Welcome to here

If you didn't come here by accident, then you're probably in the right place.  Although, how you knew to show up is a little beyond me.

Regardless, you're here, so welcome to my very first blog post.  With this first post, I'd like to lay out exactly what you'll find here over time.  I'm a person of wide and varied interests - as I think most people are.  But, not everything needs air time.

So, you will probably never read anything about what I ate for dinner (unless it was extraordinarily awesome), or what movie our family watched last night, the sweet deal I got at Wal-Mart, or how long it took to change the oil in my truck.

You might see, at various times, book reviews (when I run across a book I think someone might enjoy), funny stories from the insanity that resides in my home (if you've ever lived with three young boys I don't have to explain what I mean), and random thoughts that struck me as profound (or at least interesting).  In short, I'll be sharing my passions.

This week, I've been pondering how various themes seem to come full circle in the Bible - many times, over and over.  I was listening to a talk by Frank Viola (not the baseball player), and he was pointing out a group of things that show up at the very beginning of the Bible, and then again at the very end.  If you look closely, you'll find mention of the tree of life, a flowing river, gold, pearl and precious stones, a man, a woman, a marriage, and on and on - both in Genesis 1-2 and in Revelation 21-22.

Now, I'm not a big believer in coincidences, especially when it comes to God.  I mean, if He really knows how many hairs there are on my head (a number which changes daily, much to my chagrin) then He probably already noticed all these similarities in the beginning of the story and the ending.

But, if you start digging around in the middle, you'll find the same things.  Go read the description of the tabernacle of Moses, or the temple of Solomon.  You know what you'll find?  Gold, precious stones, a laver (representing the river) a big, branching candlestick (that looks an awful lot like a tree, right down to the almond buds - in fact, the Jewish people refer to it as a representation of the tree of life), and I could keep going.

So, it looks like maybe these aren't really coincidences at all.  But if they aren't, then what does it all mean?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  I think God has a plan.  I think He has an eternal purpose, and I think that all of history has been aimed at finally, ultimately fulfilling that purpose.

I don't know about you, but I want to be part of His story.  I think that too often, we try to squeeze God into our story.  We have our lives planned out, and we want God to bless those plans.  And sometimes, He does exactly that.  But that's a post for another day.  The point I'm trying to make today is that I don't think God is really interested in being squeezed into my story.  I think He wants me to take my place in His story.  But to do that, I have to take the spotlight off of me and realize that the story is HIS story.  The fact that he's condescended to allow me to have a place in that story is mind-blowing.

The question is, am I living His story, or mine?  Are you living His story, or yours?

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