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This is a late update on the first day of the 3 day fast I'm pulling now, at the beginning of Thanksgiving break.

There's no particular reason I'm fasting, other than that I think it's just a really good idea - I want to just pray a lot.

I realized today, however, it's pretty easy to fast and not end up praying at all. I did end up spending a good amount of time in prayer, and I was very glad to do it; but I also realized how quickly I might've just gone to bed or kept playing video games instead of that. Prayer is the engine, and prayer is the point.

Secondly, something I've been meditating on is that we were never instructed to defeat sin in our lives. God didn't tell us to win the battle, he just told us to be a part of it. That victory is Christ's alone. But, we were instructed to fight, to keep fighting, and to never stop fighting. Because though we might not, the gracious grace of Christ in us can defeat the devil: John Piper writes, "The devil is conquered wherever his design to devour faith is defeated. That defeat is by the cross of Christ and the Word of God." We ought never give up, because Christ's victory is already won for us - we only need to fight for it in our hearts. We have no need to give up. My prayer once more is that I will not stop fighting. Never stop fighting.

Lastly I just want to recall that though I may be hungry, tired, and sore (for whatever reason) right now, Jesus is worth all of it. I urge this as a reminder to myself and whomever might be reading this, that spiritual growth is not your goal. Success in ministry and success in life is not your goal. Knowledge - a big one for me - is not the goal. JESUS is the goal, the end, the purpose and the destination. He is all-encompassing, all-satisfying, and all-consuming. I want to see you, Lord.

May the Lord Christ shine his face upon you, and be gracious unto you. May he raise his countenance upon you; and give you peace. The LORD bless you and keep you.

The future freaks me out

I realized today, sitting in class for 430 that I probably shouldn't have dropped 426 (Metaphysics) this semester. I'm at 12 hours now and I have loads of free time, I'm pretty bored because (quite frankly) I beastmode all of my classes (except for 453....ugh.....), but more importantly, I just realized that dropping that class probably screwed up maybe graduating a semester early next year. I still do want to take 426, and the reason I dropped it was so I could take it with Korman and not the crazy old hoot that's teaching it now (seriously, anybody else reading this, Prof. Hugh Chandler is craaaaaazy), but it probably messed up my next year's semester hardcore. Ugh.

I also had a moment of terror because I thought it was too late to declare my 2nd major in history (that, somehow, I'm 99% done with, without even having declared it) and that I'd just randomly have 34 hours of history with no just cause. I just really need to stop putting stuff off.

I really wish I had started caring about stuff earlier. My GPA could be considerably higher, I could have a lot better relationships with a lot of people.....my GPA could be higher....

And now, I have no clue where I'm going to be in 3 years, or even this time next year. I'm still applying to grad school next year, but I have absolutely no clue how good my application will be - I have an okay GPA, not particularly worried about recs or writing sample, and I have a more advanced CV than most undergrads do, but I still need to apply to a ton of places because I have no clue how good my application looks. But more than that, I'm a little scared about when I'm going to get married, and to whom (yeah, believe it or not....though I'm not that worried at all. It's just apprehension about being in grad school for 5-7 years); I'm scared that I'm not going to get to hang out with my friends here before we all move on after graduation; and in general, I'm just scared I have no control over my future.

Hmm.....more faith. Mo' trust. Mo' prayer.

When there's nothing to do...

I'm really scared of idleness. I'm scared of having free time. Weird, huh? Today (Monday) was a pretty good day; it was really nice out; I just had absolutely nothing to do. Well, in reality, I had a paper to edit for publication, but I didn't do that. I finished memorizing Galatians 1 this weekend and didn't keep pushing ahead into chapter 2. So really, I had quite a lot of stuff to do but chose to ignore all of it because I wasn't really obligated to do any of it.

But that's not quite right, is it? God calls us to be faithful stewards in everything, regardless of whether we have deadlines or are pressed by any human sense of obligation. And so looking back, my idle days are days that I can't really tell if I was serving God faithfully or not. They're spiritually neutral days. And I don't like that - not only because I feel like I didn't accomplish anything, but also because that same feeling (that I didn't accomplish anything) is a sign that I could have accomplished more.

God calls me to be a faithful steward in everything, and I suppose that also applies to faithfully serving God in our free time, but free time should never be "free". I could always have prayed more, read more, gone to hang out with some people more, gone to work out, etc., etc. And so I want to be more productive in my free time. I realized that I memorized Galatians 1 in a little under 30 minutes, so if I put my mind to it, I could probably get the whole book done in a day. So, here's a reminder to you, future Peter: use your free time more wisely!

