Stopping to Think

It's been over a month since I posted.  Hopefully going to video will solve that.

Disclaimer: If any of you recognize or remember this, it's because I wrote it over a year ago.  I read it tonight and saw some changes that needed to be made and thought I'd add a link to the video.  Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV) -“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” I tend to struggle a lot with anxiousness in my life. And I choose the word anxiousness instead of worry, because it’s not necessarily a conscious thing, so much as it is a subliminal or mindset based problem. I don’t necessarily waste my day worrying about how this thing or that is going to turn out. It’s something that has taken up residence, “set up shop”, if you will, in my mind. And it shows up in everything from what I think about, to how I think about it, and eventually flowing into my actions. And all of t...

One of these days I will be cool and have a website with links.  Until then I'll just write a blog post filled with links.  Okay, so maybe two links doesn't constitute filling.  But regardless. Genuine Motivation "Press On" archives : http://genmoycm.wordpress.com/category/press-on/ Link to my Facebook notes.  A few okay ramblings there, along with some pointless stuff.  I may rewrite some of it down the road: http://www.facebook.com/#!/cwdole?sk=notes

David.  Isaiah.  Job.  Jeremiah.  Jesus.  I could add more but you may want me to quit listing and start writing.  What that short list (which could easily be expanded) is in reference to, is people who were broken before -or broken by- God.  People whos hearts were broken either by their own sin or the sin of others, and in some cases, both.  One of my favorite parts of the Gospel narrative is Matthew 27:46  where Jesus cries out, "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”"  Here we see Jesus, God of all the universe, come to earth as a perfect and sinless man-broken and abandoned by God, through no fault of His own.  This is the epitomy of despair, when He who is God is forsaken by His Father.  That is a brokeness our finite minds cannot fathom. His words here echo the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 22:1-2, "My G...

A sense of urgency.  It's something I desire greatly.  I have been listening to a lot of Christian hip-hop lately, which is odd for me cause honestly I'm kind of a country music guy, and most Christian music just annoys me with it's lack of depth spiritually.  But I ran across some stuff by Lecrae and Tedashii one time while looking for John Piper clips on youtube.  And I was greatly intrigued.  Here was an artist(s) who pounded the gospel song after song.  And not in some soft, warm and fuzzy, type of way.  You can't listen to much of their music (or others, such as Trip Lee) without hearing about the Gospel and the affect it ought to have on my life today.  And it has given me pause to think.  How am I living?  Do I live each day as if it were my last?  Not only my last, but the last of a friend?  Do I really believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven?  If so, why do I deny Him with my actions, why do my words not cons...

So this will probably be another short one.  But I have been wrestling for a while now with the whole concept of sin.  What is sin?  I can go to the Bible and from there determine what actions and inactions are sinful, but is that really what sin is?  How does fit with the Gospel?  Jesus came to die, not from my wrong actions and/or inactions, but from my sin that condemns me to Hell.  But how can we call actions a heart condition?  We seem to teach something that is contradictory, like there is a disconnect between our doctrine of sin in reference to actions and our doctrine of sin in reference to salvation.  And this has bugged me.  If sin is merely to "miss the mark", to do what I ought not, or to not do what I ought, how can I be saved from it?  I still do things I ought not and fail to do that which I ought.  Even the Apostle Paul wrestled with this problem!   But.  What is the mark that we are missing?  It is t...