Our Inheritance

"But Moses did not give a protion to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, the God of Israel, was their inheritance, just as He had promised them." -Joshua 13:33

So I've been reading through the book of Joshua for my devotional recently and I guess it started out when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, then conquered every other track of land along the Mediterranean Sea and continued until the Israelites finally possessed all of the land from the inheritance that God promised them. Reuben got this piece, Gad got this piece, Manasseh got this piece and so on, and then we see the inheritance of the Levites--no land at all. Nothing on which to farm, nothing on which to live, just a few cities designated to be safe havens for the poor, the murderers, and yes, the Levites. But perhaps the greatest possession that they inherited was God Himself.

Can you imagine being a Levite at that time? You had to have an incredible amount of faith to see the beauty in inheriting the Lord God, and yet nothing to lay your head on at night. I would like to think that I would be one of the Levites that was completely awed by that concept, although sometimes I'm sure I'd much rather have a house that I owned.

It's a beautiful image really, one that paints a wonderful bridge between Judaism and Christianity--God chose to let the people who had nothing inherit Him as their possession. The ones who lived among the poor and manslaughter convicts. He chose to give Himself to the lowest of low, not the home owning Josephites or Reubenites, but the Levites.

I wonder what it would have been like to be a Levite in those days. To know that you don't have a single thing to your name, but at the same time God was going to provide because He was yours. I wonder if they ever worried about making it, or starving, or any of the normal concerns of a person, or if inheriting God brought a sense of overwhelming peace into their lives.

The wonderful thing today is that Christians are like modern day Levites. Because Jesus died for our sins, we now have a part in God and in His kingdom. We have, in a sense, inherited God. Now I'm not too sure about how the Levites handled it, but I know for a fact that even Christians worry about what we will eat or where we will sleep. Luckily for us, we have a message from Jesus concerning that very topic to guide us day by day:

"So don't worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things wil be provided for you. Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:31-34

Jesus tells us, basically, 'It's cool, I've got your back. I know you have to eat, sleep, drink, and unfortunately(**my thoughts, not necessarily Jesus'**) wear clothes so I will provide them for You.' Why? Because we are His and He is ours. He is our inheritance.

It's pretty awesome having our inheritance, Jesus, teaching us in every step of the journey. But just so you know, it's pretty widely accepted that Jesus was also there to help the Levites and the rest of the Israelites in the book of Joshua--that's right, the Old Testament, hundreds of years BEFORE he was even born on Earth. Where in Joshua? Sounds like a good thing to search for and find out....

Ughh

You know those things that you hate to enjoy because they are definately worldly, and yet you can't seem to get away or take your eyes off of them? Yea, well short shorts are definately the one that gets me the most. Guys, shamefully I'm sure that you know what I'm talking about...

Man, I'll tell you something honest--if you want to experience one of the greatest pains in the earthly flesh, go through a breakup.
It's hard after more than a year's worth of life shared with someone to finally realize that they weren't the one that God planned to be in your life. Partly because you feel like you weren't good enough to satisfy the things that they needed, and partly because you committed yourself to something completely and still couldn't manage to make it work.
It's things like this that make me realize that no matter how hard I try to maintain something or to make it better, if God wills for it not to be, IT'S NOT GOING TO BE. I guess I'm coming to this realization fairly easily considering the circumstances. I would definately say that God has given me the spiritual gift of great faith to know that he will get me through the hard times. I just pray that he can do the same for the person on the other side of this breakup. Please keep both of us in your prayers, that we may continue to grow in the Lord and be built in faith for better things to come.

We Are One...

Jesus's two major commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. These two things are the very basis of what each of His stories, parables and lessons came down to. Even in His final prayer to the father we see the same plea- begging the Father for unity.

In John 17, a chapter dedicated to completely to the final prayer of Jesus, John portrays one common message throughout the entire prayer- unity. Unity between the Father and Son, the Father and the Church, the Son and the Church, and one that we tend to forget, the Church and the rest of the Church. So many times we fail to see ourselves as one body of believers, but rather the America image of a "Tossed Salad". You have your Catholics, your Baptists, Methodists, etc. but very rarely are we merely called "Christian". If someone asks you what religion you are, I can almost guarantee that we will answer "Baptist" or so on. As a matter of fact I made the same mistake about a week ago.

If we really want to see the Church living up to its full potential of healing and reaching in the world today, we must seek that final plea of Jesus- unity with the Father and Son as well as with ourselves.

POOP

So I woke up yesterday and I was incredibly sick and dizzy and a bird had pooped all over my side view mirror. Yes, ALL over it. In fact, the same bird has been pooping on my car for about a month now. I usually get a pretty good laugh out of the irony, especially when I just wash my car the day before. As a matter of fact, every Sunday for the past few weeks I have put it on our prayer list as either a praise that they haven't pooped on it yet, or a prayer that they would stop. Unfortunately, yesterday when I was sick, I didn't seem to see the irony in it too much. It really just upset me.
I'm a pretty laid back kind of guy, and when something small like this upsets me, it really brings me down. I usually pride myself in being joyous in all occasions and bringing praise through every hardship, but sometimes its the little things that really get to me. I think we can all relate to this occasionally, whether it be bird poop, Sunday drivers, rude cashiers, or something else, we also seem to have those little bumps in our lives that break us from our cool.
I think Satan uses these things in an incredible abundance because many of us fail to recognize them. We all see that it's bad when we yell at a friend or cuss at someone, but we don't see that our little spurts of anger are what keep those outbursts coming. They are like trial runs for the major events.
I often look at the story of Job and wonder how someone could see so much crap in his life and still live to praise God. I wonder often how it's possible when I get mad at bird poop....anyways, I guess what I'm really trying to say is that we have to truly look at the sickness and bird poops of our lives and realize that God is so much bigger than them and that praising Him is so much more important.
Lord give me the patience to deal with the small things in life, thereby preparing me for the major dilemmas to come in my future. Help me to praise You no matter what storms I face.

