Scott Freeman

I recently encountered an individual who disparaged the pursuit of holiness. This person made the statement that the Christian life is too safe, too easy.
What is the point to living if all you do is take the easy way?
Where is the excitement, the rush when all you hope to do is the right thing?
The thought possessed behind these questions is the false assumption that living can only truly be experienced through sin.
Through chasing after the lures and desires of the flesh.
People who reject living the Christian lifestyle on this basis believe that yielding to Jesus means that you will forever abandon the thrills and exultation of an unrestrained life.
Au Contraire.
The Christian life is replete with excitement.
It is fraught with risk.
It is overburdened with moments that shake the core, rock the soul and awake the spirit.
Christian living is life on the glorious edge.
It is life totally set free from the temporal restraints of this life.
It is eternal awareness in a secular world.
For example:

• There is great risk when I sit with a couple on the edge of divorce and share with them the glory and fulfillment of a Christ-centered message.
• There is excitement when I talk with the young soul about the peace and comfort of giving of one’s life to Christ.
• There is palpable exhilaration that comes with confronting the wandering soul with the good news of God’s grace.
• There is risk in standing for absolute truth in a world that seems dead set on absolute uncertainty. People may reject you but they will not doubt who you belong to.
• There is reckless disregard for the flesh when we abandon the desires of this life in exchange of the relentless pursuit of heaven.
• There is risk in loving unconditionally
• There is risk in faith. Of launching out with the full expectancy that our steps are not guided by our own might or reasoning ability but by the ever-present Hand of God.
• There is risk in sharing. We know that only some will believe. And we accept the danger of rejection with glad and sincere hearts. Because some will believe.

Every week as I prepare my thoughts for Sunday I am struck by the risk. When I pore through the Scriptures in an attempt at understanding I am seized by delight.
As I consider how to best present the gospel I am overwhelmed, humbled and excited at the enormous responsibility that has been thrust upon me.
I am calling people weekly to surrender all that they have.
All of their meager attempts to get ahead.
All of their futile efforts to procure sense in this life through their own reason.
To lay down their life in exchange for the life God longs for you to have.
In so doing, I see all that I still have left undone. All that God still needs to transform within me.
It is not safe.
It is definitely not easy.
There is risk in giving your life over.
There is excitement at giving God control
There is exhilaration in living for something greater than yourself.

The Christian life is the life of true risk-takers. It is the journey of the joyous.
The manner of the magnificent.
The glory of God.
To live the Christian life is to live in joyous expectancy of Heaven.
To live the Christian life is to boldly risk all for another world.
To live the Christian life is to be willing to die to self and live for Christ.
To live the Christian life is to count all but loss compared to the unsurpassing joy of knowing Him.
To live the Christian life is to experience the excitement of seeing others lay down their burdens, their sins, their hurts, their pains and embrace the Gentle Healer.
It is a life on the tight-rope of living trapped between two worlds: the world we inhabit and the world for which we eagerly await.
It is a life in the lion’s den of those who despise the message armed only with the love of Jesus.

The Christian life is not easy. It is not boring.
It is not the coward’s way out.
It is life.
True life.
Life on the Glorious Edge.
Try it.

We can now legally starve people to death. We rail against the atrocities at Abu Ghraib but how is this different?
Link: Yahoo! News – Schiavo Dies 13 Days After Feeding Tube Removed.

I don’t have an artist of the week. Instead, thanks to the blessings of Rhapsody, I have compiled the ultimate U2 Playlist. There is at least one song from each of their albums included on this list. it also had to fit on two burn CD’s. I must admit it is a potent lineup of songs.
I would love your comments on the list (i.e. additions, subtractions, etc.)

1. I Will Follow
2. Gloria
3. October
4. The Refugee
5. Two Hearts Beat as One
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday (from Under a Blood Red Sky)
7. 40 (from Under a Blood Red Sky)
8. A Sort of Homecoming
9. The Unforgettable Fire
10. Bad
11. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
12. With or Without You
13. Running to Stand Still
14. Red Hill Mining Town
15. In God’s Country
16. Angel of Harlem
17. Love Rescue Me
18. All I Want is You
19. One
20. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
21. So Cruel
22. Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World
23. Stay (Faraway, So Close)
24. Some Days Are Better Than Others
25. If God Will Send His Angels
26. Sweetest Thing
27. Beautiful Day
28. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
29. Walk On
30. Peace On Earth
31. The Hands That Built America
32. Vertigo
33. City of Blinding Lights
34. Yahweh

Well, my dear beloved has finally gone and started her own blog. I am confident that you will find what I have known for some time now: Tracy is one on the brighest, most refreshing personalities that you can know.

