STRAIGHT OUTTA’ DENVER

You’re probably familiar with statements such as, “we don’t GO to church. We ARE the church.” There are similar ones that go something like this: “Church is not what we do when we gather on Sunday mornings for an hour or so. Church is not a place or a building. It’s what we are OUT THERE.” Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and, although there’s some truth and some wisdom in these statements (which I’ve spoken myself), I’m no longer so sure about them on the whole.

This kind of thinking has developed enough steam over the last few decades that I think you could fairly call it a “movement.” I’d suggest that its full name is the “anti-church-as-an-institution-or-building” movement. It’s also quite opposed to all forms of regular, traditional (and, especially) LOCAL churches. I attended a pastors’ convention in June in which a youth pastor preached one of the workshops. According to his senior pastor, this particular young pastor was being greatly influenced by his buddies in the International House of Prayer (IHOP) movement (which may or may not be influencing him in this area). Anyway, the main thrust of his message was that “we need to get free from the local church” and “we’ve got to get away from local church kind of thinking and get out there and be the kingdom.” Naturally, I couldn’t help but notice that he was saying this in a local church that paid him a nice salary, etc., but I digress.

In the past year, one of my good friends whom I deeply respect – a thoughtful Christian with a PhD in philosophy – dropped out of the local church. He, like many others, thinks that it would be better to simply be a follower of Christ “OUT THERE,” meeting with various close friends in various settings, committing oneself to a group of fellow disciples who meet in various contexts. Frank Viola and the late, great Internet Monk (Michael Spencer) have written books in support of this line of thinking. Another man I respect, Wayne Jacobson, a former pastor in my hometown of Visalia, California, has now dedicated his life to these ideas and to this “anti-church” movement. He and his partner are the guys who formed Windblown Media – the publisher of THE SHACK. Speaking of the SHACK, I’m one of those people who enjoyed that book and recommend it to folks struggling to understand how God can be a good, loving, and gracious God in the midst of unthinkable tragedy and suffering. I think it’s a helpful book on several levels. Its main weakness, in my opinion, is one that’s not often mentioned. I think that the book (and its author, I presume) presents an extremely weak, if non-existent, ecclesiology. For our English speaking friends, I’m saying that the book subtly presents a very low view of the importance and significance of the local church. Barna put out a book a few years ago charting this anti-church phenomenon and called it a REVOLUTION. Keven Miller, in his critique of Barna’s book called it an ABDICATION. For reasons that I will outline below, I’d have to agree with Miller and go with the “abdication” theory. Miller wrote, “Barna’s enthusiasm for First Church of the Individual raises troubling questions.” To my mind, that would be quite the understatement.

I will say that I’m not alone in my apprehensions about this “non-church” and “anti-institutional” movement. I’d like to mention two of my allies, Eugene Peterson and P.T. O’Brien. I’ll begin with O’Brien and his article on “church” in IVP’s “Dictionary of Paul and His Letters.” A friend of mine, Steve Bryan (one our church’s “missionaries” who earned his PhD in New Testament from Cambridge) suggested that I read (or re-read) O’Brien’s article. I did read it – and I am sure glad I did. My suggestion is that everybody give it a careful reading. This is a brief summary (at least, as I read them) of O’Brien’s findings:

1. In the centuries before the New Testament, the term ekklesia was used for political gatherings, the assembly of “full citizens” of the polis. Ekklesia only existed when it actually assembled.
2. In the LXX (the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), ekklesia NEVER referred to Israel as a national unit. It always referred to an actual assembly or gathering of people. “It did NOT designate an ‘organization’ or ‘society.’”
3. Ekklesia is used 114 times in the New Testament – 62 times by Paul. Paul does not use the term as a metaphor. To Paul, it is descriptive of an actual object. Unless on the rare occasion when he uses the term for the “heavenly” church (i.e. the “future” church, the heavenly kingdom of God on earth), he only applies the term ekklesiato an actual gathering of people. “It is doubtful whether Paul (or the rest of the New Testament) uses ekklesia in a collective way.” The primary use of the wordekklesia as a gathering of actual people predominates overwhelmingly in the NT.
4. The local church (each local church) is not part of the church of God nor a church of God. Each local church is THE church of God – the only form it takes in this present age. Each local church is a reflection and manifestation of the “future ekklesia” (the completed, fulfilled Kingdom on earth – which will, indeed, be a universal gathering when the whole universe becomes the dwelling place of God, the holy of holies). The church (each local church) truly is an outpost or a colony “from the future” – that is, each church is an eschatological church, the kingdom in advance and in locale.
5. Christians were reminded and admonished (Heb. 10:25) to assemble in local congregations here on earth, for this was an important way in which their fellowship with Christ was expressed. When they met like this with each other, they also met with Christ himself who indwelt them corporately and individually.

