Borrowed Light

I’m a baseball nerd. I love stuff like this. Here are some crazy things that happened in the MLB last year.

I really appreciate this article. “Our job isn’t to make sure people keep following us. Why would people follow someone in a pit? Our job is to make sure people keep following Jesus until he returns in person.”

55 Canadianisms

Found this one on Challies’ site (who else?). I don’t think I knew but a handful of these terms, but thoroughly enjoyed learning them.

I Want to Turn Your Dreams Back On

I skimmed through the notes and really want to listen to this sermon. I’m putting it here more as a bookmark for me than anything else.

My five year old son found this one and it’s amazing:

(HT: Isaiah)

Pray For Your Daughter: 31 Day Challenge—Day Two

January 2, 2014Mike Leake

Day Two: That she would be filled with true joy

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. –1 Peter 1:8-9

Our daughters are faced with so many promises about what will make them happy: toys, clothes, trophies, parties, and beauty. All of these and more are said to fill them with happiness. Yet these toys end up under the bed, clothes go out of fashion and trophies gather dust in the garage. Only through Jesus can our daughters have real joy. They are torn in a culture that celebrates excessive partying and also revels in the dark side of depression and angst. So too, girls fluctuate between naïve giddiness and moody gloominess. God’s desire is that they find Joy, not just happiness, in their relationship with Him. His desire is that our greatest joy comes from our salvation in Him and others finding salvation. Only God will help them get off the rollercoaster and find enduring peace an joy in the presence of the Lord.

Jesus, our Prince of Peace, I pray that you would fill my daughter with your joy, a deep and abiding joy that persists in the best and worst of times. I pray that you would make her certain of her salvation and determined to invite other to know you as well. Please give her eyes that see through the vain and hollow promises of worldly happiness to the truth of being whole and satisfied in you. Surround her with godly boys and girls who will seek to encourage and build her up in the joy that you offer. Let her be a wellspring of joy in the lives of others as well. Remind me also to seek God’s joy, not the toys of the world, as an example to her.

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Corey Whittaker has two teens and has been a Youth Pastor for over 20 years. He has an MA From Trinity School for Ministry in Youth Ministry and an MA from Liberty University in Counseling. He currently serves at Christ the King in Durham, NC as the Youth Pastor and various and sundry other roles.

New Year’s New Birth

January 1, 2014Mike Leake

“That’s it…I’m done”.

Those were the words—or something like them—that I groaned some fourteen years ago. I had been out the night before celebrating the New Year like a drunken fool, stock piling toilet paper, and assuming the apocalypse was upon us. In truth the celebration was empty and the fear was real. Eternity was set upon my heart and I had a difficult time drinking away my sorrows and loneliness.

The Lord had been working over my heart for a few months—actually a few years. In fact I might have even been a believer at this point. I don’t know. I don’t have one of those SPOT’s (specific place or time) that the evangelist said I was supposed to have. I don’t really know when I was saved, I just know that I am. But I do know on January 1st of 2000 a very decisive shift took place. I think this is when the Hound of Heaven tracked me down.

For many people January 1st is a day of starting over and making resolutions to become a better person in the coming year. For me, January 1st is more than starting over. It’s a day of new birth. It’s a day when tetelestai (paid in full) was written over my debts. It’s a day when everything changed. So, while I do occasionally spend my New Year’s Day thinking about how to be more obedient to Christ in the coming year, more than anything I spend the day celebrating God’s rescue of me.

On that day I cried out, “I’m finished” and the Savior met with reality that in Him “It is finished”. All my sin was swallowed up in His righteousness. All my want was overcome with His beauty. He captivated me. And I’ve never been the same since that day.

For me the New Year always reminds me of my New Birth.

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I love to hear stories of God’s grace. How did Christ captivate your heart?