Secondly (and lastly), something that came up in conversation with Adam just now really struck me. It was this: "We used to enjoy life so much more." It's true, isn't it? I used to throw myself rolling down a hill until my parents would tell me to stop. I used to imagine that my vegetables were a jungle and that tiny little dinosaurs were roaming it hunting each other. I used to run back and forth until my tiny little lungs were exhausted and I collapsed laughing just from the sheer pointlessness of it all. I used to enjoy life so much more. When did we get so filled with regret? When did I get so filled with bitterness? It's useless to be bitter about having been bitter, that's just pointless. But I want to wake up tomorrow and be amazed at the leaves, at the grass, at the wind blowing through the trees. I want to open my eyes and be awestruck at the subtle ways God showers us with reminders of his cleverness. I want to be young again.

Lamentations 3:19-22

Halfway (Again)

Well, I'm going to try and update more often, if for no other reason than to remember what I'm thinking now. Blogging is painful. I don't process information in the same way a blog post requires me to. Bah.

This post comes out of a great class morning prayer and a great day in general. (future Peter: class night 1st sem junior year, "class mp the day after class mp") My back hurts right now though.

This is a mid-semester recap. Something I've been trying to do this semester is go to morning prayer every day (!) and, in general, execute more discipline spiritually. This includes actually being diligent about what/how/for whom I'm praying, actually being deliberate about what I read in Scripture rather than "Why yes, I have in fact read my Bible today" and fighting the immature, selfish desires deeply rooted in my nature. Well, I'm trying. Why?

I want more joy. I just deleted my little side blurb on this blog because it was macabre and bleak. I take myself too seriously too often, and I worry too much about things I have no control over.

My prayer requests going into CFC Revival a couple weekends ago were this: "More joy, more discipline. More love. But also a realization that the notion that I can control my own spiritual welfare through enacting a certain level of discipline is the same notion that I can control my sin and my salvation. Both of these notions are wrong." I've realized that when I slip into selfishness (which often includes self-loathing) and temptation spiritually aren't really when I lose discipline (even though that's evidence of it) but instead when I begin to think "I'm a pretty good Christian" or, alternatively, "I'm a pretty bad Christian but I've got it under control, for the most part". God has taught me that I own nothing. I am totally and completely powerless. Even when I feel convicted with His Word or blessed with His presence, it isn't mine - it's all a gift, it's all grace. And so I realized that while I am ready to accept that I need Christ in many, many areas of my life: personal relationships, discipline, etc.; I also realized that I don't think I need Christ in other areas - doctrinal soundness, intellectual life, etc. But I do! And this, in fact, also is grace - the fact that nothing I do on my own will ever satisfy God, that is. It makes Christ's grace appear all the more magnificent. (2 Cor 12:9)

70 Years for Babylon

I realize now that what drives me to hang on to those little things is a deep-seated fear of...well, everything, really. I am afraid I will never change. I am afraid that there is no God. I am afraid that I will never achieve what I want to. I am afraid of rejection. I am deeply, deeply afraid of not knowing. I am afraid of many things; but mostly, I am afraid of myself.

Steve updated his status with this the other day. It's the halfway-again application - because it should always be the application. "In hindsight, the regret is always that you gave too little, never that you gave too much." More than anything else, I am afraid of myself - I am afraid of regret. But I don't ever want to look back on this time in 10 years and wish I had been more faithful. I don't ever want that, ever, ever, ever. But there's a problem: the dilemma here becomes again how to be driven by God's grace, and not human fear.

The New Covenant

But God's grace and mercy is brand spanking new every single second, of every single minute, of every single hour of every single day! It is extraordinarily counterintuitive to seek God in prayer right after I've sinned in some grand or exorbitant way. That counter-intuitiveness, really, is a fear of grace (http://theresurgence.com/2010/10/17/dont-create-a-new-law-for-yourself). How can I be afraid of grace when the Spirit lives in me?

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Jesus! Jesus! How I trust HIM!

How I've proved him o'er and o'er!

Jesus, Jesus! Precious Jesus!

O, for faith to trust him more!

