Bloodiest love story ever???

     Ermergersh!!!!!..... Wow.... it's been a little while....... This is a little awkward..... it's like completely and totally ignoring somebody for almost six months and then coming back acting your like your BFF's... so umm hi internet..... I'm back.

So a lot of things can happen in the space of 6 months.... plague can strike, weight can be lost, the NFL regular season can happen, Israel can lay the smackdown on Egypt 30 times over (6 days war???? Anybody.... nothing..... no... okay.), and most important of all I can come up with a lot of things to blog about!...... but I forgot all of them. Except for one oddly enough...

     So there I was in September reading through Judges just for kicks and giggles. Judges follows pretty much the same pattern over and over and over of Israel and God are good everything is going peachy, and then Israel decides they'd rather do their own thing. (All this is covered in Judges 2: 11-16 So Israel's all like " Hey, God it's been fun BUT...... we're kinda seeing this other guy *enter name of pagan god here* and well... it's not you it's me sooooo deuces". and then they go their way and what happens everytime? They get enslaved or crushed or pretty much just all around destroyed by some other country. And this whole time do they turn back to God? Oh no.... they have to wait until things get really bad, and THEN finally all the people will come crawling back crying and weeping and teeth gnashing and sackclothing/ashesing, and all those other fun things people used to do back then, to God who then sends in a "Judge" (Judges 2:16)

who goes all Arnold-Schwarzenegger-in-the-last-10-minutes-of-Commando on the bad guys and kills everybody. And just when we think everything's all sparkles, giggles, and unicorns in the land of ancient Israel... the Judge dies (quality of life wasn't exactly all that great then). Soon as the Judge dies and all the other people who were alive during the Judges time being over Israel are dead......... Everybody decides that their way is better than God's way... again. Wash rinse repeat... several times.

     Sounds like a pretty cut and dry book right? Mostly just a history of Israel being sinful and showing just how stubborn the Israel folk really are...... with lots of people dying.... really.... a LOT of people die in this book. Some of these deaths are quite..... graphic too.... i.e. Tent stakes being hammered through people's temples, fat guys (King Eglon) on toilets getting swords rammed in (By Ehud) so deep the dudes fat covers the hilt and "the dung came out" (3: 12-30). Fun stuff right.... while reading said book though.... I had a thought (it doesn't happen much so I like to take advantage of them when I have them). Judges.... is NOT just a history....... it's NOT a just a cautionary tale of what happens when you turn your back on God..... this is a love story. In fact, it's one heck of a love story. Here we've got Israel... God's chosen people (and believe there is absolutely NOTHING about these people that made them any different or special them that would make them awesome to be His chosen people... outside of the fact that He chose them) completely and God.... the one who brought them out of Egypt, by His power alone helped them defeat all these different peoples, gave them land of their own, and guided and protected these people through everything. Well Israel after being called God's chosen people and being given everything to them by Him..... decided they didn't need Him anymore and they would be better off with some pagan gods. Well after they had their fill of the consequences of abandoning the God that set them apart from all other peoples, they would finally come back to God who was right there.... the whole time waiting for them. He would deliver the people, they would rejoice and praise God for a time..... then the Judge would die and they would turn right back around and start doing their own thing again. 

It really does NOT sound that romantic when you tell the story with God and a nation.... but think of this in terms between two people. We have a married couple, right? Well one of these people decides that they want to go do their own thing and they cheat on their spouse... after living in sin for a time they recognize their sin, repent and beg forgiveness of their spouse who willingly and whole heartedly take them back with open arms.... only for said spouse to go back and do it AGAIN. And every single time this happens, the cheating spouse repents and begs forgiveness of their mate who loves the other so much that the one who cheated is forgiven and brought back.... the one cheated on is still hurt by it.... hurt deeply by it, but still has such a deep love for the other that He is willing to work through that sin to reunite with the other.
Now I'm about six months out from getting married, and I don't even want to BEGIN to think about what that would be like even once!..... but God.... has such an incredible love for the people of Israel that He welcomes them back and forgives them EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. ...... That's crazy! From a human standpoint we like to think "oh, well... ya know I've forgiven you this many times and that's it. That's enough", but God in his infinite love for Israel.... His love for us continues to forgive them over and over and over. They completely and totally betrayed Him. Cheated on God with false gods....... and still He forgave them!!!