Well, that’s my interpretive summary of O’Brien’s excellent article. Others can read it and reach their own conclusions. I turn now to my second ally. Eugene Peterson, in his book, “The Jesus Way,” writes:

It is interesting to note that Jesus, who in abridged form is quite popular with the non-church crowd, was not anti-institutional… Those who followed Jesus, followed him into buildings, into religious institutions… We sometimes say, thoughtlessly I think, that the church is not a building. It’s people. I’m not so sure. Synagogues and temples, cathedrals, chapels, and storefront meeting halls provide continuity in place and community for Jesus to work his will among his people. A place, a building, collects stories and develops associations that give local depth and breadth and continuity to our experience of following Jesus. We must not try to be more spiritual than Jesus in this business. Following Jesus means following him into sacred buildings that have a lot of sinners in them, some of them very conspicuous sinners. Jesus doesn’t seem to mind… A spirituality that has no institutional structure or support very soon becomes self-indulgent and one-generational (pp. 230-232).

In saying all this, however, I should probably say what I’m NOT saying. I’m not saying that much of the critique of the anti-institution and no-church movement isn’t valid. The reasons for dropping out are often legitimate and real. Churches, especially the ones that I’ve encountered in the North American evangelical sub-culture, are often awash in all kinds of assumptions, blind spots, and ways of doing business that are in great need of reform. I’m not saying that local churches never hurt or harm people or groups of people. I’m not saying that churches shouldn’t do everything possible to avoid the superficiality and trivialization of worship that is all too common. I’m not saying that we should endorse the depersonalized, functionalized, market-driven approach so prevalent in many of our churches. Finally, I’m not saying that following Christ isn’t a “24/7” all-encompassing calling that does, indeed, involve all of our lives “OUT THERE,” nor that we don’t have much in common with fellow believers (and non-believers) as we work and play, live and love, in our everyday lives.

What I AM saying is that even with all that valid critique, we, like Jesus and his first followers, should think long and hard before walking out on the local church to which the Holy Spirit appointed us. To me, most of the New Testament’s instructions about elders and deacons, Baptism and Holy Communion, singing, elders who work hard at teaching and preaching, about “coming together as a church,” and all the “one anothers” (about loving, forgiving, accepting, welcoming, encouraging, rebuking one another, etc.) make no sense in Barna’s revolutionary “no church” world. Speaking of Barna, I’d like to end this thing by returning to Keith Miller’s critique of Barna’s book, REVOLUTION:

Want to become a revolutionary? Here’s my counsel. Trade your copy of Revolution for Life Together, the manifesto written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the dark days of Nazi Germany. Then, to do heroic and revolutionary exploits, stay committed to your local church – something 20 million people no longer have the courage to do.

We are proud to announce that this article had been featured on Clarion Journal as well as Brian Zahnd’s blog.

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Dear Bryan (A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song)

Posted on July 11th, 2010 by invot.
Categories: War, Comedy.

Have you ever felt like there’s something infinite and foul inside of you? an infinite Sadness, maybe? A Sadness that, once you reach for it and grasp it, it becomes so real that you can feel your blood run cold and your teeth chatter as it stands before you? Something deep within assures you that it holds the power to eat you alive, and once you touch it - even in the slightest - it demands to be fed;

and it feeds on pieces of you,

pieces you need,

pieces you miss…

Truth be told, I know you’ve felt it, and I know you’re likely thinking that I have only just explained the half of it. There’s so much to be said about its hunger, its power, and its presence. Oh, its presence is so relentless and unkind, isn’t it?

I’ve felt it there –that same Sadness– more and more each day while knowing you. (Now, I didn’t know that it had already been there for years, possibly my whole life –planted by the hands of someone or something far more powerful than I.) It was then that my emotional being began to speak. It came back to life after it had been swallowed down for years, clogging up my esophagus, numbing my throat as if I swallowed a whole tube of Orajel, so I get that special ‘lil tingle reminding me that pain should be here, but all I’m feeling now is a sharp tingle, because my nerve endings need a rest. Where there was once only numbness, there grew pain, pain that was unleashed through the streams that branched wildly out from two bluish pools, never exhausting, never calloused and unfeeling, that rested so beautifully in the center of an unmistakable and strangely proportionate face.

