Ray Boltz has come out of the closet. Sad reality of the world we live in and how little we know about the artists we listen to, or in this case, hear every once and a while in church.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2008/09/ray_boltz_comes.html

This story illustrates the miserable state of much of the American church. You can seem like everything is good, everything is fine, when it is not. We all struggle with sin, but this man who performed in front of thousands of people at a time could not admit it to anyone. Nobody knew the struggle he had inside.

“I was so good at pretending/like an actor on a stage/but in the end nobody knew me/only the roles that I portrayed/and I would rather have you hate me/knowing who I really am/than to try and make you love me/being something that I can’t” (from “God Knows I Tried”).

He was acting. This speaks greatly for the need of fellowship and accountability in the local church. There is nothing like confession of sins one to another, "16Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

This strikes a chord with me because of the failure of the local church, in teaching, in fellowship, in accountability, and in exhortation. This isn't to say that no local church could have provided him with this, or that he necessarily avoided it, but some churches encourage such a sinful lifestyle. While some encourage, some completely ostracize and don't reach out. Though the church must not embrace sin, people must reach out in love.

Finally, everyone is a theologian, we all have thoughts and views about God. Don't forget this.
“I don’t want to be a spokesperson, I don’t want to be a poster boy for gay Christians, I don’t want to be in a little box on TV with three other people in little boxes screaming about what the Bible says, I don’t want to be some kind of teacher or theologian — I’m just an artist and I’m just going to sing about what I feel and write about what I feel and see where it goes.”

So, Wordles are fun, and interesting when you think about them. The more a word is used, the larger that specific word is. It gets cool thinking how the repeated words may actually illustrate the theme of the book quite well.
Here is one using the ESV text for the book of Hebrews.



Some of the themes of the book come out in the repeated words that are larger, but it is also a nice picture.
[from wordle.net]

So it is my birthday.
I'm at Camp Linden.
Not much is going on . . . yet . . .

In honor of Mother's Day, treat your mother right.

For once I am being personal... out of, I don't know, 5 posts? That isn't too bad...

Life is crazy.
I move from one thing to the next, procrastinate as if it is my profession, feel the weight of always having something else to do, never know what I really have planned for tomorrow, fly at about 90 miles per hour until I start writing, and never end up getting real rest.
I am really bad about taking useless and restless breaks that make me more anxious than before and not taking the true break that God had in mind when he made up the Sabbath.
As soon as this semester ends, I will do my laundry, miss some of my best friends' graduation, and head out for 10 weeks of almost non-stop summer missions.
I am excited, but I'm sad at the same time.
This past year has been hard, and I have been growing, but I need a break. I need time just to process and hang out with friends, without any papers due the next day.
Within 6 months, my grandmother died, a lot happened with my dad in his pastorate, I had major surgery, I went through an F-4 tornado, heard a friend screaming from underneath the rubble, wrote the most I have ever written in my life, lived in 5 places in 4 weeks, and been constantly stressed except for when I was on pain killers after my surgery.
I haven't had time to process, and I may never.
As days go by, I become more anxious about school, more anxious about my future, more anxious about my friendships, more anxious about relationships, and more anxious about the summer, even though I know God is in control.
The only thing I can do is rest in Christ, knowing that hope in Christ is hope enough. Knowing that though my life is a life of suffering (albeit not much in comparison to some) in a fallen world and I am a wretched man on my own, I do not have to fulfill the requirements of the law, and cannot, but I have hope in the one who fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets: Jesus Christ.
I'm tired, I need time to process... I guess that will happen after I finish the paper I should be working on.

A fire deep, in darkness burning bright
In soul’s great nothing lights new flame; dost man
Not know the lengths at which he’s bought, what price,
What Love, what Light, to bring an end to Night?

But is it that when on the cross Night ran?
Or does the Light destroy the Night? Does Sun
still raise into the sky? And healing hand
Be stretched out o’er the land? Then heal my land!

My heart is wrenched, though Spirit leads me come,
I find my heart feels hard! Can this great void
Be filled? This hardened, darkened soul is done!
My soul is flesh, is flesh not Night? Why run?

But Night is vanquished, souls regained. A boy’s
Great fear of Dark did go with Light, not toys.

²⁶ John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. ²⁷ "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." John 1:26-27

John, the baptizer, had just been asked a series of questions about who he was. He was asked if he was the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet. John said no, he wasn’t. Then the people again asked, “Who are you?” to which he replied, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said." This was a reference to a passage most Jews would know, a passage in Isaiah that spoke of the “herald to the new exodus.” He was the one announcing that God was soon to redeem the people from captivity. Of course the Jews should have been excited, but the Pharisees had sent them, so they asked why he was baptizing if he wasn’t one of those they had asked him about. John, a holy man of God responded in humility, and pointed to Christ as was his purpose from the beginning. At this point he did not know who the Christ was, but he knew his place.

