Tag: scripture

Stars in the sky

James HoganLeave a comment

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit,
if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests
but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW,
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed
—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing,
so that you may become blameless and pure,
children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.
Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky
as you hold firmly to the word of life.
And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ
that I did not run or labor in vain.
But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering
on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith,
I am glad and rejoice with all of you.
So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
-Philippians 2:1-18

So yeah, couldn’t really cut that short. Beauty? Glory? Inexpressible joy? Yes, yes and a thousand times yes. And I really don’t think I can write any further thoughts on this…so let me just ask y’all to read that again and let yourself be washed in the glory of the Word. Bask in its beauty. Live in its joy. And let’s abide in Jesus. Forever and always. Because despite all that we do to tear away from Jesus, He holds us tight…nothing(not even ourselves!!) can take us from His almighty hand. And that, my dear friends, is joy indeed. Joy inexpressible and full of glory. And we sing!! Oh do we sing!

Born that way

James HoganLeave a comment

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors their ways,
and sinners will be converted to You.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, the God of my salvation;
then my tongue will joyfully sing of
Your righteousness. -Psalm 51:5-14

Oh I will sing!!!

Ahh this has been such a sweet day!! Admittedly, I’ve been inside for most of it…but that’s because it’s been grey and gloomy and rainy outside all day long…so I decided it was a perfect day to relax indoors. Had a late night anyway(sweet party times with Aiysha and Sam et al!) so woke up sort of late…(11AM, eek! That’s probably my latest lie in in quite some time!) So after my shower I enjoyed my sweet bacon and coffee breakfast and reading…and for the past few hours I’ve been chilling in my living room and compiling a new iTunes playlist(felt it was time for a new one…and in doing so, realized I had NO “And Can it Be?”. That had to be rectified and so I found a sweet version…in this awesome CD that you all should get – Resolved Music, Vol 1 on Amazon. Great stuff)…so making the playlist took me a while because I kept getting distracted(first by talking to Laura on Gmail…and then Katheryn. So worth it though! *waves to both*). Anyways here’s the playlist I came up with…I’m pretty happy with it. Presenting…”The Homestretch”:

1. Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
2. It’s Beginning to Get to Me – Snow Patrol
3. All of Us – Blindside
4. Ever Dream – Nightwish
5. Dargor Shadowlord of the Black Mountain – Rhapsody of Fire
6. Nothing but the Blood – Jars of Clay
7. Go Hard ft. Tedashii – Lecrae
8. The Prodigal Son Suite – Keith Green
9. Something Beautiful – Needtobreathe
10. Die Alone – Ingrid Michaelson
11. Blackout – Muse
12. Yellow – Coldplay
13. Revelation 5 – Hope Bible Church
14. And Can it Be – The Enfield Hymn Sessions

Good stuff, neh? I’ve been listening to it right now and I am most pleased. I forwent my usual hardcore opening and went a little softer with Postal Service and Snow Patrol opening…but don’t worry, got at least a little power metal awesomeness in there with Nightwish and Rhapsody. I’ve been much enjoying Rhapsody of Fire on the way to work lately – glorious beautiful music(even if Galan’s the only other person I know that agrees!!)

And in other news, tonight having Steven, Maren and Anna over…my 3rd night having people over in four nights!! But this time, Maren and Anna are going to cook apparently, so I can relax a bit. Ooh, I probably should clean the kitchen a bit though before they’re here. Yes, good plan.

And although I think I have more to say, time to run to the store to get some juice for tonight and then prep my place for company. Hope y’all are having a most glorious day!!!

Rock on!

Merry Christmas!

James HoganLeave a comment

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The
Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it.
…And the Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we saw His
glory, glory as of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth.
-John 1:1-5,14

Oh wondrous words!!! I couldn’t think of any words more fitting for remembering the birth of Christ our Lord and Savior than these. Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace among men with whom He is pleased! Remember the birth of the King!!

Glory

James HoganLeave a comment

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!
Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, O
Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among
the nations.
For Your lovingkindness is great
to the heavens
And Your truth to the clouds.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
-Psalm 57:7-11

A glimmer, nay, a star

James HoganLeave a comment

And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins, in which you
formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the
spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience. Among them we too
all formerly lived in the lusts of our
flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because
of His great love with which He
loved us, even when we were dead
in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ(by grace you have
been saved), and raised us up with
Him, and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the ages to come He might show
the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
-Ephesians 2:1-7

I was going to end that sooner, but two things prevented me. Firstly, it’s just so beautiful I couldn’t find a good stopping place…and secondly, because the sentence itself didn’t stop. Oh Pauline sentences, how I love thee.

