Victus Letum

The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.*

Psalm 100 confirms the Genesis account that it is God who made us, and not we who made ourselves (or a series of random mutations).

Psalm 24:1 tells us that everything on the earth belongs to God, including all the people who live on it.

Isaiah 43:7 further informs us that it for God’s glory that we were created.

We were created to glorify God. Perhaps one of the easiest sins to fall into is that of ingratitude. We come to feel entitled to what we receive and what we have. A small boy and his mother were in the market when the grocer give the boy an orange. “What do you say to the nice man,” urged the boy’s mother. The boy looked at the orange as he thought for a moment. Holding it up to the grocer, the boy said, “Peel it.” In like fashion we receive blessings from God, then in our arrogance demand of God, “Give me something better!”

In Luke 17:11-19, ten lepers cry out to Jesus for healing. Go and show yourselves to the priests,” he tells them. As they journey to the priests they are healed of their dreadful infirmity. One of these men turns back and tracks Jesus down (who had presumably continued down the road on his journey). He praise God in a loud voice, and upon finding Jesus “he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.”

Have you given Jesus appropriate thanks for all He has done for you?

* John Piper’s modification of the 1st question and answer in the Westminster Catechism.
** The graphic image (sans the text) was drawn by some guy named Mike. I yanked it from his blog The Daily Sketch. I did ask for permission to use the image, but have yet to hear from him. If he decides he doesn’t want me to use it, I’ll change the image. In the mean time, take a gander at his sketches. They’re rather good.

Christ crucified is enough of a stumbling block for people without church people putting up more obstacles to faith. Jesus’ harshest words were for religious leaders who set man-made rules in place of biblical instruction.

What are you filled with? Nature abhors a vacuum. The same is true spiritually. Your life will be filled with something. The question is what will it be. And that which you fill your life with will be reflected out from you. Many people fill their lives with material possession. Some choose to fill their lives with experience and pleasure. One doesn’t need to be a Christian to realize that all these things will not satisfy one completely. But as we were created in God’s image, God is the one thing that will fill our lives completely. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis: Being created in the image of God, the more God shapes us into Christ’s image, the more like our true selves we become.

“I Want to Say” was also written while on mission. What do you do when the amazing love and grace of God washes over you? What do you do when you realize that you don’t love God half so much as you ought? And what do you do when suddenly the grace of God grants you that ability? Me, I write about it.

Again, one of my earliest works, this piece is a cry out to God. The many scripture references weren’t intentional. The composition of this piece taught me much about the power of scripture.

One of the sessions in the “Experiencing God” Bible study focuses on the many names for God. Overawed by the vastness, majesty and complexity of God, I wrote this song which is comprised entirely of the various names of God.

Incidentally, this song was written while on mission in Tilža, Latvia.

I Believe is one of the first original compositions I ever perfrormed. It was after one Sunay's performace of this piece that someone asked me if I'd ever considered recording. They wanted a copy of the song. I quickly made them a crude tape recording. Years later I made a crude CD recording called Songs of the Bard on my home computer.

Someday I may redo it all with actual people who know what they're doing.

My life changed dramatically after my first child's birth. I realized there was nothing I would not do for this person God had entrusted into my care, including suffering for eternity in Hell in their place. Suddenly I had a better understanding of the love the Father has for us, and how He could allow His Son to take our place in death.

Some years ago I was asked to compose a new Christmas song for church. I wrestled with it, attempting to craft something slow and weighty. After days of failure, I had an epiphany. Christmas is a birthday party. Birthday parties aren't mellow and somber. They're loud and lively. I began to strum furiously, just seeing what would come. Five minutes later the work was finished.

Rejoice! Christ is born.

This is the first song on my first album, Songs of the Bard.

Though now abide faith and hope, the greatest of these is love.

This is an interview with Kevin Rogers, Pastor of Worship at Open Arms.

Jesus calls those who would follow Him to sacrifice all for Him.

Background music: Hillenvale by Cele De