Road Rage

Everyone who drives knows the frustration that wells up within you when somebody pulls out in front of you.  And it is even more frustrating when they insist on going twenty-five under the speed limit.  Going down Dorr when you get to King this happens all the time.  People pull out in front of you and then immediately turn, but because the could not wait an extra thirty seconds you have to slam on your brakes.  That frustrates me--especially when there are no cars behind me.

However,  I am not writing this to rant about selfish people who think that their time is so important they must jeopardize both your lives rather than stop or thirty seconds or so.  No, I am thinking more about the driver who gets mad about people who pull out in front of them.

Today as I was driving to work I had this happen to me several times.  And as I was silently fuming to myself that somebody had the audacity to pull out in front of me, a contradiction suddenly confronted me.  I was listening to one of my favorite bands (News Boys) and I was playing one of their best albums (Adoration).  The song that was playing is call Amazing Love.  I was singing the chorus which goes like this:

Amazing love,
How can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love,
I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You,
In all I do, I honor You.

When somebody pulls in front of me, hits their brakes and then turns.  Immediately my anger is aroused.  After all, they caused damage to my brakes, gas millage, and slowed me down.  But then the words of this chorus rang in my head.  Is this attitude honoring to God?  And really was it that inconvenient?  Did I really lose any time? The answers to all these questions are obvious.   The more I started thinking about God's AMAZING Love the more I realized how foolish and selfish my anger was.  How many times have I pulled out in front of others and justified it?  Was it any less rude?  Yet I take it as a personal offense when somebody does it to me.  Jesus who was and is innocent of ALL sin died so that I could be forgiven.  While I want to have high words with a complete stranger because they made me hit my brakes.  I hope you all feel for me, cause I am really suffering.   

I think that there are at least two sins at the bottom of this.

1.)  Pride. That is, thinking more highly of ourselves then we ought.  They have no right to pullout in front of me, I am in a hurry, and obviously the world revolves around me.  Couldn't they tell?

2.)  Not remembering what Christ has done for us.  It is like the servant on being forgiven a huge debt then goes and throws another servant in jail for a small debt.    Having had such forgiveness, it is hubris and churlishness that we would let such small things makes us mad, and even worst that we would hold it against one another.

Short Story

Dunno where this came from but it is strange.  I would have made it longer but I am tired and need to go to sleep.

Mariah sat very still. She could hardly breathe. Were they still out there?   As her heart began to slow down she mused on how quickly her life had fallen apart.  Just a few hours ago she had been a normal seventeen year old girl, and now, now she was scared--deathly scared.  She was scared for a good reason, for
they had come. Not only had they come, but, they had come for her.  Just as they had for generations untold they had come to take the most beautiful girl in the village.  However, she had not waited for them to take her, instead she had run, she ran as if a demon from hell was after her.  And, in that supposition she was not far off.
As she sat there she heard a loud crack as a heavy nailed boot stepped on a branch.  Her heart started racing again. Ach NOOO! They had found her.  She shrank back against the tree, trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the hideous face that glared down at her.  Alas once again a beautiful lass was taken by the Ukaleis.

Book Review #1: The Holy War

John Bunyan was a christian man born about four hundred years ago.  He was born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England.  At first he repaired kitchen utensils, however, when the English civil war broke out he joined the parliamentary army.  He then married a woman (her name is lost in the sands of time) who persuaded him to go to church. Where he heard the Gospel, and after a long internal struggle he became a Christian.  Soon after J. Bunyan began to preach.  But, in those days if you wanted to preach you had to have a license, and John Bunyan didn't have a license, so he was thrown into jail for twelve years. Another reason that they imprisoned him was for his non-conformist beliefs.  During his imprisonment he wrote some of his most well known books, among them are Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and The Pilgrims Progress.  However, in 1682 he wrote a book called: The Holy War Made By King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, To Regain The Metropolis Of The World, or The Losing And Taking Again Of The Town Of Mansoul.

This is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors.  In it Bunyan explores how man has fallen from a sinless estate into sin.  He takes a look at how mankind has turned its soul over to Satan(Diabolus) and his accompanying vices(the Diabalonians).  He then shows Gods(Shaddia) amazing love in sending his Son(the Prince) who redeemed Mansoul, and was then sent to recapture it.  The book also tells of the assaults on the Ear-Gate, Eye-Gate, Mouth-Gate, Nose-Gate, and Feel-Gate.  When The Prince comes and takes over the city it tells of the great trials, at which all the Diabalonians that could be caught were tried and executed.

As I read this book many things stuck out to me, however, I will only name a few.

I.  Gods love for a wretched human such as I.  When reading this book I kept thinking "there is no way any king would do that for a city that was that rebellious.  If you read history you will find that many cities were raised to the ground for crimes that were far less than those of Mansoul.  Yet again and again the Kings sends His men and finally the Prince to take the city and gently lead it back to its former glory.

II.  When the captains send a petition to the King it is intercepted by the Prince, who after reading it amends it and puts His own signature on it and then personally delivers it to the King.  What a wonderful picture of prayer.  We do not have to rely on our weak words because the Holy Spirit is interceding for us.

III.  The third thing that struck me was the trials.  As the Diabolonians were being tried many attempted to disguise themselves as native Mansoulians.  For example Mr. Covetous said his name was Mr. Thrifty and Mr. False Peace said his name was Mr. God's Peace.  As you read through these trials you begin to realize that these Diabolonians are your own sins.  The arguments that Mr. False Peace uses are the same that you use to justify yourself.  John Bunyan does and excellent job of exposing who the people really are, and of showing through their lies.

Well those are just a few of the reasons you should read The Holy War by John Bunyan.  I intend to do more post on books that I have read and why you should also read them.


In Christ,
Eric

The Church Camping Trip

"But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."   1 John 1:7

I have had the distinct pleasure of spending this weekend with my church family. On Thursday afternoon Parker, Melody, and I headed up to Summerset for our churches annual camping trip.  When I started thinking about what I would write in this post, I did not know where to start: from late night jaunts, to giant slip-in-slides, to volleyball, to discussions on the soul and mind functions, to singing Jonny's songs, to carpetball, to singing the Battle Cry of Freedom, to discussing heaven, etc. etc. etc.  Well I still do not know where to start.  But ,mayhap the best place to start is by praising God saving us from our sins.  The above verse applies to many a conversation that we had while camping.  On Thursday night a group of us walked out on a little peninsula and looked across the lake.  As we gazed across the waters I asked the group two questions:

1. What are you looking forward to in heaven?

2. Name the "top" three people you want to meet.

It was probably my favorite part of the trip.  It was interesting to hear who people were excited to meet.  And then to discuss the glory that heaven will be. We will have new and glorified bodies, ones that are free from sin, ones that will not perish.  It was glorious to sit and commune with other believers on such a wonderful topic.

However, everything did not partake of such a spiritual bent.  Earlier that night no body could have stayed asleep as Jason Wiltse, Matt Weaver, Jeff Thomas, Ben Zellers, Parker Cornwell, Myself, and various others belted out the old civil war tune "The Battle Cry of Freedom."   This link is the best I could find, however, ours was much more raucous and in addition sound very manly.   

If you have a dull moment on the camping trip it is not because there is a scarcity of things to do.  The fault must lie with whosoever is bored.  As I wondered around the camp I kept thinking that "If fellow-shipping with other believers (whether it is about God, the weather, music, or books,) in this sinful and fallen world is this enjoyable, how much greater will be when we are in a perfect heaven worshiping a perfect God with perfect bodies?