So a lot has happened in the past month and a half. I have finished my Master's degree at Tennessee Tech, I have a job, I have moved to a new city, and have moved in with some good friends of mine. Quick change of this nature is hard for me, I enjoyed Cookeville where I had lived for the past six years of my life. There I had become apart of a church that I dearly loved, and I grew to love a lot of really good friends in that city, and I was able to see good friends come to know Christ as well as see good friends grow more in the likeness of the character of Christ. I have not experienced this type of change since I first moved to Cookeville, for my first year of college. That first semester was rough and I bucked it hardcore, but through it I came to know Christ by bowing the knee to him, I gained some incredible friendships, and I grew into the man I am today. As hard as the move was initially, I am starting to enjoy the city of Huntsville more and more. I look to spend a majority of the rest of my life in this city. I look forward to seeing what will happen in the next five years. To see the people God brings into my life, to hopefully see familiar people move to this city and join in all that God is doing here. It's going to be exciting.
I would ask you, especially if you are still in college and are looking for a job once you graduate that you would consider the city of Huntsville. It's a great city for engineering, bio-tech, teaching, really any type of science related field. There are great churches here to be apart of that seek to proclaim the good news of the gospel to this city. And eventually I may need a roommate, if you are a dude. Anyways it would be sweet to have fellow Christians move to a city that needs Christ.
I look forward to continue to write about my experiences in this new city and the things that the Holy Spirit teaches me through his word. And before I check out, I did want to share some thoughts I had on reading through Jeremiah this week. I am in the last 10 chapters of Jeremiah. I will be honest a lot of stuff has gone on in this book that I am not too sure what is going on, but there has been a lot of good truths that have been presented before me to dwell on. One of those was while I was reading through the sections where God is pronouncing his judgement's on certain nations. With one (Moab) nation he says that he will pronounce his judgement on them, not because they're innocent, but because they are like every human on this earth, rebellious and not wanting to follow God in any way (unless their heart has been changed). They spit and curse his holiness by going to other gods and disobeying what he has commanded. But there is something amazing that is said in chapter 48, and not just there but other places in the Bible as well. His judgement's are a product of his holiness and our sinfulness. But God says that his heart moans for Moab like a flute. The things they have gained will perish. And it causes him to be sorrowful, not because he regrets what he is doing, but because he wishes that Moab would turn to him as their God. He knows that their sinfulness must be done away with, but he wants Moab to repent and turn to him and he will remember their sin no more. But God is compassionate, he wishes that no man should perish, but men by nature are God-haters. But that does not stop God from extending his grace to broken men. And so I started to think more on the grace of God and how when Christ would look out on a crowd of people and have compassion on them. And how Christ knows the hearts of men and how they were bent away from him. He will one day judge all men, but yet he can still look out on a crowd of people and have compassion on them. I'm not sure how much that may or may not make sense to you. But the one who judges and rightful to do so, because he has been sinned against, still looks out on a crowd of people and his heart breaks to know that these people would not choose him, unless he opened their eyes to see how good he is. He is gracious, He has opened my eyes. And I hope that the whoever reads this knows and understands that Christ is gracious. He has grace and grace abundantly, to those who repent and believe. May you be encouraged to know that when you were dead in your sins Christ died for you. You are still alive today because he has shown everyone some amount of common grace to where you get to breathe your next breath. I pray that everyone who reads this gets to experience a grace that goes beyond this life and into eternity, where you experience the grace Christ wants to show you based on what he did on the cross. He is gracious, so come to him and experience the joy of the one who created and can/has save(d) you.
- Seth Anderson
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