Praiseship???

So it's definately summer again because here I am, typing away 20-30 minutes of my time, trying to keep my intellectual capacity up for the next four months that don't include some sort of studying or mandatory reading. Yes, I'm one of those strange guys who really ENJOYS learning.

We just played at an incredible event called Soul'd Out this past weekend, a show that we played at last year and an experience that we can never get enough of. Now before that, about 6 months actually, we recorded a live CD at another event. We were really looking forward to bringing them to the Rally with us, but only got them about three days beforehand. So we burnt them as quickly as possible and brought them out to Hampton with us.

After listening to it, Brian (guitarist) really remembered the nerves he had playing at the show. We talked about how we didn't want to mess up the CDs and how it was a really big deal. Well, like everything else that any normal person would just discuss and then let go, it got me thinking...that was a praise and worship event just like any other, so what could have caused him to tense up?

A couple of stories involving David really came into my mind strongly. In 2 Samuel 6 David was celebrating the coming of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. He showed his joy and praise to the Lord by dancing in front of it in nothing but his underwear. His wife Michal confronted him about it and he simply stated, "I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes." He was willing to lay down his own pride for the glory of the Lord in his praise, and most importantly, his worship.

In Psalms, David says to praise the Lord with stringed instruments and lyres, to lift a song of praise to Him. Brian told me that he had been nervous and so I began to ponder this. It hit me incredibly strongly a couple of days before Soul'd Out: WE are these people. Every time we worship we get to lift a song with stringed instruments and with our voices. In a sense, we are leading Modern Day Psalms.

So why is this titled Praiseship?? Well, because earlier I said that David danced almost naked in praise and in worship. The musical "genre" called Praise and Worship is seperated for a reason--they are two seperate things. At the Soul'd Out Youth Rally everyone lifted a song of praise. We all jumped around and sang to God on high. But I am sad to say that the odds are that someone was merely having a good time. Anyone can come up to the stage and sing praise and have a good time, but the concept of WORSHIP is one that is completely different. Worship is a lifestyle--it's not only the single event of David dancing through the streets, but the condition of his heart when doing it, the recorded events of his humble life, and the most likely recurrent dances that happened later in praise of his Heavenly Father.

Anyone can "praise" or sing it, but only when you combine the lifestyle of worship that you lead with those songs of praise and those psalms of stringed instruments can you make something holy and pleasing to the Lord. I encourage you--dance like an idiot, sing as loud as you have to to go out of key, smile constantly for the mercy you've received, and never, NEVER be ashamed of the praise that you are about to bring to the Father. The humility in your praise is a true sign of your worship lifestyle.

I'm sure anyone who was at Soul'd Out can attest to the extent of humility that Brian brought to that event. I can truly say that he was never more susceptible before the Lord, and the passion with which our music and praise came let it resignate. God bless everyone at that event and may you continue to live worship lifestyles worthy of the King. We hope to hear from and see all of our friends in Christ soon.

Nothing Simple

Soooo I got an incredible idea for a song last night. Each and every time we try and write a song, or a poem, or a skit for God we sit down for hours, or days, or even weeks to debate on the perfect sentence structure, just the right adjective, past or present tense, and so on. But last night, I was sitting there, writing a song, when a Bible verse came into my head, "when you pray, don't go on rambling like the hypocrites, but make your words few because the Father knows your needs." Jesus actually told us not to stress over the words because God already knows them.

Now I know what You're thinking, and no, I didn't just write a song where we repeat "I love God" or "I love Jesus" over and over again. I thought hard on that concept and wondered why Jesus might tell us that. The conclusion I came to was that, in my personal experience, everytime I write, it takes FOREVER to think of the exact thing to say because God is so many things. Infinite, omnipotent, rational, irrational, and most importantly BEYOND VOCABULARY. Jesus told us not to be concerned with finding the words to describe God because it can't be done, our God is beyond words and cannot be confined within any sort of human construction.

And that, my friends, was the basis for this song. Throughout the verses I delved into my vocabulary, writing down the first things that popped into my head when I think of the glory and majesty of God. I tried my best to convey everything that he means to me and to this world. And then upon reaching the chorus, you realize that we can try and try to describe our God, turn through pages of dictionaries and the Bible and still fall short. But the beauty of the whole thing is that we still try--can you imagine the fact that we are going to be bringing praise to God for ETERNITY.....how many different words and tongues will we get to praise Him with?

