Come now, you who say, ”Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ”If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
- James 4:13-17

Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
- Psalm 150

(edit: Direct link to the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/benhutton/MinneapolisApartment)

So… what should I write about?  How can I be helpful?

I get into many very relevent convos with people over IM, email, or in person that would probably be very beneficial for many people to read/hear/contribute to.  Which isn’t to say that those aren’t good ways to communicate too…

Throughout much of the semester a bunch of us watched a sermon together every Tuesday night and then talked about it, and other stuff, for a few hours.  I wish you all could have been there (and you’ll get a chance next semester!).  Perhaps something similar could be done in this space?

Leave a comment…

-Ben

1. Reading. I mentioned this last night at Real Life, and I’ll probably write more surrounding it for the Cru website and/or listserv in a bit, but the ESV blog is promoting a “Read The Bible In January” Bible reading plan. The basic premise is that people make a New Years’ Resolution to read the Bible, then quit after a little while for all sorts of reasons. Solution? Finish reading in that “little while”. I don’t know exactly how much I’m going to attempt to read. Maybe just all of the Old Testament and the Gospels, since I’ve been spending much of my devotional time in the New Testament Letters these last few months. And I don’t quite know when to start. I don’t own a paper ESV Bible (should have brought one back from Cornell…..), so maybe after Christmas?

2. More reading. I brought home a large stack of books to read. Of course, my entire Christmas list was books, so this list may change come December 25. Right now, the current ordering of that looks to be:

1. Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart by John Ensor
2. Finishing the last few chapters of The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
3. God Is The Gospel by John Piper
4. Preaching The Cross by Dever, Duncan, Mohler, and Mahaney
5. Some of Piper’s biographies, from The Roots of Endurance, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, and The Hidden Smile of God

3. Programming. There are a few updates to be made to the Cru site, as well as a few interesting projects to be worked on. Perhaps I’ll write about these in the coming weeks…..

4. Blogging. Lots of free time and lots of reading means I should have lots of little things to say. The best way to keep up with them (and all blogs) is to subscribe with an RSS reader (see this explanation on the Cru blog about RSS readers).

-Ben

To Root Our Hope In A Sovereign God

First, God gives us money to root our hope in a Sovereign God, and not in money. Throughout Luke 12, the refrain is, “do not worry”, “do not worry”. Why do we not need to worry? Because God will take care of us. He takes care of the birds of the air and the grass of the field – and you’re so much more valuable than them! He knows every little thing that we need, and it’s trivial for him to give them to us.

Luke 12:30-32 – “For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.” God knows you need simple, physical things to keep you alive, and he’ll give them to you, but he also knows that what you really need is HIM – the rest are just additions. Notice the word choice in this verse.

• “your Father” – you have a heavenly Dad who, unlike earthly dads, will never let you down and is 100% for you. He’s caring for you and looking out for your best interest. He wants to keep you safe and secure and comfortable and happy, and he knows precisely how to do that…
• “has chosen” – it’s an active decision that he’s made. he could have withheld it from us, but he didn’t – he chose to give it to us
• “gladly” – this is the Father’s attitude – he doesn’t do this begrudgingly or expecting repayment, but with the delight that you would expect from a loving gift-giver
• “to give” – this is the Father’s action – he doesn’t withhold it from you, and he doesn’t lend it to you and expect repayment – it’s a gift
• “flock” – the Father is also called the Good Shepherd. As Christians, we are part of his flock, under his watchful care, protection, and guidance.
• “little” – our relationship to the Father. He is big and powerful, and we are small and weak. But because he is good, he cares for us and protects us.
• “the kingdom” – The kingdom of God is what is referred to here, where the King – Jesus – reigns. Matthew 25:34, in the middle of the parable of the sheep and the goats, says “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” The Kingdom of God is the ultimate blessing for those who love the King, because we get to be with the King forever!
• “Do not be afraid” – we don’t need to fear not obtaining the kingdom, because it’s the Father who has chosen to give it to us. What he decrees will happen will happen, so we need not be afraid.

