a gift from God

God has ordained that man should baptize man, out of obedience and out of love, and to represent to the world the baptism the Holy Spirit has already performed in the heart of a believer

i get emotional when they play the star spangled banner correctly but i choke and clap and hoot when someone gets baptized and i weep like a baby when it's someone i love

i am excited about this coming independence day; death is not for mourning but for celebration for those who love God and i am looking forward to this coming death and resurrection

playful God?

do we think of Father God sitting on his throne scowling at our mistakes and wondering when we are going to do what's good for us instead of what we think we want or do we think of the tireless work of the Holy Spirit arranging and coaxing and convicting and helping in every life on earth and who knows where else so that all who are to be saved from God's wrath may be reached effectively or do we think of a gentle man with and almost ever-present smile who loved to be with children beyond all other things on earth and who loved the men and women who travelled with him honestly and openly and faithfullly and earnestly and taught them to love each other, even those of us not yet born...

and David reminds us of God's heart and his humor, his concern, his attentiveness...some things God makes just because they are beautiful, i think

God is Love

At the top of the sky
not the top
when you're in an airplane,
but when you're lying on the ground,
maybe getting grains of sand in your hair,
you are not thinking because above you is sky
just sky at the top
clear and empty
making you feel full
of something unknown,
like someone knows.
You wish for a ladder
up to the top
where there is nothing
only sky,
just blue, before it becomes
black and scientific,
where you find an easy warmth
alone you feel it, an assurance
that you are not alone
and seeing no one
in this moment is love
because you barely exist
except that you are overwhelmed
by hope that seems eternal
and then you think of Him, and it is.
You see Him
at the top of the sky.

it's dark down there

there is a deep of which we know nothing, and God has made the creatures that dwell there, suited them to their home, with lovingkindness and wisdom he makes them, and they, being also wise, worship him with play, acknowledging him as sovereign, giving him glory in the praises they sing, and keeping the commandments he has given them...how good is our God to glorify himself even where no man will witness