When you look past a song or poem as stressful and just realize that bringing everything You can out of joy and love is all you can do in His presence, THAT'S when you see the true goal of praise. Comprehending God and explaining who He is will always be beyond our understanding, but the beautiful thing about praise is that we will always keep trying.

"I'll try to make my words few,
But there's nothing simple about You."

Just to Clarify...

All of these posts are things that I have written over a period of time on my Myspace blog that I wanted to share with possibly a different audience. Hope you enjoy the reads and getting something meaningful out of them. I also hope that if you do, you can leave me a little nugget of enlightenment to ponder!!

The Perfect Marriage

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

6 " 'Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" ^[a] 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. ^[b] Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.

8 " 'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.

9 " 'I bathed ^[c] you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. 10 I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. 11 I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, 12 and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.

15 " 'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. ^[d] 16 You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur. 17 You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. 18 And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. 19 Also the food I provided for you—the fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign LORD.

20 " 'And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? 21 You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them ^[e] to the idols. 22 In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

23 " 'Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness, 24 you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. 25 At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, offering your body with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by. 26 You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and provoked me to anger with your increasing promiscuity. 27 So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. 28 You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. 29 Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, ^[f] a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.

30 " 'How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute! 31 When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

32 " 'You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! 33 Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. 34 So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

35 " 'Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! 36 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you poured out your wealth ^[g] and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children's blood, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see all your nakedness. 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. 39 Then I will hand you over to your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you naked and bare. 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. 42 Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.

43 " 'Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign LORD. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?

44 " 'Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: "Like mother, like daughter." 45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom. 47 You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they. 48 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.

49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. 51 Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done. 52 Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

59 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Ezekiel 16: 1-52; 59-60

An incredibly long verse to start off with, and I apologize if I've lost your attention, but it was of complete necessity to the cause. The analogy of God's people being His bride--it's one way that we know that God and Jesus were in fact the same person because they both spoke of us as their bride, but it's also my favorite comparison as to what we are to our Lord. We've been called children, we've been called friends, but greatest of all, we are called His wife. Where friends come and go and children are raised and set out to carry on for themselves, marriage is permanent--the way God intended for it to work was a relationship that lasted until death do you part. And since God is eternal and so are we when we come into a relationship with Him, we have a union that is eternally binding and all loving.

It's an incredible thing, really. Marriage was created by God to last forever no matter what problems must be worked out, and we can see God's intention of that through his very own relationship. Look back at the verse: can you see the emotion of God in this passage? Marriage is intended to last through the good and the bad, and this is most certainly not the best of days for our relationship with our Lord. Read the words the Father uses when he speaks of His people--how he chose us from our broken and humble roots; how he raised us and cared for us; adorned us with beauty and lavish things; chose us as His bride and Queen over all of creation; and how He made us capable of sharing in His perfect and eternal love. It is clear to see how much our Groom truly loves and cares for us. But how did we choose to share in our love? We took advantage of our beauty and gifts and decided to prostitute ourselves out to every idol and people we could find. We gave our gold as gifts for those who practiced prostitution with us; instead of charging for our infidelity, we paid those who helped us defile ourselves. We offered our children, HIS offspring, as human sacrifices to our false idols and fake Gods. The Lord even goes far enough to say that we are a far worse people than our sisters Samaria and Sodom, one of which was destroyed by God's wrath because of their sins. (Ezekiel 15-34; 45-48)

So why are we still here? Why are we still the chosen people and Bride of Christ? It is because God created marriage to be a commitment through the good and the bad, the sickness and the health, the rich and the poor, and in this case the idolatry and the prostitution, and since in death we do not part, NOTHING can cause divorce between us (Ezekiel 16: 41-42). It's incredible to think of this idea considering that in America today, 51% of marriages end before death in divorce. I am completely blown away by my Savior, that through all of this He would still decide to keep His word and keep His commitment--THIS is how I know that He is a fair and loving God.

When I read this passage this morning, I was moved to tears because I could FEEL the pain God must have felt when He spoke these words. I could honestly see the TEARS that must have been falling from His eyes as He watched us sell ourselves as sex toys to our idols and neighboring lands. What do you think it looks like when a perfect, omnipresent, and all-powerful being cries? How much of the earth do you think is shaken and disturbed? I can't scarcely fathom the concept. I do, however, know one thing: any God and groom that is willing to watch this through all of the agony and pain He must have felt and still choose to love and keep me is one that I will do my best to stay faithful to for the rest of my days on this earth.

We talk so much about what we want our wedding to be like some day: on the beach, under a sunset, in the church we grew up in with all of our family there, and so on. But I urge you to never forget the most beautiful union man has ever seen: when our Savior came and pulled us from our humble foundations, where we were squirming in our own blood, and established us as the most beautiful of all of His creations--His eternal companion and loving bride. Have you been faithful to your groom? Have you felt His love and seeked it alone? Or have you gone astray, selling yourself to the idols of this world and the desires of your sin? We all want that perfect relationship, and I can promise you that you won't find it anywhere else than in the welcoming embrace of our Maker. Don't let death do you part--stay faithful, stay committed, and experience eternity with the perfect groom in His perfect love.

See it

It's been a while since I said something in this environment. And to be honest, I'm not really sure what I came here to say. There's somewhat of a raw honesty that seems to work its way out when you just let your fingers linger on and find the words as they move.

