. 'Um, what is an odious banality and when did you get smart?' (Also got 1 marriage proposal!) Well, I'm still not smart, not sure I ever will be. However, you people need to use a dictionary or maybe pick up a book every once in a while. They really aren't that big of words. So, anyways, in my new "blog" (and by blog I mean writing. I hate the word blog, makes me sound like a nerd) I wanted to be funny and entertaining, yet at the same time still give an update from the Empire State and maybe some Godly wisdom somewhere (I had to delete the word wisdom when I typed it because I typo ed it twice. Guess I'm not wise after all. But hey, today within a thirty second span I saw a guy pee out of a phone booth and a nun on a bike! True story!). Then I realized I was neither A) Funny B) Entertaining or C) Wise. So this was going to be a problem. I'm not even sure if a few sentences ago I used parenthesis correctly. I also use a lot of semi-colons; who knows what those things do anyways? I sure don't.

Anyways, today was really productive. A day off. Whew, NICE. I needed it after having an exhausting conversation last night with Stan "The Greatest Preacher in all of the Universe" Thomas. Needless to say, to have an intellectual argument with such a theologically wise person and stand my ground was a lot of fun, and very rewarding. Let's see how you do with the points of our argument. Read them, then comment below if you'd like. The arguments will be numbered for those of you playing the home game:

1) What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
2) Can a Christian blaspheme the Holy Spirit? (Stan thought so)
3) If we have eternal security (Rom. 8:37-39) how can a Christian commit the unforgivable sin?
4) If 2 and 3 are true, how can a Christian enter the Kingdom of Heaven with an u forgiven sin?

Have fun. We got nowhere but it certainly was VERY interesting.

In other news I got to spend the day with some really awesome guys. Ryan and I ate lunch together at JG Melon's (unanimously the best burger in NYC) followed by some shopping on 5th Ave at the LaCoste Store and the NBC Store (Had to get a Dwight bobble-head, so amazing). Then he came back to the apartment but I wasn't feeling just sitting around so I gave myself a tour of Columbia's Campus. It was amazing. Beautiful campus and got some really cool gifts for the family. Reyn Danesi was in town, so we went out tonight and just took in the town. Its always nice to see an old face, even though everyone up here is great, when home comes up and visits it's really nice to get some kind of normalcy in the schedule. We went to Top of the Rock and just sat up there, looked at the city and talked about life and laughed a lot. It was nice.

I have to admit, New York is still great, and I can't shake the feeling that I'd love to leave a Gallery Church Gathering up here at some point. Even in all of the greatness and life is good-ness God still finds a way to teach. I'm on my way down from the top of the mountain I was on last time I wrote here. I felt it coming, and I'm really excited tomorrow is Sunday. Just the chance to worship the Most-High King has me really pumped. Even though my prayer life has laxed since last week, i'm not on top of my sinfulness and convictions like I should be, and my priorities are starting to re-arrange selfishly again, God still finds a way to get through to me in my weakness. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 2 Cor. 12:9. His revelations continue to amaze me.

Gay pride week ends tomorrow and there are parades, carnivals, and festivals all around the city. It's just another aspect of New York that one coming from small town South Carolina has to get used to. It's uncomfortable, it's awkward, and it's really in a lot of ways sad and upsetting. It is however, amazing how God has used that to minister to me and some of my co-workers (I'm assuming, and hoping). It's easy to be uncomfortable and laugh or be embarrassed by something you see on the street or in a restaurant or bar, but not only with homosexuality, but with all the sin in this city it's really God's way of reminding me to be on my toes in my glorification of Him. Just the other night I got into 3 or 4 conversations with people that I had no clue who they were. Whether we talked about college baseball, pro baseball, or Christ just by being friendly and even in a smile at someone on the street, God gets that glory. With every person I come in contact with, whether in conversation or in passing, I need to have my mind on the everlasting, on the eternal. Hoping, praying, expecting that God will use me as a tool for His kingdom. It's sad that being a Christian for about 5,6 years now I'm just starting to grasp an eternal heart, and what that looks like and means. When we stop focusing on the uncomfortable-ness of being an alien and realize that with or without our help, God's mission will be accomplished; it really helps us jump on board with what He's thinking. We re-evaluate everything. Things like: (1) Our relationship with Christ, (2) our relationships with others, and (3) our realizations about ourselves change drastically. They have to. Like Stan said to me: “Only and Eternal Being can quench an eternal desire.” It’s so true.

1. The main inspiration of prayer, Scripture, and meditation on Christ moves from a selfish heart of ‘This is what I need to do today,’ ‘What will I get out of my time with Jesus?,’ and ‘Better read the Bible so I can get through it in a year without getting too far behind.’ Into a heart that has a hunger, a longing, a dying need for the touch of Christ in that day. Your heart goes from task-oriented to not being able to beat without being graced with the presence of God. It’s truly an amazing feeling to be walking across the campus of Fordham University and hunger for the Word of God.
2. Our relationships with others also change drastically. We move from a presupposition of giving and being given in friendship to a point of doing everything in our power to display the love of Christ to those people. Laying down our life for our friends. Loving them with an eternal heart. We transplant ourselves in those people’s lives for nothing more than to glorify God so much in that friendship that they look passed you and into something much greater. They look towards the source of your service. Namely, Christ. Christ, His love, and the cross being motivation for everything. As far as romantically I think if we use the same idea as friendship along with the added bonus of Glorifying God in your love for one another and asking the single most important question in all of romantic love: ”Do we glorify God better together as a couple, or apart in our singleness?” If there is any hesitation when asking this question at all, then you know the answer. There is no negotiating this answer, it must be a resounding ‘yes.’ If not, it’s time to move along.
3. Finally, the realization of ourselves changes. We all of a sudden realize that nothing is impossible. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. That price being our Sovereign King humbling Himself into human form and taking on the joy set before Him in the form of death a cross. Taking all of that in, we understand that Christ in us is the hope of glory, and while we fall short, we sin, we have to strive for holiness, He can and will endure. Sin has lost it’s power, death no longer has a sting. Christ is ultimate and that will never change. He will prevail, He will get the glory (Psalm 115:1), and He can choose to do with us and our lives whatever He so wills. We begin to comprehend that all the tests, trials, heartaches, and misfortunes are for a purpose. That purpose is Him being made strong in our weakness, Him being shown as more important and more valuable than ANYTHING this world can give us. A power testimony to all in our lives and to ourselves. Through these ordeals He is making us the people that we are called to be.

I leave you with some words from a song we sang in church last week. I had never heard it, but reading these words, if you really take them in, are amazing. Let this be your prayer. I am praying for you, I love you, and I pray that through something that will be written in these blogs for as long as I feel called to write them, will change you.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

My chains are gone; I’ve been set free
My Christ My Savior, has ransomed me
Like a flood, His mercy reigns
Unending Love, Amazing grace

Amen.