Truth Like A River

TRUTH LIKE A RIVER

There once was a powerful river that ran through the country of My Life. It has no particular name. This river cut its way jaggedly through the middle of the country and its branches trickled outwards across the countryside.  There were many villages along the banks of this river. To name a few they were called, Love, Hope, Identity, Joy, Belief, and Desire. 

This country was faring well and had done so for some time now. The villages also fared well themselves. But something was missing and despite the best efforts of the country it could not figure out what it was. One day, a storm began to brew on the border of My Life. This was not a rare occurrence because storms came almost every day to this country. They usually brought a slight degree of damage, but nothing that a little bit of work and time couldn’t repair. However, there was something about this storm that appeared to be different. It looked to be stronger and fiercer than any storm the little country had seen before. It loomed dark and powerful in the sky. The breeze began to quicken and large trees swayed in the wind. The storm was coming.

It began to rain. The rain saturated the country side and the river began to swell. The water in the river was churning and rapids began to form. The water splashed against the rocky bank and the mist sprayed the trees hanging over the river before returning to the pool of churning water. The rain continued all day and as it did, the water gradually yet forcefully overcame the banks of the river that ran through My Life.  

The water continued to rise as the storm continued throughout the entire day. Soon the water reached the villages that lay on the banks of the river. It began to puddle the floor of huts and shops in the villages. The foundations were beginning to rot. The river would not stop rising despite the best efforts of the country. It continued to rise. All day long it rose. Before sunset the churning, saturating river could be seen covering all but the roofs of the village huts and shops. All My Life could do now was watch and hope for the best and that some villages would be left. Or at least a hut to live in.

In the morning, as the sun cracked over the horizon the whole scene could be seen. Debris, from the villages bobbed up and down as it was taken down the river. Over the next couple of days the water began to retreat back into its banks and along with it the hope that any hut in any village would be left standing.

When the river was almost back in the confines of its banks, the villages of Love, Hope, Identity, and Joy were desolate. Not a structure was left standing, not even the foundations. The huts and villages had been swept away by the powerful current and rising water. There was no remnant of a village ever existing, with the exception of a clearing in the trees, where huts had once proudly stood. What a fragile thing in which so much time can be spent building and yet so quickly destroyed.

However, when all appeared lost and as if nothing would remain to rebuild My Life the villages of Belief and Desire were found to be completely intact. The huts and shops that stood there before the storm and the flood, stood proudly still. 

In the village of Belief the most peculiar thing had happened. The huts and shops appeared to be rotated. They were facing a different direction than they had before the storm. Some that were before facing the west were now turned to the East as if to watch the rising sun. Some were hardly turned at all. But no hut was completely exempt from this peculiar rotation.  Crazily enough, in the village of Desire not a single hut was moved. However, in some miraculous way the water and debris that rose and swept by the village had scrapped an inscription on the city gate. It read, “Delight yourselves in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The huts had not changed and they looked no different, but now they understood why they were created and carefully placed in My Life.

The flooding river brought change and renewal to the country of My Life. As the villages of Belief and Desire began to grow stronger and larger, so too did the villages of Love, Hope, Identity, and Joy. In fact, Belief and Desire had a particularly large influence on the development of these newly created and refreshed villages. These villages were all more fervent and steadfast than before. So much so, that, they began to consider the flooding river as a vital blessing. It was decided upon to give the river a name and it was so named The Truth of God.

John 16:13
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

Ephesians 1:13-14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.

Finding Jesus Under the Bed

Last year, we lived in a small house on a busy road. It had four bedrooms and there were six roommates. It was small, but it was comfortable. When summer rolled around it was time for us to go our separate ways and head off to camp, home, or internships. To save money we decided to sublease the house. The guys who were subleasing lived on campus and had no furniture of their own. It worked out perfectly because we could keep our stuff there which eliminated the hassle of having to move out and they could use our furniture instead of having to buy new furniture. We left the house with much of our things still in it.

Fast forward through the summer: my roommates and I were sitting around in the new house we had just moved into. We were watching the television and talking with each other, when my roommate Cory sat up excitedly and said to Will, another roommate, “Let’s go check out that book that Joe was talking about.”  Will instantly became as excited as Cory. They jumped up together and sprinted for the stairs. Not fully understanding what could be so exciting about a book, I nonetheless found myself caught up in the excitement and running up the stairs behind them. When we got to Will’s room he pulled out a book called The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Will flipped open the cover and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper that was placed inside. Cory explained that they met someone the day before that was one of the guys who had subleased our old house over the summer. Cory described how the guy told him that he found this book under Cory and Will’s bunk bed (it’s a wonder he found anything under that bunk bed) and how it turned out to be just the thing he needed to read.