I believe in nature. I believe in the beauty of the created world around me--not the buildings and the cars and the paved roads, because all of these will fail and need reconstruction or renovation. Animals and plants have existed for thousands of years and yet we see our neighborhoods needing new streets every decade. I believe in the neverending astonishment that comes with seeing the sunrise or the mountains that reach the clouds. I believe that the stars on a clear night can never fail to take my breath away.

I believe in peace. Not one promised to me by the politicians of our day and age, or by the radical groups who see it in the distance after some sort of "cleansing", but a peace that is received in one breath, one sentence, one declaration. One that can last through the bombs, the global warming, and the societies dying of diseases like AIDS.

I believe in salvation--in eternity in the here and now. One that has been granted to us by the grace of our loving Creator. A salvation for all people who choose it whether young, old, lame, rich, poor, or any other condition.

It's amazing to me how intertwined they are. Each day the sunrise offers hope for peace, hope for new beginnings, hope for grace. I believe in a love so strong that it has the ability to create and maintain each of these things on a consistent basis. I believe in a love that created nature, inventors, the invented, and everything around them. What do I believe in? I believe in a love that, because of one ultimate cleansing sacrifice, believes in me.

Can you see it in the world around you? Do you see compassion in the stars, concern in the waves, strength in the trees, and jubilation in the sun? These are the things that awaken and enliven me everyday. This is my truth, my fact, my form.

What do you believe in?

PKs

How many of you have known a preacher's kid? I know my mom is one and one of my good friends is one also(which makes sense considering I go to her dad's church). And I also know a couple at my old high school. So if you know one, go ahead, get them in your head, think about who they are and what they are like. Ok, now think about this--how do they usually act? What is their personality like? I know the ones I know, or have met, are almost always one of two ways--either on fire for God or completely smothered and drowning from the ways of the world.

Does that sound familiar? I know a couple who are absolutely spot on with God and seeking after His holiness, and I know a couple who are absolutely crazy and do pretty much everything they can in sin, but I can't think of very many at all who are just "good kids". I guess it goes down to our roots, to the very morals and beliefs that we are raised on. If we have Christian parents, they will, most likely, raise us with Christian teachings and Christian morals. So everything we learn as children and continue to learn until we are on our own is from a Christian perspective--"good morals" are taught with Christ at the core.

So if this is the case, why do some of the "preacher's kids" or merely the kids of Christians turn out to be such party animals? I don't believe that the problem can lie in our morals, because we are told to set our mind on things above and not on earthly things, so if God is in our values, they are not in fact wrong. So what's the problem? If our parents' teachings are rooted in truth, why do some of us just seem to miss it?

I think one of the majors things we fail to do as Christians is raise disciples instead of just converts. What I mean is this: we are so worried about following the "Great Commission" and go to all corners of the earth, that we forget the part about making DISCIPLES. We weren't called to just tell people about Jesus and the things He did, we are called to get them to know Him as their Lord and Savior and learn how to seek holiness themselves. Too often we focus on the shallow aspects of the Christian faith and the smaller aspects of it rather than getting them to pursue the wholeness and truth of who God is. Too many times, we try to relay our stories of faith to our children instead of getting them to have their own. Where we go wrong in raising our families is not in the ideas, but how we make them come across. If instead of telling and forcing our opinions on our children we invited them to know God themselves and learn to find out for themselves who He is, we wouldn't have the "party animal" preacher kids or believers' children gone bad.

In the same manner as raising children, please treat your friends and peers the same way. Don't set out to merely introduce thousands to Christ and not follow through with the biggest step of all: Discipleship. We need more people seeking to be like Jesus, not more people seeking to live their own sinful lives and showing an interest in who Jesus was. Take the time to help build relationships. You took the time to meet your most incredible friends and got to know them on an intimate level, so do not deny them that opportunity with the most loving friend they will ever meet in Jesus Christ. So with the wild and crazy, did our morals just miss the mark? No, sometimes we just missed the opportunity to help them sink in and take root.

The Enlightment

The Enlightment really screwed up our perception of what Christianity and reality should be about. If you have been following these blogs, you will know that earlier I posted a blog on the idea of God being irrational/rational at the same time and the idea behind it. Well I don't feel that I specified enough just how vital that is to the idea of Christianity, so here I am to do it again. If you read it once and didn't like it, I apologize, but I will be giving a recapitulation of what I said before.

One of the major reasons behind people's lack of faith is a lack of proof. Too often, people say they will believe in God when they can see Him, or when they can see him do some sort of miracle--they want God to be rational. It's a funny concept, for me to think that God can be rational: let me explain. Rationality, in a definitive sense, means to be able to be explained or understood. In other words, it's a human concept. Rationality was a term derived by humans to put meaning to the happenings of our lives. Now pardon me in saying, but I don't know whose God can be contained in the definition of a human word. The meaning was created by man, who are the ideas of God themselves, and it would make no sense for a creation to be able to describe or match its creator.

Irrationality, however, means that there is no capability of being understood. I think it is incredibly wonderful to think that my God is irrational. He is all-knowing, exceeding the limitations of the human mind; all-loving, outreaching the deepest sinews of the human heart; and all-forgiving, throwing sins as far away as East is from the West. For me, realizing that my God is completely irrational is a surprisingly rational and comforting thought.

