What is your life?

 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. – James 4:13-17 (NIV)

The future is a blank canvas that we like to scribble all over. Ideas fueled by our imaginations, egos, and sometimes even greed paint glorious indecipherable doodles that don’t always line up with God’s will. We say to ourselves, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. (James 4:13b)” Notice though, that in doing so, we have failed to bring God in on our future plans.

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

I don’t think that we always intentionally leave God out. Dreams and ideas mixed with future planning can quickly become intoxicating, even overwhelming. No, I think that we get so caught up in planning out the future, that we do not realize just who gives us our dreams.

14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Our world is full of distractions; distractions that beg for our time and that contribute to the numbness we feel towards the urgency clearly spelled out in Scripture. If our lives are but mist, why aren’t we taking everything to God in prayer?

RIFT Impressions 1.2

Often times I feel like I’ll mention a game on this site and then never talk about it again. I promise you that this is not some small part of a larger conspiracy theory. I truthfully just quickly get bored with games that fail to grab hold of me. Case in point:

Closing Thoughts:

MMO’s are time-sucking-vortexes that I simply do not have time for anymore. While I still enjoy reading about them, I feel that the genre as a whole has not advanced forward. World of Warcraft is the pinnacle of modern MMO gaming. Games like RIFT, though polished, offer me nothing compelling to forget about World of Warcraft and move forward. I do hope that Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 do something to shake up this genre funk. I miss playing a good MMO. Until that day, MMO’s like RIFT have been banished from my computer. Case closed.

Alleluia

Two weeks ago, my church hosted the California Baptist University Choir and Orchestra. While not normally my type of music, I found the choir and orchestra to be absolutely beautiful! One of the songs they sang, Alleluia, has been stuck in my head since then. The chorus for the song is incredible! Almost haunting in a way… This morning I woke up with the song in my head…so I hunted it down on the youtubes. Enjoy!

Capable of Much: The Tongue

This morning my wife and I read James 3 in preparation for our Wednesday night Bible study. The first part of it really stuck out to me:

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. – James 3:1-12

In verses 3-8, the tongue is compared to a:

  • Horse bit
  • Rudder
  • Small spark
  • Fire (Hell)
  • Restless evil (full of deadly poison)
Verses 9 & 10 points out our hypocrisy:
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. – James 3:9-10
Which then reminds me of Proverbs 18:21:
21 The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Everyday, we make constant word choices in our conversations. We have the ability to lift people up or tear them to pieces with a verbal tongue lashing. Just this morning I was presented with such a choice at work. Thankfully, I took the high ground and kept my mouth shut. Do I still want to say something? Yes. Do I need to? No.
11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
I want to be known for speaking words of life into peoples lives. I want to be a spring of fresh water. Do you?
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