living Word, to be improved later

if the Bible is God's Word - a story of God's love - then it kinda seems like the Bible shouldn't end. and i don't think it does. Rob Bell mentioned that the Word must be alive, and this makes sense if one begins to take the opening passage of John literally and seriously. And then the closing passage of John, which says "There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." and maybe that's what we're doing now. we're writing new books of what Jesus is doing, but we're writing with our lives.

Bell says that the stories in the Bible are our own stories - stories of defeat and wandering and miracle. i don't only want to speak to God, i also want to hear from God. i want to advance the kingdom, not deceive myself again. i need to desperately remember not to have faith in faith itself, (paradox? yes) but in God over everything.

reading in 1 Samuel, David's story is during a time marked by war. he was anointed and chosen, and the role he played was one fit for movies. something most don't comment on is the challenge made my Goliath, the Philistine, to the Israelites. he asked for a single man to fight him, and whoever won, the losing man's side would become the servants of the winner's side. i think David was the first to fight Goliath - but the stake could have very seriously been the nation of Israel.

anyways, David had a very specific purpose - he was meant to be king. defeat Goliath, be a worshiper, be a king. great things. and he was living in radical times - Israel's security was being challenged, the God of Jacob called into play, and the odds seemed to be impossible to overcome. he was in a spot where it must have been pretty imperative not only to be speaking to God, but he was probably also doing a lot of hearing from God. and he was also probably doing the work of God.

well, tobymac came out with a song called Extreme Days which is a rather pop rock way of getting the message across that we're still living in radical times, with large things at stake. our generation is desperate for a God that cares. i guess what i'm saying is that things might not be the same, but it's the same kind of scenario as in the Bible.

someone who God has called (though a Gentile) who is in desperate need of God to do works and wonders in his world and generation and really seeks God and desires to be blameless before Him. and the story if God restoring honor to His name, God getting the glory that He deserves. but in the process, if God's name becomes lifted high, then what God says will become heard and, essentially, what God values becomes the values of the people to whom His name is lifted. so God's name is being lifted high, but at the same time, lives are being changed because people begin to realize that God is God. and a loving God.

last week, i heard a speaker who made the claim that God is about the nations. He's about filling the earth with His glory (like water the sea), and when He allows David to kill Goliath, He speaks through David's heart, because David says that he will kill Goliath and feed the bodies of the Philistines to the birds of the sky so that all nations will know that the God of Israel is real. and then Jesus commissions the apostles to go out and make disciples of all nations, so it really seems like God's not trying to restrict salvation to the Jews. He wants to be feared, remembered, and honored throughout the world.

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anyways, today was good. had some computer science homework that i worked on for about three hours, trying to meet a deadline. i still didn't figure out the answer (it was a logic question), but i think i did alright. what was crazy was that i woke up after about 7 hours of sleep, without the help of an alarm clock, to work on it. earlier tonight, i went running. it was good for a change - i remembered that i wasn't running to be seen by man, as From the Inside Out reads "Your glory goes beyond all fame." instead of trying to appeal to man and convince them out of competition that i was deserving and worthy of their attention, i should have been trying to impress God, whose focus is something that i will always hold and yet could never justify for myself to hold. and it went back to the posture of the heart - not caring about speed anymore.

so things are going well...