As a matter of fact, it goes beyond just God as a creator. Like I said at the beginning, Christianity is based upon irrationality--and that is what distinguishes it from the rest of the world religions. Every major religion in today's society talks about freeing ourselves from sin and wrong doing, but of our own free will and trial, except for Christianity. Christianity requires its followers to understand that they are permanently flawed, and that they cannot be fixed by their own doing--from a worldly perspective, this is completely irrational.

So God as a creator, God as a religious-founder, and lastly, God as a Savior are all completely uncomprehensible. In no other faith will you find a God who is willing to give up his place of glory and perfection for an extended length of time to come to Earth, live in the form of His flawed creation, and die for their sins permanently, merely to show His untainted love. This, by far, is one of the most unfathomable concepts of them all. Rationality cannot contain the love that our God has shown to us through His son, Jesus Christ.

So I urge you, move away from the Enlightenment thought of "What can God do for me?" and start asking "What I can I do for the one who has already given everything for me?" And change the idea of denying God for lack of rationality for total dedication and servitude because of that very detail. Take the step of faith to believe in an entity who is powerful enough to exist outside of the confines of human definition and understanding, and experience a love that can be found in no other place. I love my God and Savior for the irrational being that He is, and it is the most rational thing I will ever do in this lifetime.

I Saw the Sign

It seems like everyone who claims to be a Christian these days has the fish on the back of their car. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it, (in fact I have one myself) I actually think it's a great idea.

The fish originiated through two major phases. The first step was that the way Jesus was referred to in the Greek alphabet was very similar to the spelling of fish (IXOYE- to symbolize Jesus being a fisher of men). From this, during the time of Roman persecution of the Christians, Christ followers, when talking to someone would draw one half of the fish in the sand, and if the person they were talking to was of the faith, they would finish it by drawing with their foot.

It is a different symbol today, but it is cool to look at the history-- a sign that was once a hidden message to other Christians is now a widely known sign to the entire world that we are children of God. It's a cool progression if you ask me. Anyways, this kind of got me thinking-- though this can be a good thing, it can be a sign of hypocrisy as well, because of the things we may do while we drive that, sometimes, can make some of us take it off of their cars completely.

But what if you couldnt? What if we as Christians were made to carry around a sign of our faith? But not only a sign-- what if the sign grew and shrank with the progression of our walks of faith? This puts a completely different twist on the idea. I would venture to say that many of us would grow. It's a sad thought, but we as humans are creatures that care about our appearance. Even as Christians, just like Adam, I believe we would recognize and adjust when we are "spiritually naked." I truly believe that if we didn't try so hard to cover up our sins and pretend that they didn't exist-- or better yet, if we couldn't cover it up no matter how hard we tried-- there would be many stronger disciples for Christ in this world.

I would never wish for this though. Not because I myself am afraid of it, because honestly my sign shrank over the past week or so, but because then we lose the true meaning of the faith-- the relationship.

This sign is missing one key concept: our purpose. You see, God doesn't want us trying to grow to merely compete against the signs and accomplishments of others, but rather to recognize our own humility and short comings, and there in try to grow. God wants us to change because we WANT to. He desires for us to seek holiness by coming to know Him on a more intimate level, not how we relate to the success of the world.

So today, what would your sign look like? Would it be a small, diseased fish that seems to be suffocating you, or a majestic one, glowing with the radiance of our Savior and covering over all of your sins? But remember, no matter how many good deeds you may complete, no fish can grow bigger than in relation to its environment, and in our case, in relation to our relationship with God. DESIRE holiness, PURSUE righteousness, and LIVE for His glory alone, and I can guarantee you that your sign will be one that the world sees shining brightly, reflecting our heavenly Savior and not something earthly at all.

****1 Peter 4:14****

Qualms

When I say that I have met more Christ followers on varying walks in the past 6 months I truly mean it. Never before in my faith have I met people from so many different backgrounds, on different journeys, and following different guidelines. In many ways its invigorating, but also very eye-opening. One of the things that I've struggled with recently from my own as well as those around me's spiritual walks is the concept of being revolutionary versus being disrespectful.

