the Loudest Note

Since coming back the States in late October I have been reading a few Christian classics.  One in particular is a morning/evening devotional by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  This past Saturday night, 1 December, I read a gem that left me praising as I fell asleep.

"Let us daily praise God for common mercies--common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are ready to perish.  Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear.  Let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.  But beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love.  God's redeeming acts towards His chosen are forever the favourite themes of their praise.  If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving.  We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin which we were naturally plunged.  We have been led to the cross of Christ--our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

Downtrodden and blessed

Wednesday and Thursday of last week were very difficult for me.  Circumstances that happened were out of my control and they left me discouraged and questioning the purpose as to why these difficulties were happening.  In the midst of this discouragement God led me to a passage in Scripture that really blessed my downtrodden soul.

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

Pretty Much Sums It Up

(Background context: I wrote this post two nights ago.  Wasn't able to post it until now). 

The boys are in bed and my lovely wife is journaling on the couch as I write this post.  I wonder if she is writing similar things as to what I am thinking.  Probably not.  Suffice to say, I don't have much thought provoking  words to write.  I can only say that this morning I listened to a song by Waterdeep that seemed to capture all that is running, or should I say, swimming through my head.  Below are the lyrics:

Every time that I get down 

I am like a salmon on 

An upstream journey, then

Death to follow once I spawn

I have seen the big fish climb

The ladder at the reservoir

Watch 'em work like devils

Half delirious do they even know where they are?

CHORUS

Jesus I'm a sucker; I

Wish I believed less of the lies

Did anything I thought I knew

Turn out to be true?

Baby boys and little toys are all that I see anymore

Will somebody close the door?

It's cold outside

Every single time I thought that

I had figured it all out

I was run aground again and

Floundering with crazy doubt

Maybe every way I'd learned

To deal with the tragedy

Was just another junkyard find

Rust-eaten and raggedy

CHORUS

Jesus I'm a sucker; I

Wish I believed less of the lies

Did anything I thought I knew

Turn out to be true?

Baby boys and little toys are all that I see anymore

Will somebody close the door?

It's cold outside

I have paced the floor at night

Staring in his tiny face

Swearing that I'll do my best

To make for him a solid place

Barring acts of God or even

Acts of other men, I'll be

The father that I always wished

I had been allowed to see

Yep, this pretty much sums it up. 

my status

thinking.

WHOLE

"When I was dead, revived my soul;
takes the broken, makes them whole;
takes the bound, makes them free;
takes the weak and makes them strong;
all of my sin's been erased,
HE has lifted my disgrace
I'm overjoyed, overjoyed
that JESUS would make me WHOLE"

I praise the Lord Jesus that HE is in the business of restoring brokenness and forgiving sin.
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. " -Psalm 103:12

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK

My previous post I blogged about the weekend in sports for the teams that I follow.  To follow up that post I need to say:  ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK.  On Saturday, much to my dismay because I do not have the capability of watching college bball in Uganda, KU came from 19 points down in the second half to beat Mizzou in overtime.  It was a huge win for KU as they clinched at least a share of the regular season Big 12 title for the 8th straight year.  Just last night, KU clinched the Big 12 regular season title outright as they defeated Oklahoma State.  I know that March madness is just around the corner but 8 straight seasons of winning the conference regular season is unprecedented.  Conference games, no matter which conference you are in, are a grind and to consistently come out on top year after year is quite an accomplishment.  This season may very well be Coach Self's best coaching job as KU doesn't have the All-American talent he usually does.  Hopefully a nice run in March will follow but if that is not the case, I am proud of this KU team and proud to be a Jayhawk.

As for the North London Derby on Sunday (the game that I was able to watch), it was a complete letdown.  Tottenham was sitting pretty at the 40th minute up 2 goals at 2-0.  Arsenal came storming back in the last 5 minutes before halftime and we went into the break tied at 2.  Arsenal rode that momentum into the 2nd half and added 3 more goals for a 5-2 thrashing of their North London rivals.  It was a hard day as a Spurs supporter.  Hopefully Tottenham can bounce back this weekend against Manchester United but that is no easy thing.  The Spurs find themselves 10 points behind leaders Manchester City and 8 points behind Manchester United.  They have a pretty good hold on the 3rd position in the league but it's never good getting into a habit of losing.  COME ON YOU SPURS!

The Border War and The North London Derby

This weekend is a big weekend for me in terms of my sports teams that I support. On Saturday the Border War is happening in Lawrence as #5 KU welcomes its rival #3 Mizzou to the Phog. This game is huge as it could easily decide who wins the Big 12 regular season title. Then on Sunday the North London Derby is taking place at Emirates Stadium as Tottenham Hotspur goes up against their arch rival, Arsenal. My first North London Derby experience came in the spring of 2010 when I went to watch the match here in Soroti. It was a memorable night as that win at White Hart Lane for the Spurs helped them clinch a place in the UEFA Champions League. The video shown is of the splendid goal that got the night going for the Spurs.

As I close this post I only have two things to say: ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK and COME ON YOU SPURS!

dated by His name

I've been reading some of the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this month and came across this quote while reading this morning.  Dr. King wrote an article in a Christian magazine about the philosophy of nonviolent resistance and this quote comes from that article under the 'Faith' section.

"Those of us who call the name of Jesus Christ find something at the center of our faith which forever reminds us that God is on the side of truth and justice.  Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumph of Easter.  Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ arose and split history into A.D. and B.C., so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by His name."