Seriously, such a gorgeous passage, is it not? And two of the most amazing and heart-stopping and enlivening and lovely and starkly beautiful words of all time…”But God.” And hope bursts into glorious bloom, life eternal. This passage is one of my favorites, so I don’t know why I’m trying to unnecessarily validate these verses with my pitiful words, but I just can’t help marveling at the amazingness of God’s most gracious love and compassion towards such desperately wicked men and women…oh what a joy that springs from my heart, abounding towards the God whose love abounds still more! And I think this passage may (subconsciously) be the pattern towards which all my gasps of poetry tend to slip into –

darkness, expanding and vicious and cold blackness and
the depths of deepest despair and when all is lost and
man is
lost in a storm of whirling shadows and
torn in pieces by the knife that was his own and
rotting in the grave so eagerly dug and
drinking the depths of the debt that is owed and
wavering in glazed reality and
on his knees in hopeless emptiness and
on his face in stark weariness and
letting go of the last that could be done and then
light.
Light forever.
Glorious Almighty God.
Light and love and God Himself,
the pinnacle of infinity that the universe strains to grasp.
Oh glorious Lord!
And overwhelmed in joy and overcome by love
and soaking in the blood of the Lamb that was slain,
she is
dancing in the spotless grace,
singing in the newborn praise,
seeing with adoring gaze,
feeling the more perfect rays,
and now she quivers and says,
Oh I love how can I not?
When by His blood I am bought?
He loved me first,
oh those glorious words,
He loves me!

…and that’s what happens when I let my mind stray and wander and ponder the incomprehensible fact that…the Almighty God of the Universe loved me. How else can I respond but by saying…’Oh I love how can I not?’ I love my Father so. Oh I love Him!!!! If my tears could but grace His feet, I would weep for being so close to Him…my Lord and my God, I love Him so!!!!

apple orchards

James HoganLeave a comment

I really want an apple pie right now. All hot and delicious and full of apple slices drenched in sugary goodness in a nice delicious crust…along with a cold glass of milk. Yes? Yes. Made by dad(the filling) and mom(the crust), specifically. Of course, this is now sadly impossible as they are thousands of miles away. Well maybe come Christmas time, this will be remedied. Until then, I will just have to dream…

And now that my craving for apple pie has increased exponentially after writing that, I will try to switch topics gracefully…by saying that it is a beautiful day here!! I am very happy that despite a week of mostly rain and wind and cold gloominess, Aberdeen has decided to reward us with a gorgeously sunny and refreshing Saturday! And of course, anthropomorphizing Aberdeen is foolish…I really want to thank God, for this is indeed the day that He has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

And this has been a delightfully busy and hectic week! This week I think I’ve become fully immersed in my new job, as I had no lack of tasks to complete, from compiling quoting process maps to engaging the rest of the staff to form a comprehensive picture of affairs here. We have a consultant coming over from the States next week, so we’ve been prepping for that this week, as next week should be even crazier! But then, do you really want to hear about Cameron Drilling affairs? Probably not, so I’ll refrain.

But last night was not business, but pleasure! A couple from church invited me to their place for dinner last night, so me and my roommate went over(rewind – did I mention I now have a flatmate? He’s from Nigeria, and this is his first time out of the country! So it is most fun to use my lofty status as three-week resident of Scotland to show him around the city and introduce him to our crazy Western ways; he’s pretty awesome) – we left straight from work and through the driving rain and terrible traffic(Houston-esque, almost) I drove(wait, rewind again – did I also mention that Cameron hired me a car? Well they did – a Nissan Note – and so yesterday was my first day driving through Aberdeen! In the rain. And traffic. On the other side of the road. I’m still here!) to their house right near the University of Aberdeen. And wow, that was…an interesting sentence. Anyways, Josh and Emily have a lovely family(daughter Rebecca, son Luke) and they made taco salad for us! They’re actually from Texas(what!) and he’s here getting his doctorate in theology, particularly in regards to the doctrine of the Trinity and the view of the Trinity throughout church history and how that has been changing the past 200 years. Oh yeah, we got a little theologically nerdy. Anyways, it was simply an amazingly awesome night hanging out with them and relaxing and communing in the goodness of the Lord!! Afterwards me and Uche(my flatmate) drove back through the considerably more empty roads to our flat. Following that we had an ASDAs adventure to get him a phone so he could call his family(which he did – success!) and I called back home and got to talk to Laura for the first time in a while – hurrah! Finally, we made it home and sleep beckoned…I woke up this morning to hear Uche vacuuming our flat – see, I told you he’s awesome!

Ok, while I’ve been writing this, me and this woman two tables over from me(here at Starbucks) keep making eye contact. I’m not sure if she’s just intrigued at my furious tapping away or what.

