I have succeed in reading the first chapter of John Piper’s God Is The Gospel.  A dandy little bit of writing it is at that.  In this first chapter he asks a most penetrating question: If Jesus were not in heaven, would you notice? would you miss him? would heaven be as most joyful as it could ever possibly be?  Eph. 1 deals with this question in a most profound way.  This chapter deals with Christ’s work of salvation for us apart from us to eventually be offered to us.  And it is Christ’s work that should illicit from us a response of ever-increasingly prizing Jesus Christ, and displaying such joy by way of a life surrendered to advancing Christ’s kingdom until he returns. 

Without Christ there is no salvation, therefore there is no work, therefore there is no joy.  If you can honestly answer “yes” to the question that Piper is asking, than I suggest you go get yourself a Jesus enema quickly the relieve yourself of your spiritual constipation. 

It is 2:39 in the AM on this ,thus far, dark Wednesday morning.  I can’t sleep, and I’ve been up for a couple hours at this point.  Why can’t I sleep you may ask???  Well,… the answer is quite simple really… I think….?  Or maybe not.   Well it seems that for right now your guess is as good as mine.  But evidently there is a reason that I am still up right now because I feel like I’ve had a couple pots of coffee already and I really haven’t even so much as had a drop of water since supper.    I do know one thing though, this is going to be a big day.  Never mind that I can’t sleep, never mind that I have tons of work that would be wise to get done while on my spring break, and never mind that I have this odd notion to vacuum my carpet in my underwear right now.  I am excited about today.   My wife and I are going to Memphis to visit a seminary.  And with many different options setting in-front of us right now, this visit is likely to tell us a great deal about which step in which direction we are going to be taking this summer.  Hey!! now that I think about it, this is probably why I can’t sleep right now.  Never mind that I feel very prepared for my campus visit today.  I know what my specific questions are going into the 4-5 hour sales pitch, and I’m sure that I will have more as it progresses, but all in all I’m just hoping to make some progress in this decision making process.  I guess that means it would be wise to try to get some sleep then.

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything here.  School has been getting a little crazy as of late (mid-terms).  But things should be slowing back down soon.  Until then check out this new band I’ve discovered.  www.connersvine.com  One of the guys is Hunter Smith, the punter for the IN Colts.  It is some good stuff.

I like to watch fish.  I can’t understand how a fish can be content to swim around in a small enclosed tank for a life time and never grow tired of it.  I know one thing, it would drive me nuts to be put in a small room and left there with now way of getting out.  The four walls would very quickly become more familiar to me than my closest friends.  But science tells us that fish, for the most part, only have a 6 second memory.  That explains to me why they can be completely at ease about living in a small space.  By the time they get to one end, they have forgotten where they just came from.  And we use that to our advantage when we go fishing in a pond, lake, stream, or even the ocean.  Consider our typical method: a hook and a worm.  We will be sitting in our boat or on a dock and just drop our hook and our worm into the water hoping that there are some fish near by.  Let’s think like a fish for a moment.  “Hey look there’s a worm”  OH NO THEY GOT BOB (sorry, I didn’t know what else to name my fish)!!!!  WHERE DID HE GO!!?  WHAT’S GOING ON!!?  STAY AWAY FROM THE WORM!!  DON’T GO NEAR IT ANYONE!!!! ….  ….  ….  ….  Hey look there’s a worm!”    And they call fish brain food.

 The irony here is that we are often in the same place the fish is.  We are in a small place, the earth, and we do tend to keep ourselves confined to the same places, usually of our own doing.  And then Satan drops that hook right there in front of us.  And we usually bite every time.  Satan’s method hasn’t changed; and why should he, considering his success rate.  Satan knows us so well that he has customized every hook for that specific individual.  And like the fish, we have a 6 second memory.  We have forgotten what biting that hook did to us the last time we chased it.  And just like the fish recognized the worm, we too recognized that hook every time it is dropped in front of us.  We struggle with different things, and we know what we struggle with.  And just like the fish, by the time we realize we are struggling, we’ve already been hooked. 

What is it that Satan drops in front of you?  Can you recognize it?  And do you know to flee from it? 