Jesus was most certainly a man of revolutionary belief. His ideas were unconventional, His methods untested, and His love unheard of. He was seen not only healing people miraculously, but preaching on the Word of God with no earthly authority, speaking against the religious leaders, and overturning trading tables in the tabernacle in a fit of rage, yet all of this was revolutionary, NOT disrespectful. And this is where I truly believe many of us may be losing sight of the true message and goal. Jesus calls us to be Revolutionaries in an unbelieving world, but in a respectful way. There are many things that we seem to have missed the mark on in general, but a couple of them have really stood out recently.
James spoke a great deal of the damage our tongues can do: "Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." From our tongues come earthly and spiritual praises, songs, and hymns, but contrastingly also slander, racial slurs, and terms of hatred. We know that sin overtook the world and God gave it over to Satan, and I truly believe that Satan enjoys greatly lighting our little tongues with the fire of hell.
I have heard all of the origins of the modern day "cuss words" but, frankly, I think that Jesus would care very little of the history and much more of how an unbelieving and sinful world portrays their meaning. Just because something originated from nothing does not mean that it doesn't carry weight now. The fact of the matter is that these terms not only reflect a weak vocabulary, but more importantly, a disrespectful disregard for what is considered proper language for a believer, no matter what the words' origin.
Another major concept that I believe the Christian culture is still learning how to handle is that of unconditional love. I'm not sure about whoever may be reading this, but many times it is not my secular friends who I feel vulnerable around, but more so that of my church and believer body. We have missed the idea of loving our brothers and it has overflowed into the affection we show for those who are lost. Judgment is still prevalent for someone different in our churches, many still hope to maintain a certain "image", and people are made to think that Christianity is some sort of top model search and only the best all around candidates are fit to make it. Our judgment has surpassed the saving love of Jesus that was granted to all who were thirsty. In our daily episodes of spiritual warfare against Satan, we are far too often guilty of shooting the hostage instead of the enemy.
It's also very disturbing how watered down our ideas of sinning and forgiveness have become. In the modern church, sinning and asking for forgiveness have become too common and too simple. "Oh well, I'm a sinner" is the generalized outlook of far too many people in the church today. Not only are we not ever referred to as "sinners" in the New Testament, but instead "saints", but sin carries much more of a load than we have commonly come to believe. In our Christian walks, the foundation and saving grace of our faith is our relationship with Jesus- He is our brother, friend, savior, and yes, groom. What this idea of bride and groom means is that we are bonded through the most intimate relationship known to man. This means that sinning or doing anything that does not bring honor to our perfect groom is, in fact, considered unfaithfulness or infidelity in our relationship, and reason for DIVORCE- so maybe our sins aren't as minor as we think....
Whether or not you feel convicted by these ideas as I was is not for me to decide-that is between you and God. What I do know is that if convicted, we have no other choice but to change our ways. We are no longer sinners- as Christians we are saints and the bride of Christ- let's keep it a healthy marriage.
"What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We DIED to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"
-Romans 6:1-2

'Ello Puppet

Monday morning- wake up, bounce on bed to jump out, walk to bathroom, get in shower, sing while washing to wake up, dry off, get dressed, brush teeth, grab food, leave for work.

Tuesday morning- wake up, bounce on bed to jump out, walk to bathroom, get in shower, sing while washing to wake up, dry off, get dressed, brush teeth, grab food, leave for work.
Wednesday morning- wake up, bounce on bed to jump out, walk to bathroom, get in shower, sing while washing to wake up, dry off, get dressed, brush teeth, grab food, leave for work.
Thursday morning- wake up, bounce on bed to jump out, walk to bathroom, get in shower, sing while washing to wake up, dry off, get dressed, brush teeth with lotion, grab food, leave for work.
Friday morning- yet to come...

Ahh the monotony of the morning- you remember those routines we talked about? Well this is one that everyone seems to be guilty of. But why? Well for one, they work- it's comforting, it keeps our not yet fully-functioning brain moving in the right direction, and it gives a schedule to keep ourselves focused on.
Now like the majority of the population, we all tend to have a morning routine, and we all tend to passively glimpse over repeating material.
You may have caught it, but I'm sure some didn't; there was something wrong with that account of my week. "He didn't state putting on deodorant."- true, but I guess I assumed that to be implied. No, look a little closer. There in the midst of my regular Thursday routine is hidden a trifle of oddity- brush teeth with body lotion.
Yes it's true, and let me be completely honest when I say that something like that will instantly jolt you from a mindless morning routine. In the process of washing my toothbrush off, I found myself laughing pretty heartily at this disgusting, yet enlivening wake up call. "What in the world would cause me to do that?" I thought.
I'm not sure if you'd agree, but I've always believed that God has an amazing sense of humor. I find it hard to believe that someone who created lemmings, the platypus, or gave my brother, a 300 pound guy, a fear of small things like spiders, didn't do it for an occasional laugh. So if you don't see humor in God, disregard this comment, but I truly believe my Aloe Vera brushing experience was from none other than Abba Himself. Was it just for a good laugh? Possibly. But I got much more from it.
Routine has really been something laden on my heart recently. Religion can create confines that we fail to realize are not making us stronger, but are only preventing us from going beyond our spiritual surface. Following the rules and laws can make our yokes heavier than we could possibly imagine, and it's only through the freedom of Jesus' love that we can overcome that burden and prevail. But is God calling us to leave the routines in the rest of our lives? You tell me.
"Carpe diem", seize the day, has been a saying of adventurous lifestyle for thousands of years. Existentialism brought about the wonderful idea of questioning and challenging ourselves- are we who we want to be, are we doing enough, or are we stuck in our tracks simply going through the drones of life? Jon Foreman of Switchfoot once said, "I dare you to move", a challenge we all sometimes need to get away from the repitition life can bring and actually get up and LIVE. Are routines bad spiritually? Absolutely- they confine, constrict, and constrain any opportunities of growth we may have. So why should that be any different when dealing with the rest of our lives?
One of my favorite radio morning shows is run by two guys who are experts at breaking from routine. Though sometimes perverse, and occasionally distasteful, they never have issues finding new adventures or ways to entertain. FM99's Tommy and Rumble (if you're not from the Tidewater area and visit, tune in) are some of the most spontaneous and intriguing people I've ever heard. There has not been a single time I've listened that I haven't been content, and it's because there is no routine. One day they'll be set up with a stand where you can drop your pants and show your underwear to win prizes, and the next they'll have a lemonade stand to raise money for the local food bank. Awesome.
It's an extreme example I know, but shouldn't our lives be an extreme thing? They are short-lived gifts from God made to be enjoyed. Too often we let ourselves get bogged down by what our lives throw at us- we get stuck. And the only way to break free is to get out of routine. Do something unusual like go for a bike ride, buy a pair of shoes, drive somewhere new, or even scream at the top of your lungs. Or maybe it needs to be something as drastic as selling a car to buy a new one, moving, or leaving a job (though I disclaim myself from being used as a reference).
God will call us to do some things that we often find strange, whether spiritually or physically, and many times it's to free us from our routines. We get comfortable, and comfort leads to lack of growth in spirit as well as in life. Just like in spirit, routine in life can create a shallow security that prevents us from going any deeper than the surface.
Our lives are vast things- capable of experiencing and taking in knowledge, surroundings, and emotions. They're gifts, given to be lived to the fullest, free of routine. Sometimes we just need a wake up call, reminding us to not be afraid of occasionally brushing with lotion.

