Let There Be Light

Christmas time is filled with lights. Twinkling christmas lights, icicle lights, candle lights, fire glow, the soft glow of a warm house etc. . . . .

Light is foundational to human existence here on earth. Being the first creation of God for the world, light holds a strong place in all aspects of humanity. The light from our perfectly placed sun runs our everyday lives as it keeps time across the sky.The Christmas story is filled with light references (the star, the light from the angels, "Light to lighten the Gentiles"from luke 2:32, etc) It is no wonder then why we celebrate our favorite time of year with many kinds of light. However, the true light we get to celebrate is the Light of the World: Jesus Christ. Just as our whole lives, figuratively and literally, revolve around the sun, our physical light source; so must our entire life revolve around the Son, our spiritual light. We are told in Revelation 22:5 that:

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

One day Christ will be our physical and spiritual light source. What a day that will be! Until then, lets go out and celebrate this wonderful time of year: When God, for the second time, said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT".

Get Real

I know its long but please read it all.

I guess being a college student screams "give me any and all advice you can give!". I am fine with this since I greatly value good advice. As I travel down the path called college though, I often get advice that starts off this way. . . ."Well, once you get into the real world. . . . " I am sure many of you have had someone tell you this while you were still a "youngin" or in high school. If not, then you probably aren't reading this blog because you can't read english. Many of the people that start their advice-giving this way do it , I think, because they know that I have been raised in a Christian home my entire life. They may also do it because I go to a "bubble" Christian university.

Note: A "bubble" Christian university is code language for Bob Jones University aka BJU. It is called a "bubble" because it a very small campus to which almost my entire life outside of church is confined. I eat, sleep, and breath BJU for 9 months out of every year. There is nothing wrong with this at all. It is exactly where God wants me (thats another story)

Anyway, back to business. I am very appreciative of the advice that tells me about this mysterious "real world" that I will soon encounter. However, this semester God has taught me a lot about this "real" world.

The "fake" world that many of my advice-givers think that I live in is a world that is seen with a Biblical world-view. This Biblical world-view allows me to see things the way God sees them. Whether joy or sorrow, hurt or happiness, even loss or gain--I can see all things the way God sees them when I view life through the lens of His perfect Word.

Now I ask myself, "Is my 'world' the fake one?" Is the "real world" really real? That may sound confusing, but let me explain. The "real" world that people tell me about is one where the world is seen however anyone wants to see it. It is the materialistic, fortune-seeking, entertainment-crazy, sex driven, tolerant society around me that is called the real world! How can that be? If that is the real world . . . .then what is mine! ?

No.

The real world is the one viewed biblically. It is the world where sin is condemned not praised, where God is real and not fake, where I am weak and not strong, where loss is gain, and where death is life. The people living in the so called "real" world wouldn't recognize "real" if fell on their head! Just ask Elisha's servant.

You remember the Bible story. II Kings 6.

¹³And he(enemy King of Syria) said, Go and spy where [Elisha] is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

¹⁴Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

¹⁵And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

¹⁶And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

¹⁷And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

¹⁸And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

Elisha's Servant was not seeing the real world when he only saw the Syrian army. He only saw the real world when he saw THAT GOD WAS IN TOTAL CONTROL WITH A MASSIVE ARMY OF HEAVEN.

So, to my well meaning advisees, I say this:

Yes, the rest of the world does not have a Biblical world-view . . . in that sense their world is very real. But in the sense of true reality. . . .The only accurate view of this world is God's view. It is only through the perspective that He gives through His Word that we can see things the way they truly are.

I hope this post helps you to open your eyes to the real world around you that can only be seen through Scripture.

Thanksgiving!

Woo Hoo!! Back in PA with my family! I am so thankful for Thanksgiving. Wow. Now that I have some free time I can blog again.

Let me start off by saying that Thanksgiving has got to be my stomach's favorite holiday. Christmas and Easter are favorites for other reasons, but when it comes to food, Thanksgiving is King.....Emperor even. My mother happens to be the world's best cook and I am sorry that all of you reading this from somewhere other than my house will not get to taste the best food this side of heaven on Thanksgiving Day. Andrew Lee, a life long friend of mine, and Zach Sanders, my roommate at BJU are over for Thanksgiving this year and they too will attest to this truth I am sure (ok ok I know everybody says their mom is the best cook but they are wrong. Mine is.)

I am so thankful for everything that God has given me. He has blessed me so much this year in so many different ways. Too many to list here. Every little blessing in my life comes straight from God! I am overwhelmed by His goodness to me! If you are a Christian reading this then you should know what I am talking about. James says that "every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning". Everyone ought to be thankful to God! Even people that don't have a relationship with God owe everything to Him. As Christians we have the blessing of getting to attribute everything in our lives to Him! I cannot wait to thank Him in person some day, but I am so glad that I don't have to wait until then. I can thank Him right now.

Almost there

I know I know, Long time no see right, well I have not been
blogging for the past few months because I am at school ( not that
great of an excuse, but good enough) I have definitely had lots and
lots to blog about but Have been too busy doing things to have time to
blog about them. I am sure I will share some stories from this
semester in the future. I cannot wait for thanksgiving and will
definitely have some good posts then. . . .just hold your horses. .
err..... horsepower i guess is correct nowadays

Pig Pickin

Forward, backward, sideways, front flip, back flip, eyes shut, and
"surfer"-- These are a few of the different ways to go down a giant,
inflatable slides. Let me explain.