     It's awesome how much God loves us. That no matter what sins and atrocities we can commit, He still gave us a way to cover our sins with the blood of Jesus.... he loves us even though we don't deserve to be loved. He forgives us even though we don't deserve to be forgiven. He gave Israel the Judges (who we're by NO means perfect people, but He *spoiler alert possible future blog post* doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called) to give them a way to escape their enslavement to other powers (which was their consequence for abandoning God). He gave us Jesus.... and His death to give us a way to escape death (the consequence for sin.... which is breaking God's commandments).

     Judges portrays God's never ending love and forgiveness for His people.... completely unearned and completely undeserved, but it is their nonetheless. So in the midst of all the blood shed going on in Judges, more than anything it demonstrates God's undying love for His people...it's a history of Israel, but also God's love story for the people of Israel.

So yah ..... back in the blog world again.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7seRIJAtjlA

     

God bless 'MURICA!!!!

ZOMG.... I'm blogging again.

and to rock your world even more... it's actually a semi-serious blogpost. Now as you sit there in your comfy little chair on your little Iphone or lay there in your little tent reading this, imagine me watching Red Dawn (the real one) and listening to 80's love songs on Pandora with a pretty gnarly sunburn on my back.... the fronts fine just the back.

So I was talking to a buddy of mine last night, and in discussing other countries and such he was talking about other countries that he'd rather live in. What got me thinking.... was when, in passing, he said that he hated America and there was so many other better places. So naturally Aaron (being the attentive person he is) remembers that this was not the first time he's heard this recently..... and yes, he speaks in third person quite a bit whilst writing. So he thought to himself, "why is this?". Now one of the times he's heard someone say they had a distaste for 'murica recently was in a missions related context.... this pushed Aaron's inquisitive mind to the question "Why is this?"

I'm going to start this tirade off by saying that I am in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM discounting the importance of foreign missions.... I want to make that EXTREMELY clear. If at any time in this post you feel I'm NOT making that clear.... come back and read this part again. Now down to business, as the dadgum freest (for now) and best country in the world it is our duty as Christians in America to take advantage of our religious freedoms and spread the Gospel to the places in the world that don't share our religious freedoms.
Matthew 28:19, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
 So to reiterate I am NOT saying foreign missions is a bad thing, BUT this post is focusing on Christians and 'Murica.
*typing break because Alone by Heart just came on Pandora and I'm singing*

It's always kind of the.... trendy thing to talk about in Christian circles is going to foreign countries for Jesus which, don't get me wrong, is absolutely great. BUT riddle me this, how can we make disciples in other nations, when we don't even have them in our own? The United States of 'Murica is a nation too is it not? We need disciples as much as any other place in the world... maybe even more. We may be on a decline politically, morally, economically, you name it but we're still the baddest kid on the block. Most of the world still wants to be like us (in some ways). We are still the example most of the world follows... if they like it or not. And for us to maintain the religious freedom we have AND to maintain the ability for our Christians to be able to spread the Gospel to other nations as easily as we can, don't we need to focus on ourselves a little here?

America's not pretty. The moral foundation 'Murica has always stood on is rotting out from under it. And it's definitely not the sexiest mission field in the world. People aren't getting murdered in their homes on a daily basis for professing Jesus. The majority of Americans have all they could ever need to get by in life, as such they don't feel the need for God as they feel "self-reliant". That attitude makes 'Murica one of, if not THE, hardest mission field of them all. People with absolutely nothing have a much easier time accepting Jesus to fill their void then the typical 'Murican who feels he can/attempts to fill his Jesus-sized hole with the materialistic American dream of.... personal gain and satisfaction.