It's early, or is it late?

It's 3am in the morning and I finally came to the conclusion that I had nothing else to do since I can't sleep than to write another blog. This has almost become my haven to pass the time and avoid the fact that there is no one else around to keep me company. You know its bad when you are so bored and lonely that you leave your bedroom window open to merely get the comfort of the occasional car driving by so that you know you aren't the only fool who's up at this time.

On second thought, I'm really not that lonely, it just adds for the effect....

Over the past few months I've been in my band Amaryllis, and the music I get to write has a been a wonderful outlet for my thoughts and questions that I've never had before. When I write, I'll go through stages where I'll write a song or two a day for about a month, but then I'll go on week long periods of rest to just try and gather myself. It's not that I'm really at a writer's block or anything, or tired, but rather tired of thinking so much.

These past few weeks have really been amazing for me. I've seen things in ways that I've never seen them before, I've experienced everyday events in ways that have left me breathless, and I've interacted better than I would have ever imagined possible. Sometimes taking a step back is just what someone needs: not wondering how to do things, but just letting yourself do them. Some brain our size has no chance at comprehending the intricacies of our planet, and most of the time it's best we try not to, and just take it in.

It's really a strange concept I guess, to think too much. But, the way I see it, the more time we spend in thought, the less we spend in awe. And one of the major lessons I've had to learn in life is that I can't explain everything, but most of the time that's the beauty of it.

Hope everyone is having good dreams, and that you wake to a day where you can stand back in awe of it. Sleep well muchachos!!

Memories...

I always think it's fun/funny to look back on things from my childhood. Since I can remember, I've kept a box of mementos of things I did, and from time to time I look through them to see just how vibrantly I can remember something. I recently found myself looking at what was my first attempt at something like this blog-- my 4th grade journal.

It was pretty much a failed undertaking from the start-- accounting for only one week of vacation at Disney World and a couple of days of being mad. In fact, now that I think about it, I only started it so I could have a moment of glory, sharing my vacation with the class. Anyways, I guess the point I noticed was that everything I accounted for dealt with the big thrills of the trip- the roller coasters, meeting characters, the hotel, etc. It's only now that I've grown that I can remember the music playing in the streets, not being upset to wait in lines for once, a solid week of peace in the family, and the strange resemblance those glowing needle sticks had to the Orlando night sky. The thought that invaded my mind at the time of this reading was really just a strange revelation to me: when we are small, our minds only seem to recount the large picture, it is only when we become "big" that we can truly appreciate detail. In essence, you have to be big to truly appreciate the small.
This idea can be supported by many things in life. One being becoming a parent. Children look up to parents as their "big" role models, and it has been said that someone truly learns to appreciate life through the eyes of a child, their "small self". In my mind, this holds true in every family tie, including ours with God. We love God because He is "bigger" than us. He is more fulfilling, loving, and knowing than any of us could ever be.
In the same sense, God is able to love and see life new each time through our eyes. He is able to appreciate His creation through the goodness of our choices. Since God is in fact the "big picture", He sees nothing but the "small"- the details and the intricacies of life. I guess this is just one of the many paradoxes of life that make it what it is!

New Beginnings

Never stop questioning- accepting someone else's opinion is like playing follow the leader off of a cliff. The only absolute is that God is in control and His love endures. Everything else is up for interpretation. This entry marks the written beginning of a spiritual journey- faced with hardships, trials, adversities and day to day questions and concerns.