John kept his humility, an amazing feat for someone who was the prophetic voice in the wilderness calling for people to come to repentance in preparation for Christ. John knew how low he was compared to the heights of the glory of Christ and he accepted that. Christ said of John in Luke 7:28: “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Christ said that he was greater than any man that had ever lived; yet he knew his place unworthy to do even the lowest and most menial task for Christ. His life was a life of preaching unto repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. How much we have to learn.

A life lived in humility preaching Christ is a life that we all should strive for. Too many of us lack both of these characteristics. John, whom Christ said was the greatest, knew his place at the feet of Christ. Though the least in the kingdom of God will be greater, too many of us do not even match the greatness of John. The one who will be greater is the one who will be lower. In Luke 17:10, Christ commanded His followers: "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.' " This is what our attitude should constantly look like. We should be humble, knowing we are unworthy slaves of Christ, not even worthy enough to loose His sandal or wash His feet, yet He chose us to be carriers of His Word to the nations. No greater privilege has any man ever known than to deliver the message of the cross, a message that seems foolish yet is proven over and over to be the most powerful message any man can hear. Why must our nation be filled with such pride? O that the church would recognize its error and repent from its arrogance. "10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.¹³Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." ¹⁵ Instead , you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." ¹⁶ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” James 4:10, 13, 15-16

Week 2 we did VBS by Group publishing "fiesta" and youth VBS at Kings Cross in Tullahoma. It is really trying to be a seeker sensitive emergent church. I definitely disagree with them theologically and practically. But that is another post for another day. It went really well, there were twin brothers named alex and shawn that were a lot of fun.
Weekend we were at Northside Baptist in Clarksville, and we did a block party. The guys stayed with the music minister Paul Dacus who was a lot of fun. We have really been reaching out to a lot of kids.
This Week (3), we are doing VBS for children and youth at Bethel Hill Baptist in McMinneville, its very small but we are working hard for the Lord with these kids. Which brings me to today, while playing dizzybat with 2 boys in sixth grade I fell and broke my finger. I have another appointment tomorrow and may have to have surgery. Hopefully I won't.

We just finished a camping/mission trip with FBC Andersonville middle schoolers! It was awesome! I assisted in worship music and preached for 3 of the nights worships. Even the youth minister said that God was moving his heart through what I said. One night we had our sound system hooked up just going out to the campground, and a guy thanked me in the bathroom later... that was different. It went great, and now we are in Tullahoma for a week of VBS!

Okay, so here is a nugget of wisdom from John MacArthur at Grace to You

If God is sovereign, is He responsible for evil?

No. Scripture says that when God finished His creation, He saw everything and declared it "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Many Scriptures affirm that God is not the author of evil: "God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone" (James 1:13). "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33)—and if that is true, He cannot in any way be the author of evil.

Occasionally someone will quote Isaiah 45:7 (KJV) and claim it proves God made evil as a part of His creation: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (emphasis added).

But the New American Standard Bible gives the sense of Isaiah 45:6-7 more clearly: "There is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these." In other words, God devises calamity as a judgment for the wicked. But in no sense is He the author of evil.

Evil originates not from God but from the fallen creature. I agree with John Calvin, who wrote,

... the Lord had declared that "everything that he had made ... was exceedingly good" [Gen. 1:31]. Whence, then comes this wickedness to man, that he should fall away from his God? Lest we should think it comes from creation, God had put His stamp of approval on what had come forth from himself. By his own evil intention, then, man corrupted the pure nature he had received from the Lord; and by his fall drew all his posterity with him into destruction. Accordingly, we should contemplate the evident cause of condemnation in the corrupt nature of humanity—which is closer to us--rather than seek a hidden and utterly incomprehensible cause in God's predestination (Institutes, 3:23:8).

It is helpful, I think, to understand that sin is not itself a thing created. Sin is neither substance, being, spirit, nor matter. So it is technically not proper to think of sin as something that was created. Sin is simply a want of moral perfection in a fallen creature. Fallen creatures themselves bear full responsibility for their sin. And all evil in the universe emanates from the sins of fallen creatures.

For example, Romans 5:12 says that death entered the world because of sin. Death, pain, disease, stress, exhaustion, calamity, and all the bad things that happen came as a result of the entrance of sin into the universe (see Genesis 3:14-24). All those evil effects of sin continue to work in the world and will be with us as long as sin is.

First Corinthians 10:13 promises us that God will not permit a greater trial than we can bear. And James 1:13 tells us that God will not tempt us with evil.

God is certainly sovereign over evil. There's a sense in which it is proper even to say that evil is part of His eternal decree. He planned for it. It did not take Him by surprise. It is not an interruption of His eternal plan. He declared the end from the beginning, and He is still working all things for His good pleasure (Isaiah 46:9-10).

But God's role with regard to evil is never as its author. He simply permits evil agents to work, then overrules evil for His own wise and holy ends. Ultimately He is able to make all things—including all the fruits of all the evil of all time—work together for a greater good (Romans 8:28).

For further study on this important subject, consider these resources:

• Jay Adams, The Grand Demonstration (Santa Barbara CA: Eastgate,1991)

• John MacArthur, The God Who Loves

This is something that comes up a lot within the Union student body. This is the best explanation I can find, and I agree with it.