You would deliver this infinite Sadness to me –better, stronger, more diabolical than ever before– with the slightest of glances.

Does the Sadness see me as nothing but a late-night snack? It was always your eyes that would bring me to it, willing to loosen another piece of myself and watch it be chewed up by its infinite teeth. Does the Sadness speak of nothing but my defeat?

The truth is, the Sadness was not born of devils and darkness, but of all those pieces of you and I within us both. The Sadness was telling me something. It’s speaking to you too.

The Sadness is not there to devour me, it’s a result of me consuming myself. There’s pieces of us both we’re denying, and the Sadness has come as a result of us both carving away at our souls.

For me, it was my love for you. Though I was ashamed to admit it for so long, I always knew that was the culprit. There were nights where I would watch you sleep and [so very silently] I would cry. I felt so defeated warming just one side of my mattress, with another empty slot beside me, wondering when it will ever be used. Especially when the one man my heart spoke volumes of laid quietly (I know, I was the snoring one) at the other end of the room.

I felt like, by hiding this, I was cheating on myself. But I did it anyway, because I was scared of losing you.

However, it should go without saying that ultimately those fears were realized.

But that’s not why I’m writing this. I’m writing this because I wasn’t the only one who fed the Sadness. It had us both.

And, what still puzzles me to this day is why it had you too. My mind, for a time, was consumed by this question. Every minute of ever hour I thought about you and the Sadness, sacrificing everything to understand it.

A few nights ago, I stumbled across a video of the two of us. I know that if I posted it you would instantly take this whole thing down (as you did my Bible verses), as it could be seen as incriminating, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say it wasn’t easy to watch.

We told each-other things I haven’t heard in a very long time.

It made me miss you, though it was a you that I lost quite some time ago. Long before I left the house.

Though you smiled time and again, the Sadness was standing beside you. You could hear it in my voice that I was trying to cast it away, but it was more at home there than I. It was more welcome than any guest has ever been. In fact, I always sensed it in you –the sadness– since the first day I met you. I never knew what to do about it. I could never figure it out or make it better.

The man I loved was being consumed by a monster, and I hadn’t the slightest clue how to stop it.

My theory, as of late, has been that I was the source of the Sadness. This is why I had to leave. Then you would be happier and this venomous shadow would be driven away from you.

I hope this is the case. But I have no way of knowing.

To be honest, I was not interested in speaking with you until I saw that video. It reminded me why I fought so hard for you. I was close to showing up at your church this morning, but changed my mind after feeling that you (as well as everyone else) would not be interested in seeing me.

I just want to know that you are okay. I want to know what to pray for when I pray for you. I hate that I still think of you, but I feel that until my heart lets you go, you have a right to be there, so I shouldn’t despise it.

I hope that you are okay… and that the Sadness doesn’t take you over –as it was when I was with you.

Truthfully, I have nothing but love for you, regardless of everything. And not just the kind of love that shamed me in the past. I really do wish you the best, even if that requires me to disappear from your life completely. I also hope that you find what it is that you need. You can overcome whatever it is that is fighting against you, as the name of our Lord is Victory. And yes, we do have the same God, I believe this wholly, and thus we are brethren. We are adopted into the family of Christ, and amongst this family, there ought to be no devision.

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Don’t vote, Do something!

Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, War, Law, Orig. Literature, Philosophy, Media, Economics, Local, Cultural.

