Seattle — Day 70: Utter Foolishness

I went to Guitar Center today, and just started fiddling with a bunch of different guitars over there for fun. Some of my favorites are the Gibson songwriter, Martin HD-28, Godin Series, and the Taylor 814ce. All so different and unique, yet so beautiful in there unique tones and sounds. Anyways, as I began playing the guitars, I noticed how sharply my skill level dropped. I wasn’t able to produce the tones that I wanted when I would finger pick, or be able to play certain more difficult chords since I haven’t played as frequently as I would’ve had I been home. I began to get frustrated to be honest, because I wasn’t the same player I use to be. Well at least now I know what I’ll be doing essentially every day until I get back to Berkeley.

Reflections — Practice, practice, practice. It’s so important to practice as a musician. You have to constantly play the instrument you play, or keep singing if your a vocalist, in order to maintain the skill level that you have and attain a greater skill level than before. If you’re a musician then you clearly know this. It’s an essential part of what we do, but really, if you stop practicing anything you become sloppy, unskilled and lazy. Just as a musician can lose his skills that he gains over time, we, if not diligent in keeping our faith, will lose our determination, drive, desire, and focus for Jesus. In practicing and working out our faith with fear and trembling come three essential points: 1) prayer 2) reading the word of God 3). We can just quickly go over all of these.

Prayer — Such a high, mighty, great, awesome, magnificent, powerful, glorious, King we have in Jesus Christ. If this is true is He not worthy of our worship, and constant prayer? So what am I addressing here? I’m speaking of an everyday practice of setting aside time, not while your walking or taking a shower, but putting your phone down, bowing on your knees, and seeking the Lord intimacy to know more of Him. It’s this practice of starting day and finishing the day in repentance, thanksgiving, intercession, and supplication for all things, and all people. It’s the decision to actually speak to Jesus and receive grace that you so desperately need in your life. Yes grace is freely given, but only to those who seek His grace out.

“But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” — James 4:6

Here’s what happen when you stop praying. You simply stop caring. You stop caring about the community of God. You stop caring about the responsibilities He has placed before you in your life. You stop caring about your accountability. You stop caring about your friends, where you deeply are moved to compassion to actually pray for them, and not just hangout with them. You stop caring about all the dreams He has given you. You simply stop caring about Jesus. There is absolutely no man out there in the world that can stand before Jesus and say, God I dearly loved you. I was a Christian, and I was faithful, but I never prayed. What a foolish thought, yet this is me so many times. In the mornings when I choose to not start the day by praying, and thanking Jesus for the day, I chose to start the day in my arrogance. In the evenings when I choose to go to bed before making a dwelling place for the Lord, I foolishly respond to the Lord’s grace throughout the day by sticking a giant middle finger in His face saying, You’re not really worth my time. I’d rather sleep. Please, make a practice of praying. It’s suppose to be habitual, routine, constant, frequent, normal. Often the healthiest people in spiritual health that you see around you are the ones that are actively praying. They’re seeking the Lord’s face, asking for more of Him, desperately pleading to have more of Jesus, and the Lord, in response, brings restoration that they ask for, shows favor to them, and blesses them abundantly with providence and sufferings all for their good.

Word of God — Man I love my bible so much. It’s everything. It’s life. It’s the daily bread. It’s the sustaining, equipping, providing, God-breathed, inerrant, powerful, truthful words of my King. Here’s why you must make a practice of reading the word of God constantly, and consistently. When you don’t read your bible, you’re saying to Jesus that He’s not worth learning about, that you don’t desire to know Him, that you don’t desire to hear His voice. But doesn’t God speak through other means besides the word of God? Yes He does indeed, but the most frequent, and clear ways that He speaks is through the word of God itself. There is upmost certainty, upmost clarity, and upmost trust in the words written in the Scriptures, and to live a “Christian” life without it would be utter foolishness, if not hypocrisy. When you live without reading your bible, you not only put yourself at risk, but also endanger your loved ones. The theology, you understanding of the word of God, that you hold is so crucial. It’s what makes up the principles you stand for, the beliefs you hold, and thus, the actions that you take in every circumstance and situation, whether conscious or subconscious.