Your Heavenly Father holds you safely and securely in his arms, gladly giving you the best thing – Himself – along with everything else you need to live. And so our hope is rooted in a Sovereign God, instead of ourselves, and instead of money, to provide us with comfort and security. And with the Father securing us, and providing for all our needs, we can give generously and with compassion and broken-hearted care, not begrudgingly, with uncertainty, or fear. And the more we give, the more we trust his sovereign goodness as HE is unmistakably the one providing for our every need and we’re not looking to ourselves for a secure future.

Does it have to start with a broken heart
Broken dreams and bleeding parts
We were young and world was clear
Young ambition disappears
I swore it would never come to this
The average, the obvious

I’m still discontented down here
I’m so discontented

If we only got one try
If we’ve only got one life
If time was never on our side
Before I die I want to burn out bright

A year ago, that discontentment started to hit me. Sure, I was enjoying my tech-company internship, writing useful code for real projects, doing what I had dreamed of for years. But it lacked… something. Meaning, purpose, vision, ambition, excitement.

Don’t get me wrong – God calls some people to do just the kind of work I was doing. For some people, it can be the most meaningful, God-glorifying, Christ-displaying thing they can do. But for me, it was Ben-glorifying and money-exalting. It made me look good, and it made me comfortable and secure. And by God’s grace, He began stirring in my heart discontentment with what I was doing. I liked what I was doing, but I began dreaming of so much MORE.

God began giving me a vision of Him and a passion for Him that seemed to demand something different from me. Last semester in Crusade our theme was “Made To Worship” – we looked at how orthodoxy (right knowledge of God) leads to orthopraxy (right actions) and doxology (worship of God). That is, to appropriately worship something (ie, God), you need to know it. We drew the theme from a combination of two verses:

Let us press on to know the Lord. – Hosea 6:3

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. – Psalm 96:4

In order to properly worship God, we need to know Him first. How can we praise Him for His various attributes, or for the things He has done, if we don’t actually know about them? Yes, some things about God are meant to remain a mystery, but much has been revealed to us through the Bible, and as Christians we should search them out.

And so as that sort of became my theme (pair of) verses – “Let us press on to know the Lord, for He is great and greatly to be praised” – this sort of became my theme song.

Before I die I want to burn out bright.

Not bright by shining, as if I had any inherent worth or glory to be displayed, but bright by reflecting – reflecting God’s glory and his greatness, so that others can perhaps catch a glimpse of who He is and how satisfying He is.

Not burn out by foolishly working myself to death and exhaustion, but burn out in the active sense of the word – go out burning, go out working – not go out napping (or golfing or sea-shell collecting).

And all of this is with the knowledge that it is by God’s grace that I am alive today, and, if it is His will, I might not be alive tomorrow – death could come at any moment.

So the brightness and the burning needs to start now, because I could die at any moment.

So what does this mean for me? I’m not completely sure yet. I have some ideas. I have some desires. I think I know where I might like to be in a year, if the Lord wills, and where I might like to be in 5. And, of course, I have some ideas about 40 and 50 years down the road. Pray for me as I try to discern what I should be doing and when.

But in the here and now, there is work to be done – Christians and nonchristians at Cornell who need to be told about and reminded what Jesus has done for them – what He died to save them from and save them for. There are ongoing administrative and technical details to be worked out. There are friendships to be cultivated and relationships to be redeemed. But most importantly, there is more of God to taste and see and know. There is always more, and whatever context/situation I am in, that will be my primary pursuit. Know God more, see more of His glory, and respond – that’s worship.

And so that’s what this blog is, really – a little glimpse into my pursuit of all these things. Expect a lot of little posts, pointing you to what I’m reading or listening to or thinking about. And, of course, expect longer musings about various subjects. I’ll try to keep the emo and whining to a minimum – after all, I’m not a 14-year-old girl. Hopefully I’ll make you think, and provoke questions (feel free to ask in the comments or email me).

-Ben