today, i'd rather be here.....

(Park City, Utah--Skiing)

farmer's market & fresh pizza

One of my favorite parts about summer is going to the Farmer's Market (at the Agricenter) early on Saturday mornings after a nice long run and buying fresh produce. There is something great about having an abundance of fresh fruits and veggies in your house throughout the summer months. It sure makes eating healthy easier and definitely more enjoyable! Note: If you happen to go to the Agricenter Farmer's Market in search of peaches and/or nectarines, Peach World consistently has some the best peaches and they are grown locally. Each winter, I look forward to going to the Farmer's Market specifically for these peaches... mmm....

On an separate and unrelated note, I made pizza on Saturday night. In the essence of full disclosure, I did not make the crust. However, the finished product was still really tasty!

officially committed!!

I just booked a flight to Philadelphia in November and signed up to run the Philadelphia Marathon! Yep, I'm officially committed to running 26.2 miles on November 23, 2008... I'm a bit nervous but I usually am before making big commitments! Now, I'm weighing my options regarding the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon, which is a mere 2 weeks after the Philadelphia Marathon. I love the Memphis Marathon/Half-Marathon because it supports St. Jude and honestly it has kind of become a personal tradition to run it! I think I'll go sign up for the half...

digging for diamonds

I still remember one summer as a kid when my parents took my brother and me to Murfreesboro, Arkansas to dig for diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. I remember being filled with wild anticipation of the great treasures I was supposedly going to find there. The park has a “finders keepers” policy so anything you find, regardless of its value, is yours to keep. I was so sure I was going to find a nice size diamond and in my young mind I was going to find it fairly easily. I also remember a bit of disappointment when I got to the diamond mine and discovered that digging was hard work, not to mention that it was hot (and of course humid). I left the mine frustrated because I had not found anything at all and in sum, was quite disappointed with the whole experience.

To a certain degree, I had a similar experience this weekend as I began to dig into Henry Scougal’s great work, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, which each small group at my church is reading through this summer. This little book was instrumental in George Whitefield’s conversion, and Whitefield in turn played a significant role in the Great Awakening here in Colonial America in the first half of the 18th century. And like I did when digging at the Crater of Diamond State Park, I dove in with wild anticipation of finding the great treasures that reportedly lay there; however, about halfway through Part I of Scougal’s little book on Saturday, I walked away in frustration—the digging was challenging and I wasn't finding as much treasure as I had anticipated.

Praise be to God this is where the similarities between these two experiences end! After much pleading with the Lord for grace to allow me to see Truth from this little book, He did. Sunday’s study of Scougal’s work (and I’ll admit it, I did have to read it twice through to completely grasp Scougal’s full intent) proved to unearth more diamonds that I could ever imagine possible or could ever expound upon in a single blog post!! Scougal does an amazing job of defining what true religion is, namely “a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn up on the soul, or in the apostle’s phrase, ‘it is Christ formed with us.’” and in short, the “Divine life.” Scougal goes on to set the stage for the remainder of his work by describing what this Divine life consists of and how it was so perfectly exemplified in Christ.

While the digging was a challenge initially, it got easier or maybe I finally embraced the challenge. At any rate, finding the ‘diamonds’ Scougal has in his little book has proven to be supremely valuable to my soul and indeed worth every ounce of effort. I am ultimately grateful the Lord graciously allowed a clearer vision into seeing what Scougal means by the ‘Divine Life’ and what it truly encompasses. I must say that this book is quickly climbing the list of my “Best Reads.” So, I look forward, with wild anticipation, to the great treasure that awaits as I dig into the remainder of The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And as I dig, I pray, as Scougal did for his readers, “that the holy life of the blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts, and before mine eyes, till I receive a deep sense and impression of those excellent graces that shined so eminently in him; and let me never cease in my endeavors, till that new and divine nature prevail in my soul, and Christ be formed within me.”

have fun with this!

So, one of Justin Taylor's blogs particularly interested me today... He noted this website, which allows users to play with a program titled Wordle. Wordle is a program "for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

I made the following from the text of Jonathan Edwards sermon, "The Excellency of Christ." It is quite fun!

a VERY early prediction

It is about this time of year that I begin to go into withdrawals due to the absence of Tiger basketball. It is also at this time that I begin to look toward the coming season with great anticipation, never mind the fact that we still have to trudge through another Memphis football season before the next basketball season even begins! [Note: I very much support Tiger football and do even like to go to the games. However, it’s never fun to loose as much as we do!!! Plus, I just like college basketball better…] So, with all that said, I feel it appropriate to post the following reasons why I believe that the Tigers are setting themselves up to have yet another fabulous (and potentially very deep) run in the 2008-2009 season…

(1) Memphis added junior college guard Roburt Sallie this past Monday (sweet!),
(2) Shooting guard Tyreke Evans is also coming to Memphis! Some have compared him to Allen Iverson (but a 6-5 version) who will be quick and very difficult to guard,
(3) Other new additions who are projected to make a great impact next season include Angel Garcia and Wesley Witherspoon,
(4) Robert Dozier pulled out of the NBA Draft and is returning for his senior season (thank goodness!!!),
(5) Antonio Anderson also withdrew his name from the NBA Draft and is returning for his senior season (how can one NOT love Antonio?!?!), and
(6) Lastly, we will still have Shawn Taggart and I’m predicting that, if he builds on last season’s success, this season will hold many opportunities for the entire team (another championship game?).

