Big God. Big Plan.

Posted by blonger on

Lord forgive me for being so small minded. Thank you for reminding me today that I am 1/7,083,223,009th of the world’s population and only 1 out of 12,000 people groups. Father, give your eyes to see and wisdom to understand the unfathomable monstrosity of your plan.

http://www.desiringgod.org/dg-25#video_pages

Take a listen to ALL of Pastor John’s “Thoughts on each Chapter” and his journal entry from years ago. Today I am changed for having listened to it and the Spirit has changed my thinking.

Driven – Why do you race?

Posted by blonger on

This is probably one of, if not the best commercial Nike has ever done.
Why?  Goosebump factor… JUST DO IT®.
Maybe that’s because I’m a jock.  Maybe because I have seen real men fight this fight.  Maybe because…
It makes me reevaluate the last 10 months and my father-in-law’s fight with cancer.  He’s my cycling buddy and a fiercely competitive one at that.  Mark is a hero of the faith, and we’ll always be able to tell the tale of him depending on the Lord to fight this nasty indiscriminate disease.  He took his news of having cancer head on and whooped the stuff with the help of a faithful God and body of Christ surrounding him as cheerleaders.  It was like he was riding the Tour de France with his fans on either side of the road screaming at the top of their lungs for him, urging him on hoping that he would end the day with the yellow jersey.  Except this yellow jersey was his life itself.  There were time trails, climbs, sprints, and even more climbs.  But along the way was the most beautiful scenery of life; family, friends, fellow cancer patients, the very Hand of God.  He fought and rode hard in this race of life.  He crashed, was chased by rabid dogs, but in the end, as Mark always seems to do, he won…
One day our kids and grandkids will say, “Dad, tell me that story about Pop one more time before we go to bed,” and I don’t know about you, but that’s solid “God” kind of testimony stuff.
There was another guy I read about recently in the Old Testament.  His name was Benaiah.  More specifically look at the story about this mighty warrior in 2 Samuel 23:20-23.  Best I can tell, Ben was the only guy in scripture that didn’t turn tail and run when faced with the impending doom of the king of the beasts, a lion.  500 hundred perfect powerful pounds of our Creator God’s finest work faced Benaiah one day and he chased that rascal into a pit, on a snowy day at that, and had his victory.  I bet Nike would have signed ole Ben back in those days had the swoosh been around.  He seemed to be the epitome of JUST DO IT® and LIVESTRONG®.
What is it about facing mortality that makes us more driven? 
More centered? 
More in tune?
More Christ-like?
Over the coming weeks, I will effort to journal what the Almighty is showing me, Jared Nathan Blong, about chasing lions.
Oh, and by the way, Lance is certainly silencing the critics with his perfomance so far in Le Tour.  Check it out:
[clearspring_widget title=”Most Epic Race Ever” wid=”486b9d4d7e84547a” pid=”4a57bbe50468d870″ width=”300″ height=”250″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

We will call him Caleb…

Posted by blonger on

What’s in a name?

Until recently, when Lori and I found out we were having a son, I had never really given that question much thought.  Of course like most truly honest men, I have always hoped for a son as far back as I can remember.  I also knew that a strong name was important, but as we await the arrival of our baby boy in August, this issue has received much more thought and prayer. 

Several months ago I was riding to a men’s retreat with my dear friend, big brother in the fatih, and pastor, Mike Woods, and I told him that Lori and I were praying for a name.  Kind of a strange conversation I know…

We spoke about it for 5-10 minutes with the two teens in the back seat and that was that.  Then one of the boys in the back asked Mike, “Pastor Mike, how long do you spend preparing a sermon?”  Mike responded without hesitating, “About 24 hours, Keifer.”

Again, that was that.  We returned to El Paso late Saturday eveing, and when I went to worship the next morning the attached message was what met my ears and heart.  I’ll confess to you that my eyes welled up, but I was by myself that morning and could not have anyone thinking I was a softy without Lori there.  Well folks, this sermon was the closest thing to a billboard answer I personally have ever received from the Lord.

Caleb – How to be victorious 2009-03-05
Just over 28 minutes

A month or so later we recieved confirmation of our decison as we were visiting one of my biggest life heroes, Big Daddy (Jess Newton Turner, Jr.)  He is my mom’s dad and the epitomy of everything faithful, durable and tough about Texans and grandfathers.  I asked MeeMaw (my grandmother) about the name Caleb in our family because she is a geneology guru.  She laughed and then said, “Well hun, that’s your Big Daddy’s grandfather.  He’s the one you have heard stories about coming to Texas in two box cars so many times.”  That tickled my heart because we really wanted to use a family name too.  Below is the story about C.N. Turner.  Good stuff!!!

Caleb – bold one – impetuous one

We can hardly wait for Caleb Tate Blong to join us next month.