Lazy Afternoon...

On Saturday afternoon I went to Starbucks after watching the Huskies grab first place in the PAC-10 from the clutches of the UCLA Bruins. It was a sweet game, but I missed a big chunk in the middle of the game because I had to meet a student for a tutoring session.

I went to the 'Bucks on the corner of Greenlake and Ravenna. It was totally packed as I went in to sit down, but I was able to find a spot in the corner in a pretty comfy chair. I went, in large part, to unwind -- to get out of my house and have time to people-watch and not be distracted by my computer or my roommates.

One of the things that I have been trying to do in the new year has been to listen to God for specific direction. I have a lot of big decisions coming up in my life, and I think there is a lot of anxiety in my heart right now about the future. What will I do next year? Should I continue to pursue a career in medicine? If so, how will I get there? Should I continue to serve at Crossroads or go with her church plant, The Downtown Church? Anyways, as a result of this line of thinking I found myself with a book about prayer on my lap and a fatty Bible on my armrest, my vanilla latte within arm's reach.

About two minutes after I sat down in the corner hoping to have some alone time, a fellow managed to sit down next to me and whip out his Bible and a pocket concordance, haha! So of course we struck up a converstation, and it turns out he is working for the Navigators doing something called Edgecorps. The really interesting part, though, is that several of my friends and roommates have been in a men's group for the past few years through the Navigators -- and, as the Lord would have it, the leader of the study is my new friend's boss, and the study happens to take place every Thursday night in my new friend's house. Small world: we turned out to have a solid set of 5 or 6 mutual friends right off the bat.

God has a funny way of using the time that we give to Him: we were each encouraged a great deal by our conversation, and as we compared what God has been teaching us I was keenly aware that God was using fellowship to speak to me instead of solitude. Which is interesting. Certainly there are times when we ought to be alone and be quiet before the Lord, listening to His still voice (which I need to do far more consistently in my life -- see "often" in Luke 5:16). Yet this weekend He used a conversation to speak to a specific circumstance in my life, when I had intended to hear from Him in solitude and "alone time."

John Owen

"John Owen’s treatises on Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are, in my opinion, the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written."

-- Jerry Bridges

I just finished a book called Triumph Over Temptation which is a modern repackaging of three books by a guy with a cool name who lived in the mid-1600s. This was my second time through, and I think I will need to make it a commonly revisited friend. Every time I read it I am reminded of how SERIOUS sin is in our lives, and how diligently it needs to be guarded against with prayer and truth from God's Word. Does anyone talk like this anymore??

Some of the most piercing quotes, and most applicable to myself:

"Do not flatter yourself that you can hold out against temptation's power. Secret lusts lie lurking in your own heart that will never give up until they are either destroyed or satisfied."

"If sin entangles us in one area of our life, it will ensnare every area of our life."

"...both meditation and prayer particularly oppose indwelling sin. The are always designing the destruction of sin."

"When a man does not repent or deal with his sin, he cannot experience real peace in his soul."

"Satan blinds people to strive to serve God without having a real relationship to Him. To let sin alone in our lives is to permit sin to grow until it chokes and blinds the conscience. Not to conquer sin is to be conquered by sin."

"The excellency of a believer does not consist in how much he knows, but in what he assimilates and what becomes transformed within his soul."

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I know it has been a while, and that I should blog a bit more. Upon hearing that I was in danger of being removed from the "Blogs We Like" section of some close friends, I figured I can do better... :) I'll try to say a thing or two about my Christmas vacation if I get a chance!