This is was the letter read:
  
To the owner of this book,

             I am writing you this to tell you that you have saved my life. 
Here is my story:

            Throughout my early years, I was raised in the church. I was taught how to take communion and how to say my prayers. I never questioned the culture in which I grew up, and needless to say, as I got older, my faith all but evaporated. I was trying to live my life by the merit system and existed under the promise of “relative morality”. However, the love and Grace of God was nowhere to be found. I had become a skeptic of the Christian faith and at the same time there was a void in my life that I could simply not fill. All of this is changing. It began one Sunday afternoon when I was feeling alone and empty when I realized out of nowhere that earthly wants could no longer keep me blindfolded. I prayed the Lord’s prayer and immediately felt comforted. This was a very exciting moment, but I did not know where to go from there. 

At this point is where I felt God reach out to me for the first time. The very next morning, a Monday, I was looking for my glasses under the bed in the room I was staying. I had lived there for about eight weeks and not known that anything other than my clothes were under there. It was there that I found this book and it was then that my walk toward/with Christ began. It is now Thursday and after having just completed [this book], I can honestly say that my doubts of Christianity have been extinguished and I am making a dead sprint to heaven through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

            Yours in Christ,

            TX AG ‘12

He was looking for his glasses under the bed. Instead he found a book that led him to faith in Jesus and a vision for life that is clearer than one any pair of glasses could produce.

Go Tell it on the Mountain

This video is both challenging and convicting:

This video was shown at church a couple weeks back.

Penn is an atheist that has his own talk show. He believes there is no God. This video was made after he received some genuine compliments and a bible from a man who follows Christ.  He makes a very powerful argument for the importance of telling people about what you believe to be truth. Listen to what he has to say.

 

“If you believe there is a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever. And you think that uh.. well its not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…How much do you have to HATE someone, to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them about it.”

Convicting eh? I claim to love people, but so often I fail to share the truth that has transformed my life and filled me with joy, hope, peace, and purpose. I have a story. A life changed by grace.  People have a desire for purpose and truth. Oh how I need to tell them the truth that I know.

Hope on a Cliff

The following is a story from a camping trip that some of my buddies and I took last Spring Break.  I’m going to tell the story as a series of facebook messages between my friend and the lady we met there. The following story isn’t short, but I would claim it was one of the coolest stories of my life. In order to spark your interest I’ll say it’s a story about how Mary’s life was in danger and how God went to wonderful measures to show her HIS hope.

I tell this story not to bring glory to myself or my friends. Rather I tell this story to bring glory to God. So please give the glory to Him.   I do have to say though, as a guy, I loved the opportunity to strap up my back pack and run up a cliff in the middle of the night to help a lady in trouble.

The following events starts with a facebook message from Mary after Walker and her became friends:

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             "I didn't know anybody's name when the ambulance took me. You were all so amazing. I've been touched deeply by you and your friend. There will never be enough words for me to thank you guys for your help up there. You really are amazing. Many, many, many thanks."

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After this response from Mary, Walker decided to tell her the story of the whole day and all the events leading up to that crazy night. God really did have a cool plan. This is what Walker wrote:
            
                                              
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"Dear Mary,

First off, I’d like to say what a relief it is to hear you are okay. I have not heard anything about you since you left in the ambulance.

Here is the story of the day before the night on Yellow rock.
About 18 of my good friends (9 guys and 9 girls) and I decided to travel from College Station, TX to Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas. Early this particular morning, Ryan (the other guy I was with) and I decided to go with another friend and spend some quiet time on top of Yellow rock. We figured it would be fun to throw the trails aside and bushwhack our way to the top.

Leaving our remote campsite, we quickly came to the river. We, for some reason, decided to build a walkway because there was not an easy crossing. We took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans and spent the next 30 minutes building a foot bridge. Not a single stepping place was wet and absolutely no rocks wobbled. There was no jumping from step to step, just a simple walk across a quick current rapid.

We dried up a little bit, put our shoes back on and made our way up the mountain. We were lost for a little ways, but then we figured out the quickest way up to the base of the cliff. Once we got there we walked around to the left until we saw a few possible ways up that would require some climbing. The route we 1st took was a narrow crevice which had a snake in it. We decided to look for another route and found a safer way to the top next to this crevice.