It’s time we get out of the pond. 

Before The Throne

by Shane Barnard

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great high Priest who’s name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me

My name is graven on His hand
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within
upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin

Because a sinless Savior died
my sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
to look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah
Praise the One Risen Son of God.

Behold Him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of Glory and of grace

One in Himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God

I have discovered exactly what God meant by creating a helpmate suitable for man!!!!  I am in the process of interviewing for a youth pastor opening with a semi-local church.  I got a phone call from the chair person of the youth pastor search committee on super bowl Sunday.  He only had one question for me.  “Do you feel that God has called you to Big Sandy?”  I was rather unprepared by the question.  But already feeling fairly (not completely) confident that I am, I said that I was still praying about it because I didn’t want to allow the committee to simply take my word for it.  I need to know that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing too.  That and I still have a lot of questions that I feel need to be addressed considering that a move would be eminent if I do accept an offer from this church.  I had a few conversations with some other pastor friends of mine, and they all more or less told me that I should have done exactly what I did, and to make it a point to bring up the things that I need to bring up to continue this process out.  I thought this to be a good thing to do.  So I did what every good husband should do, and sat down with my wife and explained to her what I was planning on doing.  Then she asked me a question, and I was speechless.  “Do the questions you have have anything to do with whether or not God is calling you there?”  An honest and justified question.  In other words… are you following God wholly and completely? Or are you trying to determine for yourself whether or not you think this will be a good church for us to join staff with?  Abraham didn’t ask questions when God told him to leave everything he had ever known to go to a place that he didn’t know the way, where it was, where he was going to live, the community of the land he was being sent to, what he was going to do about providing an income for his family, or even the possible outcome of the church vote at the next regularly scheduled business meeting.  I feel like God is asking me to be Abraham in this; and I am acting like Moses at the burning bush with one excuse after another: But I don’t speak well, what if they don’t listen to me, but they don’t have a job description made up, but they don’t have a church constitution and by-laws…

I love my wife.  She keeps me honest. 

I just started my reading for a 3,000 word paper I have to write.  Fortunately I was allowed to choose the book I was going to write on.  So I picked a book that I had read before and still have so that I could save a little cash this semester.  The book is “Why Religion Matters: The Fate of The Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief” by Huston Smith.  I read both the introduction and the preface last night.  Both of which were very short, but very eye catching none the less.  Here is a little taste so far…

“The latest journalist to interview me remarked in the course of our conversation that I seem to be angry at science.  I corrected him.  I am angry at us–modern Westerners who, forsaking clear thinking, have allowed ourselves to become so obsessed with life’s material underpinnings that we have written science a blank check.  I am not talking about money here; I am talking about a blank check for science’s claims concerning what constitutes knowledge and justified belief.  The impressiveness of pure science enters the picture, but for the public at large the miracles of technology have generally been more important.”

 Smith grew up in a missionary family that served in China.  He lived there with his family til it was time to start collage.    This book is fantastic!!! I think every pastor, evangelist, and apolojetisist should read this one.   

 That’s really all I have for today.  Tune in next time to the “Dave Cave”

Sometimes there are just days where there is nothing to say.  I’m sitting here at school thinking to myself that I have 2 hours until my next class. And as I sit here in ye ole computer lab nothing comes to mind.  It almost feels like I’m just floating about in this empty abyss with no apparent destination; except that this is a limited amount of time til I have to do something else.  Life is funny that way sometimes.  We have a schedule to make and keep and the whole thing is determined by time.  And it’s not uncommon to find that there are blocks of time where nothing is taking up that block of time.  Some blocks are more convenient than others.  Take for example… 15 minuets.  That has got to be the worst allotment of free time you can have as a college student.  It is not enough time to really start something new for a class or something else, and it’s not enough time to take a nap either.  But here I sit with 2 hours… I mean 1 hour and 59 minuets… err 58.  I guess this is just one of the complexities of life you just have to deal with sometimes.  Man…. when did life begin to get so complicated?  High school? during my parents divorce when I had no strong, consistent male role model?  Marriage? Fatherhood?  It really kind of just sneaks up on you and all of a sudden your head is spinning in both directions simultaneously.  My son, Elijah, is completely oblivious to all of this that lies ahead of him.  Right now all he knows is eat, sleep, play, and make mess.  That’s it!!! The amazing thing about it all, I think, is that God never intended for our lives to be this complicated.  We have truly come to a point what we do see things upside down.  God knows that we fill our lives with so much crap, and yet there He stands looking to simplify everything for us.  He tells us to cast our burdens upon Him.  And that the yoke He has for us is light.  It’s unreal what God wants to give us; and it’s amazing that sometimes the very thing we want is the very thing that God is offering.  And it’s also amazing to see what someone has to say when they have absolutely nothing to say. 