For my entire life as an adolesecent Christian, I was not afraid to read my Bible. I took it as God's word and literally hid it in my heart- not so that I didn't sin, but so i could forget about it and continue doing what I pleased. It wasn't until I left the comfortable confines of Public School that i was able to truly find out what "Spiritual Truth" was.
College is without a doubt a time for growth and maturing in a person's life. It provides, for those like me, a necessary culture shock to show us that things aren't as pretty and clear as we'd like to think. I was enlightened to different religious practices, or lack thereof, thoughts of death, social practices, and so on only to find myself drastically insecure in what I believed.
Every opinion I had was shallow and hand fed to me like a baby. I could quote answers but held no knowledge as to what made them true. The fact of the matter was that after years of believed success, I had obtained nothing more than the majority of Christians out there- a shallow, comfortable, and sunday school-established quasi-relationship with God.
Every question shook me to the bone, rattled my understanding, and frightened me to the point of non-belief. It was after my first Philosophy project that I truly understood what had happened- I had become a modern day, pharisitical hypocrit who looked at the law and the face value of everything and missed the most important component in this faith- LOVE.
To answer that grace was brought by the crucifixion of a perfect man not only leaves out the wonderful things He did on this earth, but it bypasses the very core of His message- not grace, but Love. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being given, but many do not realize that it truly translates as the Holy Spirit of Love. Many of the issues we face today exist because of a non-loving world. Religion has become a cold term due to the lack of love seen in it. I have come to realize that love is the one thing that matters the most in our spiritual journeys in life. God's word provides us with guidelines that a life should follow. He sets up a perfect image for us to strive for, though we will never reach it. partly from imperfection and sin, but also because of our inability to understand. To say that you can understand the mind of God is blatantly false. I have found that God has created images for us to follow and question. Imperfection is accepted truth, but a personal journey and relationship is necessary to discover everything else.
For the sake of spiritual maturity, don't be afraid to question, to poke and prod. God gave us free will for a reason- so that we may earnestly seek Him and His truths for our lives, not just accept someone else's.
In the past year I have grown to love the opinions of others, and in fact my growth has become dependent upon them. As I struggle through some of the aspects of my faith that seem to challenge me the most- early death, alcohol, homosexuality, eternal punishment, etc. I pray for the support and voices of those around me to help me along. I look forward to the future encounters and spiritual growth that will entail. Remember- LOVE is the strongest of all of Jesus' teachings. If it weren't important, why would God make it forgiveable to blaspheme Him and the Son, but if the Holy Spirit of Love is blasphemed the culprit is eternally condemned? Never stop searching and questioning- never stand still.
"Love is the movement-
Love is the revolution."
-Switchfoot

Define Your Walk

Recently I've been trying to put a finger on what defined my Christian spirituality personally. It took some thinking, some insight from others, and of course some prayer, but at my current place on the path I believe the two terms that clasify it best are self-realization and love. These two terms characterize what I am currently striving hardest to do. Self-realization means that I recognize I am bad- fallen and sinful- and that I am no better than anyone else because we all need God and Jesus to make us full. It means that I don't take pride in anything I do (very hard) because it is all done through me by Jesus.

Love is perhaps the greatest principle I'm striving for right now. Loving everyone- sinner, believer, non-believer, homosexual, liar, murderer, womanizer, etc. merely because we are all human and no better than the other. It means being truly interested in people no matter our differences and caring about them, so that through showing love in spite of sins instead of withholding it, they may be convicted by someone greater than us. If we will just love them and let God handle the conviction, no matter the sin, things will work out. Anyways, that's me. What currently defines your walk?

Can you handle THAT!!?!!

"Bob Dylan once wrote, "The times, they are a' changin'" but Ron Burgundy had never heard that song..."

Change. I'm convinced it's been utilized by both God and the Devil since the fallout between them. It's as if that event played a major part in their history, making them intent that it should play a part in ours, and there's no question that it has.
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."- Anatole France
It's a strange concept, sure, but frighteningly true. Change is one of the battlegrounds that God and Satan do war on. It's a homefront for both sides; inevitable in either sense, but combated nonetheless. What I mean by that is this: if I'm called by God to drastically change something in my life, I feel fear from Satan holding me back; if I try to move away from God and pursue my earthly desires, I feel the pull of God that we all too often ignore. The fact of the matter is this:  we were born to fight it, no matter the source, but in the end we were made to accept one thing--change will happen. Many times it will tear us apart internally, cause us to question the Author of Life, ourselves, and those around us. It will compromise our understanding of the way the world works, take a piece of our lives that will never be returned, or possibly leave little impact at all. From situation to situation the grievances vary, but Robert C. Gallagher said it best in this statement that the only constant is this, "Change is inevitable- except from a vending machine."
We as people, but more specifically in this instance, followers of Christ, are so concerned with the ritual and repetition of our "religion" that when the inevitable changes of life confront us, whether they be of Satan or God, we either run from the calling to cower and hide, or destroy the shallow relationship we may have developed through routine, only to leave ourselves worse off then we were before.
A belief in Christ does not carry some shackled commitment to legalism, to locking ourselves away from the world, but freedom. Freedom to be in the world but not of the world; freedom to live, striving for perfection and holiness, but to know that when we fall we have the continuing grace of a loving God to pick us up and direct us back to the path. A belief in Christ frees us from being slaves to routine and places us joyfully in the midst of the chaos and the change of the world. Just like death, change has lost its sting; because no matter how difficult, drastic, or life-altering it may be, we don't have to bear it alone.

"Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one's eternal peril."- Laurens van der Post

"Time is a dressmaker specializing in alternations."- Faith Baldwin

"If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing."- Saint Augustine