I want more joy. I want to be driven by grace. I want to be driven by the gospel. I want to be driven by the knowledge that I am loved more than I can ever comprehend. And I want to be driven by the knowledge that Christ is vast, Christ is great, and Christ is sovereign (Piper: the consummation of history is the adoration of Christ! (Isa 43:6-7)) I am once more thankful that His grace is sufficient for me. It is sufficient for my fears, too. I am thankful that these light and momentary troubles are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs everything I know! And I am thankful (but oh, how I wish I recognized it more often!) that Christ is worth every atom of every ounce of everything I am or will do. I am thankful most of all that He is fairer still today, still fairer tomorrow than today, and thankful that he will only ever increase in beauty and glory until one day, we see him unveiled, face-to-face. Radiance!

"seeing the worthiness of God and the worthlessness of everything else in comparison"

DA Carson on What the Centre of the Gospel Is

"The heart of the gospel is what God has done in Jesus, supremely in his death and resurrection. Period. It is not personal testimony about our repentance; it is not a few words about our faith response; it is not obedience; it is not the cultural mandate or any other mandate. Repentance, faith, and obedience are of course essential, and must be rightly related in the light of Scripture, but they are not the good news. The gospel is the good news about what God has done. Because of what God has done in Christ Jesus, the gospel necessarily includes the good that has been secured by Christ and his cross work. "

Too often I have the notion that coming back to the cross is something made of repentance first and foremost - repent, repent, repent, repent, obey, obey, obey, and I'll be back by the green pastures and still waters of humble obedience and faith to God. But that's not true - this makes my faith humanly driven, it makes my salvation and God's repeated and continued faithfulness and graciousness something that's driven by myself, rather than Him. To focus on the incorrect notion that the gospel requires repentance is to belittle the sacrifice of Christ. Repentance doesn't drive the gospel, because human actions don't drive the gospel. God does.

I hope I can remember this.

EDIT: of course, functionally speaking, it's impossible to be saved without repentance. What I aim to say instead is that it's only the first step. God does the rest.

Glory be

to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning; is now;
and forevermore shall be.
Amen.

:)

Some thoughts

This comes out of a blog post someone else made that I've had some time to think about.

I think that as Christians living in a postmodern age it's very hard to think that our spiritual life isn't about us. And I think it's the engenderment of that kind of thinking that bothers me most about how I see people approach their Christian lives nowaday. The following comes straight from the aforementioned blog (Stephen Hopkins'):

"Personal Christianity. God created you for a relationship. God loves you so much that He would have died just for you. We need to work out our own salvations. All that matters is your belief that you are saved.

While all of the above do look Christian (and many are – we are released from sin upon individual conversion and we are to work out our own salvations with fear and trembling), one has to look at the subjects of these statements. Namely, the word ‘you’ and its conjugations. It’s all about you.

What follows is ‘experiential’ Christianity. What we, ourselves have experienced in times of prayer and in our daily lives no longer supplements our faith; our personal experiences now trump everything else upon which our faith is based. Nearly gone is “God is real” and enter “God is real to me.” We are more fired up when someone talks about miracles and victories within their lives (or our lifetime) than the word of God. Jesus, Himself, said that if one had ignored the prophets, then even someone coming back from the dead wouldn’t convince another of the reality of God.
[...]
The last consequence I will discuss today of such a personal Christianity is the embracing of the self. Although it is often guised as self-improvement or self discovery, there exists a pervading idea that growing closer to God is the same as self-actualization. Empowerment by God no longer means being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but that God gives you the focus to more efficiently organize your own energy and talents. Knowing yourself is now a prerequisite to knowing God, and loving yourself a precursor to loving others."

http://hoppy393.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/children-of-modernity/

There is very little that he hasn't said that I can't say or screw up with my lesser level of verbal eloquence. But it is an important thing to ponder. The last couple weeks or so I've had one extremely important question on my mind: Does God want you to be happy?

My first approach to that question treated it as some kind of prosperity gospel - even if God doesn't want you to be materially successful, to think that His highest priority is wanting to grant you some kind of emotional stability is just as much of a prosperity gospel as any materially-minded one might be. So I preliminarily answered that as "No, God doesn't necessarily want you to be happy."

But now that I've had some extra time to think about it, it seems that it absolutely is the case - in a certain sense - that God does want us to be happy. But it's not about personal fulfillment or some flawed sense of "I want to grow in God so I can be emotionally secure", but it's very much true in the sense that we were created for God's glory, and moreover to enjoy the fullness of His glory.

"God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him" keeps popping up in new and interesting places.