this one is for shishi. to whom i shall pray for his salvation from the infancy he is now until the day that the Lord deems right
this one is for linda. to whom i had my heart bled on the floor for the furtherence of the gospel. God grow in her.
this one is for gino. to whom is a great encouragement to me by his actions. God bless you bro.
this one is for allen. to whom a part of my heart will always be refreshed by his testimony unto me and the team this winter. May he be strong in the Lord!
this one is for my team. to whom was there as my comrades in war - continue to fight my brothers and sisters.
this one is for nahee. to whom taught me gentleness in the gospel.
this one is for christine. to whom taught me tactfulness and reverence in the gospel.
this one is for grace. to whom gave me a lasting gratefulness for the gospel.
this one is for jeff. to whom taught me how to be a better man in the Lord.
this one is for my mother. to whom i find myself in wonder of how much endurance she has.
this one is for my brother. to whom i still find crazy.
this one is for my brother. to whom will kill me after reading this blogpost.
this one is for ecf praise team to whom have been living (yet goofy) encouragements to me. God has really blessed me with you bros and sister haha.
this one is for family. i missed you all dearly and it's good to be praising and fellowshipping with family once again.
this one is for God. to whom "... has not destined you for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for you so that whether you wake or sleep you will live with him."1 thessalonians 5:9-10
and has manifested many blessings in my life just in the last two months.
although i was pretty exhausted from this week, today was just great to be a part of :) God is really.. man. words please? it's just astonishing to see.
today i got the opportunity to serve since i was finally given a day off a saturday (first saturday day off since late july/august? other than the Tan wedding) the eastbay sisters are crazy. the eastbay sisters are weird. the eastbay sisters are odd. the eastbay sisters are loved by God. the eastbay sisters are servants. the eastbay sisters are more than what we brothers deserve. we don't deserve our sisters!
and lately i've noticed how much i haven't been serving them as much as I should in response to knowing that Christ loved them so much, He died for them too.
so i was given the opportunity to help with lunch for their conference, and man.. i'm telling you the serving of the brothers and the sisters here is just a joy to watch.
it's beautiful. there's a building up of one another towards glorifying God in our fellowship. i only witnessed it in the food being put on the plates, the body praying for each other, and just practical servicing of a room. but there's so much more than that! it's awesome what God ties together through the purchasing power of Christ's blood.
and that was serving at church. but i think the best time i had was reflecting about "why serve?"
here's the story: i forgot to ask the brothers to pick me up to help out... and they were busy running errands. so i took the bus to church. well.. i missed the first one.. so i stood in the rain for another 30 minutes for another...
and here's my indwelling sin talking with me:
"joe. what are you doing man? you could be chillaxin at home studying instead of getting soakin wet. maybe catch a lil bit of the football games at the same time too..." "a lil bit of football. a lil bit of funny web videos. next thing you know i'm a couch potato" "aw man do you think they want you to be in the rain waiting like this? you deserve better" "this rain is a perfect time to stop and pray and think about the Lord. this is not even sacrifice in comparison to the ultimate sacrifice" "but they wouldn't stand out here in the rain for you" "... i think they would.. not because they love me. it's because they love Christ and love the things Christ loves" "but they don't deserve you!" "you're right. they don't. i suck. but they let me serve them anyway. Christ loves them. that means i gotta love them too."
that.. was a good thought fight with myself :) it helped me appreciate our sisters a lot :) the more and more i think about it.. i prolly make it harder for sisters to serve the more they get to know me cuz they learn more and more how depraved and sinful i am. why serve a joke like joe? but they do it still.. and that is Christ's work in their lives :)
i'm really hoping i get to get saturdays off more often :) it's just a blast serving the Lord :)
sick of more me. see more him. and know.. i was sovereignly saught.
i love christian rap. well the Christ centered rap the most :)
i thank God for the ministry of these guys who use their creative means to point back to God! how beautiful is that!?
yes there are a few poetic liberties taken, but all taken with a spoonful of scripture, this stuff is pretty solid!
haven't heard christian rap before but have been struggling with getting rid of old hip hop habits?
i'd recommend shai linne - this guy is the most theoligically drenched rapper in his lyrics that are pretty easy to understand. he's like a teacher of scripture by the means of rap music.
lil samples
here's shai linne's survey of romans.
and his song on total depravity featuring john piper
and my favorite, his song on attonement vocabulary!
and now to the more rap eclectic!
Lecrae has the most creative ways of highlighting our position before God, not our performance.
Here's a few of his really good ones :)
don't waste your life
then there's take me as i am
and last but not least.. identity - feat jr, da truth this song is prolly the craziest christian rap beat you'll hear with some really good lyrics :)
Here's the most spiritually amped stuff :)
Trip Lee's Phillipians and Titus surveys
sho baraka and trip lee's song on spiritual disciplines :)
wow :) that's only a few. check out: flame, sho baraka, trip lee, da truth, lecrae, tedashii, shai linne, so much more!