So, there you have my [very uneducated] opinion. I could be a little bias- I just LOVE Tiger basketball. We'll see what happens come November and on into March, but one thing is for sure... I will await the season opener with eager anticipation!

patio before and after

Finally, something at my house is almost completely finished! Here are before and after pics of my patio. I feel like I've put my patio on some random TLC home makeover show.... enjoy!

a weird reminder regarding the Lord’s kind providence

Yes, I am still having plumbing issues with the shower in my upstairs bathroom (fun.). Subsequently, water is somehow (yes, it is still a mystery how) leaking through my ceiling and into my kitchen floor. I was originally told by the plumber that the water was somehow getting out of the tub and soaking through the grout and a tiny hole in the tile floor, through the ceiling, and finally ending up in a puddle on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, this past weekend my dad was around to help me seal the grout and fix the hole; this was supposed to solve my problem according to the plumber. The repair man was scheduled to come yesterday afternoon and repair the nice hole in my ceiling. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the repair man called to reschedule, stating that he was sick and therefore canceling all of his remaining appointments for the day. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed as I am somewhat eager to have the unsightly hole in my ceiling repaired. My attitude quickly shifted this morning as I went downstairs after my shower to grab some breakfast and found another puddle in the kitchen floor! I thought the problem had been solved! Suddenly, I was thankful the repair man turned up sick (is that sad?) and couldn’t repair my ceiling yesterday; otherwise I would’ve never known that my leak issue wasn’t really resolved!

In the midst of this seemingly small event, my heart began to be thankful for the providence of the Lord. I am thankful that something which seemed so frustrating in the beginning (my ceiling not being repaired when I wanted it) turned out to be such a blessing (I now know I still have a leak!). Therefore, through a somewhat odd and random event, my heart was filled with gratitude for the kind providence of the Lord in all of my life. This little situation has served as a big reminder that in all things— from my plumbing, to my job, to whatever path the Lord leads me down next— everything is governed and ordained by His righteous right hand. There is not one path I walk down that He has not providentially laid out before me. And when the road seems rough, unstable, or unclear and we haven’t the strength to cling to Him for the duration of the journey, thankfully, He clings to us the entire way. Though we may never fully comprehend the providence of our Lord in this life, we can trust that it is indeed good and kind because it is the overflow of a God that truly loves his children and longs to give them that which is best for them namely, Himself.

more on "my next vacation!"

The following link contains recent pictures from an individual who just returned from this hike (see previous post). I would so LOVE to go to the Grand Canyon and do this hike! Enjoy!

http://www.hikearizona.com/photocodeZOOM.php?ID=5132

my next vacation

While running hills this morning at 5:30, I got started talking to a running buddy about her recent "girl" vacation, which was a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon. And although I just returned from my 2008 vacation about a month ago, I couldn't resist the urge to look around and start thinking about possibilities for my 2009 vacation.

Ever since my family visited the Grand Canyon several (maybe 6-7) years ago, I have dreamed of going back and hiking down in this great canyon all the way to the Colorado River. This trip definitely seems like the way to do it!!!

You start by flying into either Phoenix, Flagstaff or Las Vegas and driving about 3-5 hours (depending on where you flew into) to the trailhead at Hualapai Hilltop, located on the Havasupai Indian Reservation. Next is an 8 mile hike to the Havasupai Village, which contains no automobile access. From this village to the Colorado River is approximately a 10 mile hike and the view along the way is amazing... nestled along the way is some of the canyon's most spectacular waterfalls as you make your way to the Colorado River. However, the vast majority of the visitors to the canyon never see these beautiful falls due to the hike involved to access them. Additionally, the Havasupai Indian Reservation only allows so many visitors per year therefore, further restricing access to these majestic falls. This definitely doesn't sound like your "typical" vacation but then again, typical can get boring. So why not go find an adventure?!?! Any takers?

Jesus is not of the cross.

“Jesus dies on the cross, but not of the cross.”
via Of First Importance on 6/5/08

“To use the magnificent words of B.B. Warfield, ‘Jesus dies on the cross, but not of the cross.’ The cross was the means by which He died, but not the reason why He died. He died through being crucified, but not because He was crucified. He was nailed to the tree, but that wasn’t the cause of His dying.

