Back in Scotland

So, it's Thursday in Duesseldorf and it's raining. Moreover I'm on a tram line that's taking me somewhere that is a semi-unknown destination. The tram (or Stadt [S]Bahn) stops and three men come on. The lead man comes over to me and shows me an ID card and then starts talking with me. He asks to see my ticket, which I show him. Then he asks for my passport. By this point 2 other men have come on and are surrounding me. At this point I'm thinking "oh crap". The first man asks me why I stamped my ticket so many times and I tell him that I thought that it needed to be every time I got on the public transport. He just looks at me, slightly annoyed. I ask the cop standing in front of me why they need to see my passport. He says, "I can't tell you yet." By this point I'm thinking "great, I'm going to spend the night in a German jail." Then the man with my passport asks me, "Do you have 40 Euros?" I don't and am now praying very heavily. Finally he gives me my passport back and tells me that I only needed to stamp my ticket once and that normally he would have fined me 40 Euros for stamping it more than that. I get off free, and that was only one of the ways that God really provided for me on my trip. The two guys in pictured with me above are Jean and Tomas. Jean was in town checking out the university, so he became a doorway into student life that I normally wouldn't have had. Also, a contact that Anne gave me, was able to meet with me last minute. Through him, I was able to get a glimpse into Duesseldorf that I had really been praying for! God totally answered prayer, one after another! It was awesome! Thanks to all of you who prayed! I really appreciated it!

Düsseldorf

So as I type this, I'm sitting in Düsseldorf. It is definately a lot different than Glasgow. The university is practically in the middle of nowhere and there really isn't a lot for the students to do in the area. This afternoon I'm going to head back towards the Altstadt (old city) and explore there. Several people have told me that that's where a lot of students go to hang out on the weekends. God has been good and one of my friends from Mainz, Anne, has been able to find some other CU type contacts for me! I've already emailed one and hopefully I can meet up with him while I'm here.

Sick

So J.J. (one of my teammates [pictured at left]) and I were having a conversation a little over a week ago. We were talking about God's love and the concept of unconditional love and what it meant. Now I usually have a really hard time grasping that concept, not that I don't accept grace, but part of me struggles with the "unconditional" bit. She then asks me this question, "Josh, what would you do if you couldn't 'do' anything for God anymore? Do you think He would still love you?" I realized then how much I emphasize "doing" over "being" and how I'm afraid that if I don't do anything, I won't be counted as worthy by God. Fast forward to Sunday. I wake up Sunday morning with a splitting headache feeling absolutely worn out after a night of really restless sleep filled with really tripping dreams that gave me no rest at all. I ended up going to Partick Trinity that morning and when I got home I collapsed on the sofa. It turns out that I had a fever and I had it for 2 days! During Sunday and Monday I could do very little except for lie on the couch and veg. My mind felt like it was on drugs. It was crazy! But, when my fever broke on Monday night and I started to heal, I started thinking about it. God had this crazy way of taking an "innocent" question and bringing it to pass. I thought about it last night and just felt overwhelmingly loved by God. It was awesome because I knew that I could still really do nothing, and that God loved me because of His grace and mercy, not because of anything I had done.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

According to the song, it's Christmas, however, I think it's wrong. The most wonderful time of the year has to be spring. This is for a variety of reasons, one of which it's when our Savior died and rose again. However, living in Glasgow it's also the best time of the year as it's the prettiest. It's been really sunny here all week. Yesterday I had some reading to do, but I didn't have to stay here in Glasgow to do it, so I took a cheap train ride out into the country to the village of Balloch which has the equivalent of a state park in it. I hadn't been out in nature like that in a long time. The beauty of it really overwhelmed me. This is a picture I found online that's similar to what it looked like. I found a stream that fed into a river that fed into Loch Lomond (longest loch in Scotland) and followed it until I had to go back. It was so beautiful and inspired my soul to sing to my Creator. I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to do this. It was like those times when you need refreshing, but you just don't realize it.

God of Wrath?

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live, turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'

So I was reading Ezekiel for a Bible reading group a few weeks ago and was struck by that verse. God actually repeats it earlier in the book. As a church, we have done a dreadful thing in writing off God in the Old Testament as "wrathful". Honestly, we impugn God's Name when we say that. Now, God did and still does have wrath. It's part of His nature to be ticked off at sin and wickedness, however, He is also a God of intense and passionate love. Every time I read Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel I am struck by that. I honestly don't think God enjoys punishing us. He has to do it, but He doesn't enjoy it. I read these verses, and I wonder why I still sin. What is it about my corrupt nature that I can't stop?

Grace

You may be wondering why I chose to have an image from the film "Passion of the Christ" on my blog, it's simple, it reminds me of the cost of freedom. I have come to the realization lately that I can (and unfortunately have been) be very similar to the pharisees. I don't show much grace to people. I can have a tendency to expect people to act as if they are on my level or above, and that is wrong. It's in these times that God reminds me how much people have had grace with me in the past and how much I need to have that on others. So it is my prayer that God would fill my being with His Spirit and with love so that I can show it to others.