I love my 'Murica. It not only pays my bills (barely), but it supplys me with an endless supply of the best fried chicken, workout supplements, and country/80s rock I could ask for. It's not perfect. It's not pretty...... but we still need to love it. We still need to love our fellow 'Muricans and bring them back to Jesus, to bring our country as a whole to Jesus.
Matthew 18:20,"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
If God is with two or Christ-followers gathered together, what if an entire country could be brought back to Him? America was founded on Christian principles and for most of it's time since it's conception has identified itself as a "Christian nation". What kind of revival and blessing could be poured out on 'Murica if it were brought back to it's original focus as a "Christian nation". Looking at the history of the United States of America it's impossibru to say it hasn't been blessed in some way in it's few hundred years as the best dadgum country on this planet. America may not be pretty or the most worthy of our love, but we still need to nurse her back to health and raise up Christ-seeking disciples within her.

*This is about the 8th time in a row I've listened to Alone*

We don't though, the focus is always evangelizing other countries and the result is 'Murica gets forgotten by the side of the road. We can't forget the people in other countries who need Jesus...... but we can't forget ourselves either. We can't focus on our ministry to others be so much of a focus that we let our own little piece of heaven we call 'Murica fall to pieces.
Balance. The key is balance. YES, we need to go to everywhere we possibly can so we can tell everybody about Jesus. We can NOT, however, all pack up and leave. Some of us need to stay behind to look after the homefront and tend to it's spiritual needs. America needs to be as big of a mission field if not an ever bigger mission field to us then the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong... there's a myriad of places in the world that bringing Jesus to would just be all sorts of giggly, especially the places that no can haz Jesus period. BUT not at the expense of the biggest and most neglected mission field. The homefront.

I'm not by any means a writer.... this was all just kinda placed on my heart a bit and I just fired this all from the hip really. Just something I felt I needed to say...... on that note I'll let you experience the same giggles I am right now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYdGLu43ZTw

'MURICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grunt's first blog.

Sooooo I'm not generally much for bloggers, I don't sit in Starbucks sipping caramel macchiatto's with an extra shot so I'm gonna give her a whirl and we'll see how it turns out.
Odds are this blog isn't gonna be about anything deep, it'll probably be more about whatever is on my mind at the moment.... and at the moment.... it's... *drumroll*
POLO!!!!!!!
 What's the deal with British people and lame sports?
It's SERIOUSLY just horse hockey.
So I'm sitting out there in the back of a Ford Fusion drinking more Mountain Dew then I've had since I got to this island and I had NO idea what was going on.... I figure it was somewhat the same rules as hockey?
Real talk though I kinda watch it the same as NASCAR.... I just wanted to see a horse crash.... see the horses go up in a firey explosion. Polo has SO MUCH potential to be an amazing ESPN worthy sport..... think about it. Two teams.... full contact. Massive dudes on horseback swinging mallets at each other all in a mad rush to hit the ball between the posts. Dudes jumping from one horse to the other fighting other jockeys in an attempt to score touchdowns, or baskets, or goals or whatever in the name of Sam Hill the score in polo. Put it on Pay-per-view.... full contact Polo.... make it like the XFL..... the XPL Xtreme Polo League... have Lawrence Taylor and like..... some other massive athletically violent man commentationg..... or Al Michaels and John Madden. Sunday Night Polo.... Armor the horses up and give them awesome fighting horse names. Like diesel steed..... or Jim Neigh-bors (get it?)..... or Shadow stud horse of shadows.........
There is so much possible money to be made in the lucrative Polo industry.... but at the moment we think of Polo and think of three buttoned shirts, frat boys wear and people with pith helmets being watched by Brits sipping tea. All that Polo needs is it's own Polo superstar to bring it to the world!!!!
.... yah, polo.
Waking in 6 hours for work.... going to bed.......
Not bad for a first blog I think.....