Today was my church's (Morning Side Baptist......my church at college,
don't worry, HBC is still my home church ;) annual church picnic. This
festive event is lovingly called "pig pickin." This is obviously a
southern thing. Few people in the North would not usually attend
something called pig pickin. We like "chicken dinners" ,"chili dumps"
and "bean-hole suppers" (that one was for my Grandma in New England).

Anyway, I got to go to the picnic with my brother and two roommates
along with 20 of the bus kids from our route here in Greenville. We
had a lot of fun with them on the giant slide, face painting, and
horse rides. The food was AMAZING. There were so many different kinds,
so I will not bore you by naming them all. The dessert line was so
long and I think my bus kids ate half of it.. . . which provided an
eventful ride home :)

The end of the day found all the workers pooped and all the kids as
hyper as ever. What a great day to get to spend with bus kids and
church friends alike.

Sunday Summary

Today was my first Sunday back at college. I love Sunday's and today
has been no exception. I got to go to the morning worship service here
on the campus of Bob Jones University and was truly blessed. Even
though I miss my home church an awful lot, it is amazing to see how
God can use His word to speak in any circumstance.
I wanted to blog today on what the message was about in church. The
speaker, Dr. Stephen Jones, opened his message with a startling
illustration. The story goes like this:
In a busy metro in the heart of Washington D.C. one morning, a lone
musician pulled out his violin from its case and began to play. As he
did, thousands of people passed by. Few paid the man very close
attention, and even fewer stopped to drop him a dollar or two. The
violinist played several pieces by Bach for a few hours that morning.
Sporadically, people would stop for a few moments to listen and then
pass by on their way to their destination. Children craned their necks
to watch and listen to the violin as parents urged them to keep pace
so as not to be late. As he made his way home at the end of the
morning, the musician packed up his violin and collected the $32.00
that had been dropped into his open suitcase. Never to return to that
metro.
What has not been told to you is the name of this violinist. This
musician happened to be the world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell. A
few nights earlier in Boston, Mr. Bell had performed in a musical
venue before thousands of people. An average seat in the concert hall
that night cost about $100. That day in the metro, Joshua played on
the same 3.5 million dollar violin he had played on the week before.
This little event was a part of a sociology study to help determine
the answer to this question: If put in a common place and context,
will incredible beauty be recognized?
Dr. Stephen used this illustration to emphasize the fact that most
Christians do the same thing! The text for the message was Psalm 23.
The very first verse of this passage says, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I
shall not want." What an incredible verse! The LORD (God's personal
name) is MY shepherd! How AMAZING! But so often, we just skim right
over Psalm 23 as common knowledge and don't take time to revel in the
beauty of our God's design. From the passage we can see that his
children are free from FEAR, free from NEED, and free from and END of
his fellowship. The message's focus on this truth gave me a fresh
appreciation for the personal care that my God provides for me. I hope
it has done the same for you!!

Scott Buhr

CTR

Wow. Today was my last day at work for the summer. I can hardly believe it. This finishes of my 4th summer at Classic Tent Rentals and Party Supplies.

This post is a tribute to my work place. CTR has been the inspiration for previous posts and will remain the source of many good memories. Here are a few highlights:

BIG BUTLER FAIR

Customer: Are you a professional tent builder?{creepy note: this girl has been staring at my sledge hammer skills for the past few minutes}

Scott: Umm.... Yes....

Customer: (with eyes as big as dinner plates) Really? Where do you set them up?

Scott: Umm. . All over.. . . Umm. . . .

Customer: ALL OVER BUTLER!?!?!?! (Butler is a small city outside of pittsburgh---population 182,902)

Scott:Ummm. . . no. . ha ha . .. uh all over Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania. . . . .

Customer in awe: Oh. .. Woooow . . neat. . . ..

The girl promptly turned and left. As she walked away, I could not help but notice her shirt which read "Butler Bunn Bunch"------The local BUNNY RABBIT CLUB. My guess is that this girl never left the fairgrounds. . . . . .

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HIGHLAND PARK BRIDGE

Many vehicles have be driven by the employees of Classic Tent Rentals. Box trucks, vans, pickups, SUVs, and forklifts are all a part of the Classic Tent Experience. One truck, however, will remain as legend in the memories of CTR Staff. I am, of course, speaking of the Yellow Truck. My favorite memory of this truck happened last summer. Two trucks had been sent to the same job and were following each other to the job site. The yellow truck was leading with the new white box truck right behind. The yellow truck has a bad reputation of running out of fuel (this could be because of the broken fuel gage and inaccurate dipstick). Well this particular day only helped Old Yellow live up to its reputation. Sure enough, right as we were crossing the Highland Park Bridge( one of the busier bridges of the Steel City), Old Yellow came to a complete stop right at the end of the bridge with the white directly behind. So what do you do? Wait for someone to bring diesel? Of course not! There are cars filled with busy people the whole length of the bridge! Our only option unfolded this way: I got out of the trick I was in, walked to the middle of the road, and held up both hands to stop two lanes of traffic on the Highland Park Bridge. While I directed traffic, the WHITE TRUCK RAMMED THE YELLOW TRICK DOWN THE BRIDGE. Zoom out of the situation for a second and take a birds eye view. One 18 year old guy stopping traffic on the HP bridge while behind him a large box truck is being pushed by another truck. To make a long story short, we ended up getting the Yellow pushed right up to a diesel fuel tank. . .. . .. that was out of order.

I would go on, but i am beginning to feel the snowball effect and will soon be blogging crazy stories all night.

So to Classic Tent, I tip my hat and say, "Thanks for the good times!"