Finally Alive

I'm home from Columbia and I feel like a new person! Finals always take over my life despite my attempt to not stress out, because they always turn out ok and this year is no different. The closer I get to graduating and getting a real job, the more I try to appreciate Christmas break and this time at home catching up with my family and some of my best friends. I love the worry free life of Christmas break and usually always find something to fill up my time and usually get around to doing all the things I don't have time to do during the school year. But the older I get, the less excited I am about Christmas break. I don't know if it's because a lot of people already have real jobs and don't have the same schedule. Or the fact that a whole month off is a little too much free time. I think it has a lot to do with the stage of life that I'm in and just the inconsistency of it all. I've said this before and will probably say it again, but I am a nomad. I don't think I realized 6 years ago when I left Conway how much I would move around the next few years. I have just accepted the fact that for the next year and a half I won't be in the same place for longer than 2 months probably. I know that change is good and that being in new places is exciting, but part of me dreads it all. I'm just trying to be open to how the Lord is going to use this time to grow me and make me more thankful for consistency even in the little things. I know that moving around doesn't allow me to get too comfortable in one place, which is good for me in a lot of ways. Obviously I can't help the fact that I have to move around so much. It's part of PT school. But I love to think about how the Lord may use this time to prepare my heart for something in the future, even if it seems far away right now.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

A couple nights ago I was on John Piper's Desiring God website and found a link to a new book that he's written called Finally Alive. It's available for free online so of course I got excited. (Another reason why I love podcasts, because they are free.)

The whole book is based on the new birth and what it really means to be "born again." He uses the passage from John 3:1-10 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus to explain what the term means. He talks about how lightly these terms are thrown around in the church and that so many people who claim to be born again do not show any fruit in their lives. This ends up giving the wrong impression of "born again believers" because so many people who claim to be born again look so much like the rest of the world. He uses several verses from the Bible to show that the opposite should be true.

• 1 John 2:29: "If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him."
• 1 John 3:9: "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God."
• 1 John 4:7: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."
• 1 John 5:4: "Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith."
• 1 John 5:18: "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him."

I've only read a few chapters but this book has already challenged my heart to look different from the world. I won't go into any more detail because you can read it for yourselves but it is just so good at explaining what the Lord does in our hearts as believers when we are born again and has given me a new appreciation for the way the Lord rescued me from my sin and brokenness and continues to restore me daily.

Merry Christmas everyone! In the midst of so much suffering and brokenness He came. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23

"The first Advent brought relief from our sins. The second Advent will bring relief from our sufferings."

Come, Lord Jesus.