ANYWAYS, I really need to get going soon, as later this afternoon is castle time! But a little sidetour first…

This morning I was walking to Starbucks enjoying the beautiful morning when a woman stopped me(old enough to be my grandmother, if not my great-grandmother!) holding out a tract, saying something about “the future kingdom”. I’m thinking, “Oh, she must be a Christian, yay!” So I mention that I follow Christ. She sort of brushes that off, which I find only a tad odd, and then ask me if I’m waiting for the coming kingdom. I enthusiastically agree and at this point she points me to a verse somewhere in John about Jesus pointing the way to God. John 3:17 maybe? Anyways, I make a remark affirming that, saying also, “And Jesus is God!” at which point she says, “Well, no, he isn’t…”

screeching halt

I had to drastically revise my approach at this point from friendly encourager to wary combatant. I responded to her heretical statement by saying, “Actually, He is God.” At which point we got into a nice little debate, with her pulling out what I assume are all the classic Jesus-is-not-God passages, starting with Colossians(why is it telling me Colossians is spelled wrong – hmph) 1. I think when I rebutted this by telling her what firstborn meant in the Greek, she may have begun to re-evaluate her opinion of me as a soft target. Anyways, I’m not going to recount our whole conversation except that I urged her to read John, as the whole purpose of that testimony is to put forth Jesus as God!! She denied that with some silly out-of-context verses, tried to reproach me on the illogical nature of the Trinity(1+1+1 can’t equal 1!) and eventually we parted ways. I think I would put our mini-debate as a draw, simply because neither of us were even slightly budging and I failed to pull out the ace verse of John 1:1. Oh why oh why did I not remember that until ten minutes later???

Anyways, the point of this whole recount isn’t to prove my theological acuity, because most assuredly, I felt like I was stumbling around….any good words I did say were of the Spirit. But I just wanted to express my sadness over her words and my acute anger at her denial of Jesus’ very divine nature as God Himself. I think this cut me the deepest, that someone would deny Christ as God, and then I think of all those every day who deny Christ. And I weep. And then I think of my own denials of Christ every day, even though I know Him!! And I weep bitterly. Oh for the lost ones of this world! I cannot wait for the day when faith truly shall be sight and He comes on the clouds for every eye to see Him. Every heart will be pierced and all will know Jesus as Lord. King of kings and Lord of Lords is His name. Amen and Amen!! Come Lord Jesus!

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The
Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it.

Some of the most beautiful words ever penned. Bar none.

Grace and peace be with y’all this most glorious day!

Bird of Prey

James HoganLeave a comment

Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it; surely I will do it.
Listen to me, you stubborn-minded,
Who are far from righteousness,
I bring near my righteousness, it is not far off;
And my salvation will not delay
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
And My glory for Israel.
-Isaiah 46:8-13

September 9th, 2010

James HoganLeave a comment

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO
DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE ARE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE
SLAUGHTERED.”
But in all these things we overwhelmingly
conquer through Him
who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created
thing, will be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.

James HoganLeave a comment

So just got back from a sweet weekend in Tampa!!! Admittedly, it was bracketed by crazy car adventures(car breaking down in rain + impending flight + me hitchhiking to airport + car being impounded = just a little stress and anxiety. I do NOT like allowing myself to be overwhelmed by worry or uncertainty, but this weekend cut it a little close. But now I have regained my car and I *believe* it’s fixed, bar a slightly alarming rattle in my compressor flywheel. And I have been affirmed in my conviction that I have two of the most awesome friends in the world…Alex driving to check for my car on the beltway at 3 in the morning…and Will helping me rescue and fix my car today. I gotta say, I feel so blessed to know that I have friends who have my back! God is good, INDEED. And thus ends the longest parenthetical thought of all time.), and now I have totally lost my train of thought. *scans back to top of parentheses* Ah yes. The weekend of Tampa and family awesomeness!! Full of the *whole* family together again and taking naps on the couch and late night talks with the sisters and lasagna of amazing awesomeness and Spades tournament with the fam and just loving my family!!! And of course, I did see some other people(including Dream and David, enjoying delicious ice cream and more delicious conversation! And I got to have lunch at Steve and Vickie’s, enjoying hamburgers and beans and encouraging words. And I got my Christmas(ok, a little late) present from them – this awesome handmade blown-glass alligator head. It is AMAZING. If you are in Houston, come over and you can see it. And Gary and Janet came over on Sunday night and again, I am constantly reassured of the amazing blessings of the LORD in the people he surrounds me with. Ah it is too much for someone as silly as I!!) And seriously, these parentheses have got to stop! I am henceforth banning myself from using them for…the rest of this entry.

I have now decided it’s time for dinner. And I’m binging on Snow Patrol on the moment, and I’m not quite sure if that’s a good thing or not. It’s chill enough to be relaxing, but romance-tinged enough to be slightly dangerous to the emotions. Like I’ve said before, music can be a most wonderful and perilous creation!

And now I take my leave. Before I do though, let me share what has been most encouraging these past few days:

Therefore humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you at the proper time,
casting all our anxiety on Him,
because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7

He cares for you. How awesome is that?

Peace be to you all!