When we finally made it to the top, we just sat there for awhile and took in the beauty of the view. Eventually, we saw some friends that were heading up the mountainside and we were able to guide them up properly from the top.

The group spent about 45 min to an hour up there before leaving. If you look at my profile pic, you will see a picture someone took (unplanned) that day of me and Ryan spending time just talking. When everyone had left, me and Ryan set up hammocks up there and spent another hour or two just relaxing, reading, and in good conversations. We started to get hungry so we headed back to camp.

All week, the guys had been planning a 20-mile overnight backpacking trip. We were all very excited about it. Ryan, our friend Jeff, and I talked about it and decided it would be good for us three to stay behind with the girls to make sure they were safe. We all wanted to go [I have to correct him here. I had absolutely no desire to go. I was just fine passing on a 20 mile hike that day and lounging in my hammock instead.], but us 3 felt this was more important.  We three guys spent the rest of the day napping and relaxing in our campsite. We didn’t do any extraneous activities for the rest of the day.

We stayed up till about 12 with the girls around the campfire telling stories and sharing good times. I stayed up a little later to watch the fire as everyone began to settle into bed. At 12:15AM, we heard your calls. At first, we could not make out what it was, but I was trying to keep everyone calm. At first I thought it was just some sort of animal call, but then it was clear. I instantly grabbed my day pack, 2 waters, my first aid kit, my phone and a pair of socks. Ryan grabbed some food, water and his phone.  Jeff was having back problems and volunteered to stay with the girls. We said a quick prayer for safety and swiftness and we were off.

We had our headlamps on and were sprinting in your direction. We were running full speed, got to the river, quickly crossed our bridge and made our way up the mountain. We knew how to quickly get up to the top and we made it from our camp to the top of the mountain in about 11 or 12 minutes, a task that took us 30-35 minutes when we had attempted it earlier that day.

When I finally could get your name and your condition, I yelled back to my friends for help. They said they had gone to the static camps (park and camp) but could still hear me clearly say “GUYS, HER NAME IS MARY. SHE HIT HER HEAD. CALL 9-1-1! NOW!” They were able to get through immediately and get the attention of other people.

While I was trying to aid you, Ryan was able to call 9-1-1 from the top of the mountain. Other people (a guy named Ben and park officials) were on their way. Ryan was able to give them clear directions on the quickest route to the top. From there, our part was done.

When we had finally returned to our camp, we sat up talking for a little while.

When Ryan and I look back on that day, we still believe our God had been preparing us all day for that night. Our campsite was the closest one to the cliff. We had spent time building a bridge that allowed us to cross without danger of falling in. We spent that afternoon resting and were physically and mentally ready for that night. We had spent time figuring out the best route through the boulder field. We found the safest/quickest way from the base of the cliff to the top. We were running the whole way and never tripped or fell. Our friends could clearly hear me from the base of the cliff. Ryan, Jeff and I stayed back from our trip which allowed two to go up and one to stay and protect the girls. Ryan had practice in navigating people up the side the most efficient way possible. Me and Ryan had spent quality time and had even prayed on that rock earlier that day. Now you can very well chalk this up to pure luck or a coincidence, but I beg you to realize that these things were not just coincidence but the works of the One we call our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I will continue to pray for you and if you ever need prayer for something or have any questions concerning any of this, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Don’t look at me and Ryan as the ones that were able to aid you, because it was God that used us to help you. It was through Him it was all possible. Mary, you will remain in my prayers.

-Walker "
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After that story of the day, Mary responded with this:

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"I'm amazed (and so glad) you found me. No one could tell me the names of the individuals that first found me on the rock. I always wondered what happened to all of you. There is no way to provide thanks enough for everything you did. After an initial CT scan, they decided to keep me in the hospital for observation, but after a clear scan several days later, I was able to go home. You know, it was a bad time when I went up to the rock. I'd been unemployed, with no prospect for a job. I'd lost my entire biological family (for reasons I won't go into here), I was having to move out of a house I'd lived in for 7 years (and truly loved). I had a roommate that was stealing money and items from me, and I had just had to put my cat of 17 years to sleep due to cancer. I went up there to think, reflect, and find some hope. And hope came, in the most amazing way. Through you and your friends. The story you told me is touching, and makes me wonder if there really is a higher power up there at work. All I know is that when I needed help the most, when I was scared, terrified even, and a little mentally confused, you and your friends found me and helped me. I will never forget that. You now play an important and loving part in my history and in my narrative of the good of humankind. Peace be with you always,"

Take care,
Mary

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Also taking a spot in Walker's inbox that day was a letter from Mary's best friend. This is what it read:

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"Hi Walker. I am Mary's best friend, and she shared your story with me. It was amazing. I have great faith in God, and I already had a rescue team up there searching for her when you heard her calls. My husband and I were also there at the top. I just think God you were there to help the team find her. She is the most wonderful person, but without getting too personal about her life, she is a proclaimed atheist, and yet appreciated the entire story you sent her.

