“Secularism tends to make people individual and selfish.
Religion tends to make people tribal and self righteous.
Gospel Christianity on the basis of truth turns people outward to meet the needs to their neighbor and to love people who don’t believe as they do.”
- Keller
I was second photog for a wedding for the first time and here is the result, my job was to focus on the guys while Alyssa focused on the girls. Not gonna lie, I kinda surprised myself. Feel free to let me know what you think.
-LJ
and my two favorite shots from the day.
It had broken my heart time and time again when I hear the prosperity gospel preached, when i see people lean on that understanding as to why they will follow. why? they will be disappointed, they will be let down for the true gospel is so much more than that. Here is a great explanation of what I have been trying to explain for so long.
Assisted on a wedding last week and working on the pics, have lots of them done but wanted to share one I particularly like so far. These guys OWNED!!!
I will not even begin to say i understand all of what i have seen today. Today I visited Auschwitz, one of the biggest concentration camps used during the Holocaust, and the tour left me with so much to think about and to process. Walking through the displays of glasses and combs and clothes and pots and pans and hair, seeing only a portion of what it represented. I only glimpsed at a display of shoes of some of the children that had been gassed and burned – the punch i felt inside and the urge to just throw up left me walking past it without another look and a long time of silence. Seeing pictures of some of the prisoners and the conditions the prisoners lived in. I mean, come on, i have seen the movies, ive read the books, i was prepared, right?….WRONG! to actually walk along the rails where the trains took the Jews and others captured, to walk on the platform shown in the movie Schindler’s List that countless stood on moments before their deaths, to walk through the barracks, gas chambers and crematoriums – words cannot express.
i am going to finish this random rambling and i hope to write more about it soon.
i will leave with one thought as i go, it seems as though many people leave very discouraged, and i can totally understand why. i saw today one of the most depraved things man has ever done, the evil and just pure hatred is beyond imagination and discription. but i was reminded of one very important thing. through the depravity of ALL MAN God loves us, in fact He loved us so much so that even though we are capable of such evil He sent His son to die for us. I am thankful for redemption, for renewed hearts and minds, im thankful for forgivness and love and grace. i left encouraged by a God that knows my heart and my sin and loves me.
a rose stuck in the electric barbed wire fence between some of the barracks
I want to give a kid trying to decipher some stuff out a little affirmation….i read your blog.
im thankful to be keeping up with your journey as we are on different sides of the world. I have been so blessed to share in this journey with you and i am thankful and honored to call you a friend and brother.
p.s. go read some calvin and hobbes…..seriously
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling (1895)
so yeah…these things seem to come way too few and far between. i bet you agree…well i actually wonder if anyone even reads these things.
where do i start? what do i say? out of all the stuff i have experienced what do i speak of? the amazing kids, the crazy concerts, the salmonella poisoning, the trips to the castles, the trip to Vienna, the gypsy kids, the deep talks, the being lost about what to talk about????? and thats only a few of the random thoughts that jumped into my head. i guess i might make you mad and talk about a lesson learned instead.
when i heard that i was headed to a country that was predominantly atheist i just thought, oh ok. with quotes ranging from 90% to 98% to 99.5% atheist it was something that really had no base point, coming from America, it was weird to think that people actually don’t even think about God. Well its true and its trippy. one school we went to, after talking to several hundred students, we heard of ONE Christian girl in the school, the others just didnt believe in anything. Some have heard of Chrisitianity or spiritual things but to them its an old tradional thing that has no relevance in life today. Many in not a malaciaous way, just have let the message pass by them. To many here, Jesus is nothing more than the little baby that brings them presents on Christmas, yup, thats right, Jesus is Santa Claus out here. How crazy must we sound trying to explain that He actually was a real man, who grew up, lived a sinless life and dies for our sins because He loves us so much and that gives us access to God. Well pray for us, those conversations are coming up and the Lord has been mighty to move and start the discussions and to show fruit, to bless us with so many chances to share our faith and testimonies. We have been able to partner with some amazing churches in the many cicites we have played in and help connect kids with them, the ministry here is so well done and so ripe. so please pray for us. trust me when i say I and WE miss you all. thanks for reading. time for bed
-iVk
This morning while I was reading some Charles Spurgeon after my study I came across the most perfect explanation of my feelings on there being so many books out there that many people say are must reads. I get an awkward look when I respond that I have not read this or that book and have no desire to. The usual response is very similar to this, “Well there is some truth in it, it gets you to think and you can find some good stuff in it.”
In C. H. Spurgeon’s message delivered on January 21st, 1855, titled Personality of the Holy Ghost, he speakes of the imense depth of the passage he was going to speak on; this is what he says:
“Old John Newton once said, that there were some books which he could not read; -they were good and sound enough; but, said he, “they are books of halfpence; -you have to take so much in quantity before you have any value; there are other books of silver, and others of gold; but I have one book that is a book of bank notes; and every leaf is a bank-note of immense value.”
I desire to spend the most time in the book with the most value, the one in which every ‘leaf is a bank note’. Then maybe I will add some books of gold and silver. But truly, there is not enough time for those halfpence books, you can keep em and read them if you’d like, but don’t get on me for not.
pax,
lj
“I want you to preach until hell gets disturbed”
-The Rev. Harry Singleton
