"Jesus, You're Beautiful"

This blog's title comes from an awesome song by Jon Thurlow from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.

It's about Jesus' heavenly beauty (but also, it's a compilation mix of "Strong Love" and "Your Faithfulness"), but I chose it because lately, I've been able to experience much of Jesus' beauty in his creation here in Costa Rica, so as promised, I'd love to share some of that with you.


I just realized that it's been more than a month since we left for Bocas Del Toro, and I couldn't believe it.  But at 4:30 a.m. we began our trek to Bocas, and 11 hours, 2 bus rides, 2 taxi rides, crossing the border, and a water taxi ride later, we finally arrived in Bocas Town, the main business hub and town of the archipelago.  A number of awesome things in Bocas


1.  Our hostel was over the water, overlooking the vast bay dressed with clouds, storms, sail boats, and water that let you look all the way to the starfish on the floor.
2.  La Mama Loca, the hostel's restaurant served awesome, thick patty burgers, on which I have yet to see in Costa Rica
3.  You take a boat everywhere
4.  The hostel had live music every night - from an African style drum ensemble to open mic night, to a Chilean Jazz duo, and the greatest band in the world "The Cartoon Hamburgers".  It was great.


But the coolest thing to do in Bocas was definitely snorkeling.  On Sunday, we snorkeled near a reef just off some small islands known as "Zapatillas," and it was pretty sweet.  Think "Pirates of the Caribbean" style desert island with nothing but tourists on its shores


By far though, the coolest thing we did was rent kayaks and snorkel gear, and go out exploring our own snorkeling spots, as well as having fun exploring the ocean via kayak.  And it was the cheapest thing we did too, which was sweet.  We were told of this sunken boat that was starting to grow coral so we went out to see it, and it had some coral which was awesome, but we were much more interested in the shallower coral and sea life near the set of mangrove trees closer to home.  We also lost a paddle, which we saw the next day on the water taxi back to the main land.  Oops.


Now to Arenal, and the hike up Cerro Chato, which was gorgeous.  It starts out in kind of high open fields that has an excellent view over La Fortuna, which is the town below the volcano, and about half way up, it turns into this gorgeous and thick jungle for the rest of the way up, and really steep.  When we got to the top, you could see the big volcano, Arenal, but only as it peeked through the clouds.  Which I forgot to mention that most of the day, Arenal was hidden behind the clouds.  So when it peeked its cone out of the clouds it was absolutely gorgeous, especially when the sun was on it as well.  Then we hiked down almost a ladder-like slope it was so steep, and then swam in the wonderfully cold, green waters of the laguna in the volcano.  We swam out to the middle and yelled, and the echo was so awesome.  On our way back down, we heard a beautiful bird that sounded like it should have come from Rivendell, and sang the beauty of heaven along with the gorgeous trees and vegetation surrounding us.  When we came out of the jungle, you could see 400m below over La Fortuna, and look level with the storm of rain beginning to wash over the town like a curtain, and then come right after us.  The thunder was pretty spectacular as well, and it his us about half way down.


Since I gave the teaser, I had a gorgeous ride to work one morning.  So as I walk up the Hill Westward toward my bus stop, the sun is beginning to rise over the volcanoes to the East, and this morning was an especially cloudy morning, with a break in the clouds enough for 20-30 minutes of sunshine, and the morning was misty.  As I get to the bus stop, I recognize a rainbow spanning my entire view of the cloudy canvas behind it.  When the bus came, and we started riding down the Hill to the East, I could look over the valley to the North (my left) and the darkness of the clouds and the golden light of the sun gave the trees this awesome contrast that made them glow brilliantly among the dark and misty morning.  I was so enamored by God's beauty I couldn't take my eyes off it.


Thanks for reading, an update will come soon, and Shelley comes tomorrow for a week of soaking in the beautiful Costa Rican country side, Costa Rican and eMi culture!!!  I'm super excited.


Thanks so much, and keep praying that I would take the most joy in Jesus.
Brad


p.s. As a quick shameless plug, I recommend any music that comes from this place, and they have a prayer room that streams worship music 24/7 from their website ihop.org.  They also have a ton of resources with excellent solid teaching, so I encourage any of you reading to go check them out - it's really good.

Jesus

"What are you looking forward to when God brings about the 'Great and Glorious Day of the LORD'?"


You don't encounter many questions in the context of Biblical study that have one right right answer, but I can't think of any answer we as believers should consider before Jesus himself.  Our heart's first response to this question reveals much about who we are and how we relate with God, and if our first thought is not Jesus we're missing the point.


God cut to my heart with this question last night when Dan asked it in Bible study.  My answer had something to do with the new earth and how beautiful it would be, and how our glorified bodies would be really cool.  Which is not bad - God has granted those and it's good to look forward to those because they're a gift from God.  But I was convicted deeply as God made it so clear in my heart that Jesus' answer is undoubtedly and whole heartedly me.  


God also showed me how a lack of this vision of Jesus as the one who is our eternal prize is like death to us as followers, because He is the only thing that matters.  Nothing else is as glorious, as fulfilling, as powerfully redemptive, nor magnificently valuable as Jesus, the man and living God.  Nothing!  And to forget this glorious Jesus, whom we love is to lose our purpose for even breathing.  Everything God ever did in relation to us was for the purpose of being near us - his beloved creation.  God has glory.  He was never interested in making sure everyone knew He was the most glorious, as if He was insecure about His glory.  No.  Acts 17 states that God is the one who made the Earth and everything in it, and nothing we can give him even compares, but "God did this so that men would seek him and  perhaps reach out for him and find him."  That's the whole point of why God made us and redeemed us, because He loves us and wants to be near us.  That's why our works are like filthy rags to Him - He wants us.  So it is fitting that to even come close to being able to please Him is to want Him back - to return the love He has for us.  And this is why living our lives for serving Him will leave us sorely disillusioned like Martha was.  We weren't made for the purpose of serving Him - that's an excellent and necessary result of our purpose by the way -  we were made to be loved by Him, and to be near Him.  