What a dangerous life to live when you devoid it of the word of God. What shepherd are you then listening to? Who are you trying to learn about? Who are you living for? You say when you pray that it was God who was leading you to where you are now, but did you honestly take a step back, dive into the infallible word of God, and allow Jesus to speak to you there? Did you test everything that you thought Jesus was saying to you with Scripture?

“do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:20–21

Every action, every belief, every principle must be tied back to the word of God. It must be cross examined, cross referenced, double checked, tested with the word of God. Am I too conservative in this? I stand that this is the mere starting point. If we lose our love for the word of God, and if we begin to see it as just a nice little book that we can just read once in a while for “nibbles of wisdom,” then we lie, and make the word of God to be something it was never intended to be. Let’s read our bibles. Read them till the pages start falling out. Let’s mark it up till it becomes filled with memories and experiences. Let’s live life with our bibles, and stop trying to play the I have the cleanest bible in my church with a nice little lamination game. Let’s dive deep, studying, praying to the words we hear, responding in faith to what we read, and learning to love Jesus more and more through the passages we discover. Make we make a practice of treasuring the word of God above all other voices. Above the voice of our pastor, our friends, our parents, ourselves. The word of God reigns supreme over all things, and stands true as beneficial, truthful, faithful, and trustworthy for us to put all hope in.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” — 2 Timothy 3:16–17

Good Works — Lastly, I’ll make this as short as possible since the blog is extending pretty long. Make a habit of constantly doing good works, of being generous, of serving the body of Christ, in evangelizing to unreached people of Christ’s good news, and loving the world. We must make a practice of doing so not only because Christ has commanded us, but also because it is simply the very reason why we remain here on Earth. This world is not our home, and this world is not anywhere close to what Heaven will be like with the Father for all of eternity for those who believe in Jesus Christ and gives their lives to Him. We are called to stay on this Earth for a bit longer, though saved by grace, so that we may assist the brothers and sisters in Christ surrounding us in their pursuit of Jesus Christ, and to help many more to be grafted into the vine. This is our purpose. For all good works we do, we do them so that the Kingdom of God may expand on Earth as it is in Heaven. Simply put, when we stop practicing good works, we practically stop our pursuit of Christianity completely.

“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” — James 2:14–17

Brothers and sisters, please do not lose sight of practicing these things. As much as I love guitar and playing my instrument as to glorify the Lord, I’m genuinely thankful that throughout my time in Seattle, I have been able to continue and persevere in prayer, my reading of the Holy Texts, and enduring in maintaining good works, both very explicit and implicit in the gospel. Please note that this is not all that we are called to do as believers, but simply the foundation of all that we do. Let us remember that for us to call ourselves as Christians at the bear minimum is to uphold these three practices: intimately seeking the Lord in our secret place and throughout the day, reading the word to be inspired and encouraged in all that we do, and letting our love for the Lord overflow into the world through the good works that we do. One without the other is not sufficient, and all must be done in correlation to each other. When we read the word, we begin to be awe-struck by its texts and burst out in doxology, creeds, praises, and thanksgiving for the Lord. When we do good works, we pray earnestly that those receiving and being served would hear the words of God, and would accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives for all eternity. When we pray, we are inspired by the word of God that we read, letting it be the groundwork that teaches us how to pray, and being encouraged to pray for those that we serve. When we practice these things in faithfulness, we by faith will come to know Jesus all the more, and allow Him to simply take delight in us. May we not lose sight of this prize, and this great goal of running the race. May we never stop, for to do otherwise would be utter foolishness.

What a friend we have in Jesus, 
all our sins and griefs to bear! 
What a privilege to carry 
everything to God in prayer! 
O what peace we often forfeit, 
O what needless pain we bear, 
all because we do not carry 
everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? 
Is there trouble anywhere? 
We should never be discouraged; 
take it to the Lord in prayer. 
Can we find a friend so faithful 
who will all our sorrows share? 
Jesus knows our every weakness; 
take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, 
cumbered with a load of care? 
Precious Savior, still our refuge; 
take it to the Lord in prayer. 
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? 
Take it to the Lord in prayer! 
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; 
thou wilt find a solace there.

Prayer Requests — 
Please pray that I would be sustained through my final 2 weeks here in Seattle. Please pray that I would be encouraged to continue practicing these things, and to strive for more of Jesus through it all. Thank you.