My mom and I went to church yesterday, and I had my class pray for her, and so did my mom. And, when we got home, she was sharing your story, which just gave me goosebumps after having prayers said for her. I believe God is working in her life, whether she realizes it or not. I think you and your group had a purpose there that you didn't realize. So touching and God was there.

I just think you so much for your wonderful efforts and beliefs. May God bless you."

Sandy

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To me, this is a beautiful story of God reaching out to people and it’s a cool illustration of the unconventional ways that he will sometimes use to make himself known.

Remember not to give up on people that don’t seem like they are anywhere close to God.

Remember that people are searching for hope and a purpose in life.  God may give you the opportunity to share the source of your hope with that person.

Remember that God has a plan for us and He goes way ahead of us as He prepares us for His purposes. Although we learned this by what happened that day, this is a process that will continue to happen throughout our lives.

GLORY TO GOD

Blessings in Every Rain Drop

Today I got on my bike to ride home from campus and as I did it began to rain. As I rode the rain grew heavier. Each drop of rain turned my khaki shorts into a darker shade of tan. My shoes were becoming wet, not only from the rain falling from the sky, but from the spray of my front wheel picking up puddled water as I rode along. I had to squint to see where I was going and the rain pelted my face. Water fell from my hair in drops and gave me the shower I had yet to take for the day. Because as we all know, in college, showers are not always taken before class and for some they’re not even a daily ritual (that needs to change if that is you). As the rain continued to fall, I lost all hope of getting home dry and not having to change my clothes.

As I neared home, the rain began to subside and the first thought that came to my mind was, “Are you kidding me? This would happen. I chose the only time that it was going to pour this hard in the next hour to come home and now it is going to stop!”

But my next thought, which I wish was my first and which was much more divinely inspired, was “I am so blessed.” I don’t know where this thought came from. It was like the rain watered some flower of an idea in my mind (or maybe the Lord wanted to teach me something). I thought, “I’m blessed to be alive, I am blessed to be able to ride this bike, and I am blessed to even be able to FEEL the rain.” I thought, “Yeah my shoes are wet, but I HAVE shoes and I have an extra pair or two at home also. Yeah my clothes are wet, but a hot shower is waiting for me when I get home and a dry pair of clothes will soon follow.”

We are blessed beyond belief and I wish I could remember that more often.

Genesis 12:2
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. “ (Blessed to be a blessing).

What is something that is a blessing in your life that you often overlook? Please Share.

High Socks and Simple Thoughts

The name of my blog comes from the fact that I enjoy wearing high socks. Black or white Nike athletic socks. They make me happy. In fact when I see other people around campus wearing high socks I feel immediately bonded with them. The first thought that runs through my mind is, “Wow! Now that person is cool. They defiantly know what they’re doing.” I feel like a pioneer. I think I am lucky to have discovered this look before my other peers. They may think its weird now, but they’ll remember me when they pull on those tall socks by their bed sides in a year or two. The tall sock gang and I have made it our own and it looks good. I’ve gotten various comments from people. Some strangers yell, “nice socks” (they were genuine I could tell) and some friends laugh. Nonetheless I go on wearing these high socks.

I didn’t start this blog to talk about goofy fashion statements though, rather I started the blog to write about the things of my life and the simple thoughts that I think. Simple doesn’t mean dumb by any means; it simply means that they are quite basic when you really think about it. A lot of times we overlook the simple. I chose to make this blog so I could write about things that make me happy like tall socks. Or things that make me laugh like awkward social norms. But most importantly I chose to write this blog so that I could speak about the passion that supplies me with joy eternally; namely a relationship with Christ and the hope that He provides me each day.

I hope you enjoy the blogs. That some make you laugh. That you are encouraged by others. And that I may speak the truth as God teaches me His truth.


John 3:30: “He must become greater; I must become less.”