Try It Again

I knew I'd have problems being consistent with this thing, but I'm gonna try it anyway. For this next post, I'd like to talk about the presence of God. I've read a famous book by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection called The Practice of the Presence of God. It's very good, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to go deeper in their prayer life. Actually, not even that, but to anyone wants their life to revolve around unceasing communion with God. Now I'm reading a book by Germaine Copeland called A Short Method of Prayer. I haven't read much of it yet, but it almost seems like the same book as the other one. Which is definitely not a bad thing. It never hurts to have something as important as prayer confirmed and reiterated. It's definitely helping me, and I'm beginning to see that God's presence in our lives is a free gift from him and that to reject it is not only just stupid on our part but probably an offense to Him as well. Every born-again believer has free access to the gift of God's continuous presence in their lives. I think a lot of believers are intimidated by this fact because it sounds so religious and/or mystical, and it seems like only super-Christian, super-holy, old saints living in a monastery somewhere could attain to such a thing. That's how I usually feel about it, but I'm beginning to think that it may be much simpler than that. Copeland says that it starts with meditation, simply thinking about (but not necessarily trying to understand) the fact that God is with us, that Jesus has promised to be with us always, and that he also promised that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in us and be our counselor and comforter. I keep thinking about those things. Of course, as I do, my mind is constantly being distracted to think about other things, but that's natural and to be expected. But I keep forcing myself to go back to thinking about God's presence. And I'm finding that as I do, it seems to be becoming more real to me. I then find it easier to pray because I then believe more fully that he's there and he's listening. And I guess that's all there is to it. It almost seems too simple, but God is all about simplicity. Well, that's what I'm going through right now. I recommend you try it too. Don't be discouraged if you get easily distracted. Just keep doing it. And as I read more of the book, I'll keep you updated on what else it says. Later.

Letters

I was recently accused of being inconsistent because I assert that the Bible is the living word of God but ignore many of the Old Testament laws, like those forbidding men to shave their beards. I can see the point, but I don't believe it's inconsistent at all. Say you found an old letter in your house. It was from your great grandfather, addressed to your not-so-great grandfather, and it said something like this:

Dear son,

I'm going to be out of town today. I want you to take care of your brothers and sisters. Don't quarrel with them. If they fight, you should be a mediator. Make sure you do all your chores, especially feeding the chickens. I'll see you when I get back later this evening.

Love,

Dad.

Now say you knew your great grandfather before he died, and you truly believed he was the wisest man to ever live. You would probably take to heart his instructions, even though they weren't addressed to you. For example, if you had been arguing with your siblings earlier in the day, this letter might inspire you to make peace with them. However, one thing you probably wouldn't do is go find some chickens somewhere just so you could feed them. In other words, you could easily distinguish between instructions that would apply to you as well as your grandfather and instructions that would have only applied to your grandfather. Another way of saying this is that you could easily distinguish between general moral precepts and specific, context-relative instructions. My belief is that it is the same with the Old Testament laws. And this isn't to say that the context-relative instructions are useless. Especially when dealing with the Scriptures, nothing is useless. After reading this letter, you may not feed any chickens, but you may indeed be inspired to be more responsible and diligent at your job.

Wil's Rap

Since I can't think of much to post here, I guess I can just post various lyrics that I've written. I'll start with the rap I wrote for the awesome man of God, Wil Addison. These are pretty old school, back from when Wil was on staff with XA at UL:

The Backbone
A Hip-Hop Ode to Wil Addison

Lyrics by Ken Taylor

Who can throw stones at Wil Addison?
One thing that's true is, you can't be mad at him.
Or at least not for long, you can't be adamant.
Just examine his life, and throw stones at him then.
You can't, but if you could it wouldn't matter to him.
His rewards are not earthly, but he's cashin' 'em in.
Where there's lots of people, he's in the back of them.
Wherever there's a crowd, he's behind the pack of them.
That's where he has to be to push people forward.
That's who he is: an encourager and supporter.
That's his part in the body: the backbone of the order,
Holding it together like the brick and the mortar,
The frame and the border, he's the embroiderer.
And he makes more change than a buck to four quarters.
In fact, he makes an impact, like a train on a track.
Demons get sacked when Wil's on the attack.
Don't growl at him; he steps up to bat.
Whack! Then Satan's lying with his back flat on the mat.
And that's what's gonna happen when he R.O.C.'s, R-O-C.
Plantin' seeds around the clock, bearing fruit frequently.
Sure, some may land on rocks, or get swept up by the birds,
Sun-scorched, or caught in thorns, but many will get the word.
Now for this bright-willed heart, there simply are no keys.
Sealed and deposited, Spirit-led, His Father well-pleased.

Introduction

So, I'm not too good at this blog stuff. Every time I write something, I think to myself "Who cares?" And then I delete it.

Well . . .

Well, I have a blog. I don't know if it'll be any good. I don't really consider myself a bloggy person. I guess I could be though. Really, I just have to do this for my class. Anywho, I think I'll just hold off on telling anyone about it until I actually get a few posts up. If I update it regularly, then I'll spread the news. Wow, I just posted my first blog. Awesome.