Many of us treat church life like immature adolescents.
From other Christians we want thrills, constant
exhilaration and to have our needs met. When Christian
brothers and sisters fall short of our expectations,
when they are boring and imperfect and fail to meet our
needs for strokes, we pout, turn away and isolate
ourselves from them. Jesus calls us to mature commitment
of love for his people – the very people in our fellowship!

John Wimber

Where does my two year old hide her shoes?

Okay, so I was asked to blog about my special breakfast. I have recently begun the Abs Diet.
It is a great way to trim the gut.
The main focus of the diet is to concentrate on eating certain power foods along with exercise.
The power foods are as follows:
Almonds and other nuts
Beans and other legumes
Spinach and other leafy greens

Dairy Items
Instant Oatmeal
Eggs
Turkey and other lean meats

Peanut Butter
Olive Oil
Whole Grains
Extra Protein Whey Powder
Raspberries and other berries

At each meal the idea is to eat as many of the power foods as possible. One of the recommended recipes is one I whipped up the breakfast the other day.
I recommend it:
In microwave bowl mix one egg well, then add:
1 cup milk
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup mixed berries
1 tablespoon chopped pecans or sliced almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla why protein powder
1 teaspoon ground flax seed
Nuke for 2 minutes
Then top with 1/2 sliced banana and 1 tablespoon plain yogurt

I added a dash of splenda and cinnamon.
A high fiber, high protein breakfast with 8 power-foods.
It sounds disgusting but it really isn’t. It’s pretty good.
I’m trying to decide if a little peanut butter thrown in would be any good.
That would make 9 power foods.
Give it a shot.
Feedback?

I went to lunch with Tracy and the girls today. It is always a chore to keep up with them in a restaurant. It’s an even bigger task to get them to eat whatever we order for them.
We often end up leaving the restaurant with a vow never to go eat out again until the girls are in their 30′s. But we always return for more.
After lunch I ordered them a brownie and as I was buckling Cassie into her car seat she clung to the remainders of her treat as if I had handed her the crown jewels.
As I watched her eat my thought went out to two parents in Florida who are fighting tooth and nail for the simple privilege of feeding their daughter.
Tracy and I love our girls. We adore them.
They bring us more joy and laughter than we ever could have imagined.
And we take our parenting responsibility seriously.
We are commissioned to care for our children. To protect them.
To provide them the very sustenance they need for life.
I can not imagine the government coming along and telling us that we can no longer provide for our children.
That we could no longer feed them.
That we were required, by law, to stand idly by and watch our children die.
I cannot imagine the heartache. The helplessness. The despairing feeling of failing your child.
Of knowing that you have the ability to aid your child but lack the power to do so.
One day we will hand our girls over to the young men that they have chosen to spend their lives with.
We will entrust them to their care.
But our desire to provide and care will never end.
We will still possess the ability to care for them but will relinquish the power to another.

I take comfort in knowing that there exists One who will always provide what they need.
Who will never leave them nor forsake them.
Who has the ability to provide for them.
Who has the power to sustain them.
Who has unconditional love for their souls.

Where our parenting skills and ability cease, God’s care is without end.
Where our ability to care for them diminishes, His ability is abundant.
Where our power to provide abates, His abounds.

No matter what happens in life His love will always reign over our girls.
No government, no judge’s decision, no jury, no efforts of man will ever stop the love of God for Chloe and Cassie.
For that I take heart. That is the food I long to feed them.
The Bread of Life.

Satan has master-minded a phenomenal victory in the American
church. By teaching us through a thousand lectures and articles and
books that we are too valuable to be called worms, he has made it
impossible for us to sing “Amazing Grace” with truly amazed hearts.
The more beautiful and valuable man is made to appear, the less
amazing it is that God should love him and help him. The gospel of
self-esteem is healing our wounds very lightly. The wings of
self-worth that carry us briefly out of fear will quickly weary and
drop us in despair some day. For, as John Newton said in his hymn,
“Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and
grace my fears relieved.” Where the glory of God’s free
and sovereign grace pales in the shadow of human self-esteem, there
will one day be a great shudder of fear.
—John Piper

Jars of Clay have just released a tremendous new album entitled “Redemption Songs.” What greater inspiration for a collection of tunes could there be than songs of God’s salvation.
Beautiful renditions of “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks” highlight this work. Do yourself a favor and head to their site and check it out.