This past Sunday night was a lot of fun for me.  I am in the middle of an interviewing process with a church for a youth pastor job.  And this past Sunday night I was asked to fill the pulpit at this particular church to give the congregation the chance to hear me.  My text was 1 John 1:1-5.  Things went very well, but upon further reflection after the fact something truly amazing came to mind.  In verse 2 John talks about “touching” “the word of truth.”  I had done some research on the particular word in preparing; what I found was that this word doesn’t literally mean that John touched Jesus (though he probably did considering the time John spent with Jesus) rather it means that John took time to purposely and intentionally consider and think about what Jesus said, taught, and did right in front of him.  As I thought about this, again after the fact, this image of my son came flooding into my head.  Elijah is very observant at his rightful age of 6 months.  Everything is new to him, and so everything draws a certain fascination that is this marvel to watch.  Things that we now take for granted as things that are most impressive to him.  Colors, movement, sounds, lights,… etc.  It is just so amazing to watch him explore the world around him.  This image that came to my mind was of Elijah playing with his rubber duckie.  He is sitting there on mommy’s lap while he touches it to feel it’s texture and see that it is smooth.  He sees the different colors and shows you what he likes the best by reaching out to touch that color the most.  He squeezes it to see that it is soft, and that it makes a noise that is most exciting to a 6 month old boy.  But then he picks it up and brings it to his mouth.  “Can I eat this?”  “What does it taste like?” These new things that Elijah has never seen before hold his interest and so he takes the time and makes the effort to purposely and intentionally examine every possibility about something.  John is telling us that he did exactly that.  He carefully examined everything he saw Jesus do, everything he heard Jesus say, and that he is testifying to it because he found no fault in it.  What an amazing insight to come from watching my son!!  And the little children shall lead them indeed!!

So here it is… my first post on what I hope to be an opportunity to just reflect and get some thoughts and ideas out in order to make room for others.  So without further adue…..

Today has been rather interesting, and the funny the funny thing is it’s not quite noon yet.  In my English class we have been talking about possible topics for our research papers.  I’m looking forward to diving into what I’m expecting to be a challenge.  I just hope I’m not getting in over my head with my topic.  I know that you’re wondering what my topic is, so let my lay it on you: The Attitude of Evangelical Christians Toward Homosexuals.  Sounds fun doesn’t it.  There are a couple things that have inspired such an adventure.  1. I am currently working on preparations for church ordination.  Within the few and brief discussions that I’ve had with the gentleman that I’ve asked to be my ordination chairperson, we’ve talked about centering many questions around issues that my generation of ministerial students will probably be faced with that are relatively new.  Homosexuality and reaching out to homosexuals seems clearly to be one of those issues.  So I’m looking to use this as an opportunity for me to prepare myself for what I am fully expecting to be faced with. 2. I have already dealt with this issue in ministry on some level.  I have recently resigned from a youth pastor position, but while I was serving in the particular church, I had a student who struggled with this very thing.  I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t, and still don’t, know how to reach out to him.  Paul tells us that we must become all things to all people, but I don’t think that means I have to be a homosexual to reach a homosexual.  It seems self-defeating when you consider what scripture says about homosexuality.  Scripture tells us that we will be known by our love, but that is something that we don’t see in our culture today.  To me the answer is clear, but I don’t know how to make it practical.  So here I am blazing a new trail.  I can’t wait to see what I can uncover.