And my lack of luster recently is so clear now - I've lost my vision. My passion for Jesus has grown tranquil, and I've been racking my heart and my head over small things, losing sight of the one who will make all things right, and who satisfies all my heart's insecurities.  Many Christians, even myself, dream of serving God, making an impact in the Kingdom, and doing mission work abroad.  But that isn't the dream at all - it's not even close.  God  is teaching me now that He is the dream, and He is the point.  Missions is necessary, and spreading the gospel is our work here on earth, but it isn't our purpose for living.  Intimacy and relationship with God is our purpose, that's why God ever created us in the first place.  So many believers do and do and do so much - good stuff by the way - and at the end of the day, they find that as good as it is, there is so much more that they're missing out on.  What they (and myself) still lack is a fulfillment of our created need for intimacy with God and without the right fulfilling of that need, we're still left longing and un-satisfied.


So my prayer request this week is simple (especially as I've really been thirsty and dry for God's nearness).  Pray that Jesus would be the sole object of my focus for now and forever, and that every good thing that I do flow out as a result, a side effect of my pursuit of Jesus.  Pray that every time I think of eternity, Jesus and His presence will be my first and most cherished thought.  And pray that I think of Him often.  


God Bless and I love you all,
Brad

"And After the Storm"

I still have around $3000 to raise for my internship here, so there's plenty of opportunity to sow finances into this wonderful thing God is doing in my life.  Thanks so much for the support you've already shown.

Listening to this song by Mumford and Sons, is a prerequisite for reading this blog.  It's been a theme for these past few weeks as God has been slowly walking me from a place of trial and error, to a place where He is bringing victory in my heart.  I've been putting off this post for a while cause I've been tired of writing melancholy posts.  What God is doing is awesome in times of trial, and no doubt His light permeates everything, but I've felt like such a downer recently.  But I can also sense that while things may come up regarding my time here in Costa Rica that may want to tear me down, God has given me small victories in approaching trial with confidence in Him that will be such a foundation for following the Spirit in victory and joy in future trials


Much of my life I've trained myself to handle conflict by putting it off - get over it and put it behind you - kind of stuff.  But as of recent, God has been really highlighting this kind of conflict resolution.  He has taught me that God never forgets until He forgives.  This is one way He manifests His perfect justice and His perfect mercy.  Until things are settled, and conflict has been brought to unity, things cannot be forgotten, gotten over, or shoved under the bed and put out of mind.  They have to be approached or else small wounds will be infected, and in my life I have perfected this art of bottling up my hurts.  But praise God He is saying no more.  He has led me, and will continue to lead me to face my emotions and hurts, and grow me in facing those with "grace in my heart" and beautiful resolution.  


Although I have never heard Marcus Mumford openly confess Christ, his father is a leader in the Church of England, and themes of God's grace and beauty are evident in many of His songs.  This is one of those songs which in many ways speaks to God's faithful encouragement, spurring us on toward perseverance through the storm, and to come over the hill into His light, full of beauty and grace.  It also speaks to our expectant hope for God to come and wipe away every tear.  And God is definitely doing that here in Costa Rica.


I wanted to give yall a quick update and teaser on my most recent adventures.  Costa Rica only lets you stay here 90 days on a tourist visa, so to renew our visa, we took a trip to the sparkling clear waters of Bocas del Toro  (mouths of the bull) just on the other side of the Panama border and it was absolutely gorgeous. Then, last Monday, with Kevin's mom Marnette and Esther's friend Ana in town, we all went to see Costa Rica's most famous volcano - Arenal.  Kevin, Allison and Marnette went to a hot springs, while Esther, Ana and I climbed Arenal's shorter but much older brother Cerro Chato.  Chato has been inactive for thousands of years, and has a collapsed crater on top with a lake in it.  So ... I swam in a lake in the middle of a crater of an old volcano in Costa Rica.  It was pretty surreal, as well as was God's beauty.  There's such a variety in God's creation its awesome!


Lastly, I for those of you not on facebook, I have a girlfriend!  She is the beautiful Shelley Dormont.  I've introduced her to you all before, and now I want to share with you the joys that God has brought to each of us through each other, and will continue to do.  But that doesn't happen without absolute devotion and clinging to Him as my satisfaction, so I ask that yall would pray for that.  I hate to be a teaser, but I'll have to tell you more about her in another time, but she has a blog of her photography business, and personally its my favorite blog, no bias intended.  Not only because her photography is gorgeous, but in her photography and words, she reflects God's own beauty in such a radiant way, and you wont be disappointed.  As always, if any of you know anyone looking for a photographer for a wedding, senior portraits, or anything, look her up.  She's an excellent photographer.
Her business is Shelley Elena Photography


Thanks again for reading, and thanks for your patience as this post has been a long time coming.  It's short this time in hopes that I start a habit of shorter, more frequent posts.  I'll follow up with some stories of adventures here pretty soon.  


God is good,
Brad