The cause of His dying is precisely because He is there as the substitutionary atonement for the sins of His people. He dies bearing my sins in His body to that tree, so that I might live; so that through His condemnation at Calvary, the Judge in heaven will say to the sword of justice as it hangs over my head for my sins, ‘Do not slay my son. Jesus has been crucified. He has been put to death’; and I am now pardoned through His dying, justified by His blood, saved from the wrath to come.”

- Iain D. Campbell, “The Children of Abraham Walk in Abraham’s Faith”

(HT: Ligon Duncan)

FSF and Rush's daily Pearl of Wisdom

As some of you know I do have a very strong attraction to conservative talk radio. Yes, if it makes me a dork because I actually like to listen to AM 600, then I will gladly take that banner. I like it. Here are a few random tidbits from two of my favorite hosts... I hope you will enjoy!

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I found the following on Glenn Beck's website and thought it was VERY interesting or at the least, entertaining. We should ALL have at least one new flat screen television based on this information!

On a somewhat related note, this was Rush Limbaugh's (yes, I am an avid listener and supporter of the man who consistantly sits behind the golden EIB microphone) "Pearl of Wisdom" for June 4th....

"All Obama has is his oratory, all he has is his charisma. That's why he is where he is, not because of any achievements. He does not have substance. He doesn't have anything that you can really grab onto and say, 'Yeah, that's great!' He's not talking about the greatness of America."

I must say that I do adamantly agree with Rush regarding the liberal senator from Illinois. [The Wall Street Journal article linked above is great!] However, I will add to this that I am VERY glad that the racial dynamic in this country has progressed to a place where a black man has the ability to become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president of The United States of America.

totally random!

Today, I thought I would share a few random bits...

(1) Ever since I got my iPod nano back in March I have come to love podcasts. The one I would most highly recommend is a podcast by Boudless.org called The Boundless Show. Each week has something totally different, engaging and fun. For example, the latest episode includes Lisa (the show's hilarious host) interviewing Josh Harris, Mark Dever, and Al Molher at the New Attitude Conference. I find myself anxiously awaiting Friday's, when the new episode is released, for a whole new reason! Go check it out on iTunes today!

(2) I've previously posted several pictures of the inside of my house but I thought it was time for a few pictures of the outside. So here they are in the form of "before and after" shots. Though there is still plenty of work remaining to complete the "after" shot, I am glad to have beautiful flowers planted (most of which aren't too visible in this photo) and to have cleared away all of the shaggy brushy stuff in preparation for the next step.

(3) I also thought I would provide a brief introduction to my new "friend" and neighbor. However, this is one friend who I'm quite sure that his absence will NOT make the heart grow fonder. Gratefully, my friend, who measures approximately 12 inches in length, lives several houses down! I feel like I should give him a name... thoughts?

(4) On a completely unrelated note (after all this is a post about totally random topics), I have almost finished reading John Owen's work titled, The Mortification of Sin and I would highly commend it to you for your reading. It is not necessarily "light" reading but definitely worth its weight in gold in regards to the soul's ongoing battle with sin. Note: Since I am not quite up to par with those who have the ability and time to tackle Owen's work in the unabridged form, I was very grateful to find there is an abridged version available.

Neighbors

Good neighbors are indeed hard to find. I can say with great confidence that I have had some very “interesting” (to put it politely) neighbors in my life. When I lived in West Memphis, I had neighbors that used to smoke weed in their garage and you could smell it up and down my street. When I was in college, I had some neighbors that consistently slammed doors and ran up and down the hall, making far more racket than reasonable appropriate at 3 A.M. Here in Memphis, I had one neighbor that came over, knocked on our door and cussed my mom out when we cut down our tree from our yard—go figure? At any rate, good, bad, or just plain different, the call to show Christ and speak the truth regarding Christ to our neighbors is still the same.

With that said, I have been excited to meet my new neighbors over the last couple of weeks (they seem very nice) and in the short amount of time that I’ve known them, I am already grateful for them! My dad and brother accidentally locked me out of my house Saturday and I had to search for my neighbor (who was at the pool) and ask to use their phone, which they very graciously let me do. All ended well and within a short amount of time I was able to get back in my house.

Over the past couple of weeks, as I’ve interacted with my new neighbors, I have been consistently reminded of the call to consistently labor in prayer on their behalf and intentionally and strategically, clearly hold Christ out before them. As my church prayed through Matthew 28:16-20 in yesterday’s corporate prayer service, I was reminded yet again of our responsibility to do so. May the Lord be gracious and open our neighbors’ eyes to see Christ clearly! May the Lord ignite our creativity as we search for practical was to minister to their needs. May He also increase our sensitivity to the Holy Sprit and may we seize the opportunities He has prepared for us to speak about Christ. And may we all be reminded as we depend on Christ, seeking to take the Gospel to those farthest away from us, never to neglect those in closest proximity to us.