So how about I say a little about myself before everyone around here gets the wrong impression of me. I was one of your average run of the mill conservatives supporting the usual conservative view of the world and I still do hold true to most if not all of the typical conservative way of thinking. And that’s an easy thing for everyone around here to confirm, all you have to do is take a good look at my posts here about two years back and you’ll easily see that I had all of the talking points set and was committed all the way to the conservative cause. I’ve even been accused by Bieren of being the poster boy of conservatism and I was honored to receive that supposed cut down by Bieren (I still don’t consider that to be a cut down). I used to listen to talk radio at least 8 hours a day to the greats like Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager. And just like all of them, I still do think that Obama is just about the worst president we have elected in quite some time even though I do like the guy, I just never thought he was right for the job and with how the events have unfolded recently, looks like I was very much right about that. Along with all of the rest of the good conservatives, I fought hard to get McCain elected even though none of us wanted the guy but that we thought he would just be slightly better than Obama, and he did make us all happy with nominating Sarah Palin and calming our fears that we would just get pushed to the side once the election was done. But we didn’t win that one, and now I do find as least for myself that it was a good thing that McCain didn’t win. Not because I enjoy seeing this country going to shambles whenever I briefly have a look at the news but that I did get the chance to completely rethink the whole idea of the conservative movement and for that matter I started to find a problem with our entire political system as it is. The truth is: this system is completely unsustainable and impractical right from the time that we (as a country) started capitalizing on the industrial revolution. The unfortunate truth is that when we (as a country) started making capitalism the reason for why we exist then that’s when it started to no longer be one nation under God but rather one nation under the mighty dollar. As we keep on making the dollar and this entire system work for us, we keep finding ourselves enslaved to this system and even start finding ourselves enslaving other countries to it as well. Sooner or later something has to give, and the more and more our economical crisis continues, the more and more likely people around the world are going to be demanding more world government and more world economical integration. It’s not really a question of if this will be, it’s much more a question of when. The idea will keep looking and sounding reasonable on paper but if we start calculating the realities of human nature you’ll find that it’s just going to persist this problem. So may I suggest an alternative? How about an opt out plan?

The bureaucratic issue
We have a big issue going on in this country today! It’s just the fact that this country’s government is swollen with way too much bureaucracy that’s just sucking out all of the real freedom around here. In reality we are not much of a free country at all. We can elect a completely different group of people who say the exactly opposite thing but yet the same things just keep on happening. For example all of the people that really wanted us to stop all the wars and get out completely, they just do things the proper way and gather up support for Obama and push all the way to win the election! And Obama didn’t quite do as he promised by moving Iraq and instead did the same exact thing in Afghanistan that Bush did in Iraq! So may I ask what really is the difference here? They both say opposite things only to do the same actions. They both spend way too much money on things that don’t work and all these governmental programs just keep failing. So why exactly are we spending all of this money on things that don’t work? Why are we spending all of this money on a system that doesn’t do what it’s suppose to do?

Now it’s an easy argument for a conservative to say “well that’s because the liberals have abandoned the constitution and start making up their own law!” Now to an extent that is true because it was a liberal president named Franklin Delano Roosevelt who started a trend to nominate supreme court justices that would do as the president pleases rather than rule on what the constitution says. That sort of judicial ruling has showed up all over the country in situations like when California had used it’s supreme court to put same sex marriage in place despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens in that state voted against same sex marriage. So ruling like that one have effectively made voter initiatives practically obsolete in this country. However, liberals would argue that it’s the big business in this country that’s tearing this country to shreds and that’s also true. With how financially irresponsible that most all of the larger corporations have been, it’s lead to the financial collapse that we see today. The large banks around this country liked making all of that money they were getting off of the bad loans they were handing out so much that they didn’t check to see what would happen if the housing bubble would pop. Thus, there were a lot of people left out in the cold when they couldn’t pay the loans they had. So there is plenty of blame to go around and most certainly lots of people around the country have been making sure they push that blame out there. All you need to do is turn on the news and you’ll see somebody (no matter who it is that’s on) blaming someone else for all of the problems of the country. This problem gets so absurd that certain people have made t-shirts saying “pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8.” Now that doesn’t sound so bad until you look up the verse and see “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.” Well that’s not very good sportsman like conduct there and I find anyone who would use the bible in such a manner utterly detestable. So Why do we have to put up with this failed system? But still we’re not a the root cause of what’s wrong here.

The Irony of it all
You can actually trace all of these problems back to the American Civil War and even further back to the founding of our nation. The question here is why exactly did that war start in the first place? Considering that every southern state left the union because of slavery, that does mean that we started off as a nation living in violation of one of our most core values: that all humans are created equal. In order to change this Violation, we required a Civil War so that we can remove the inequality from our nation, but have we really started to live as our principals say that we should? So that we could win the civil war Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus allowing him to detain confederate soldiers without trial so that things could operate more smoothly and allow for a victory. Lincoln had also spent money that was not approved by congress yet and kept pushing all to win the war and never held back. While I’m not wiring this to demonize Lincoln, what he did had corrected a great injustice in our society that should not have been allowed to exist in the first place but yet to correct that problem we ended up having to throw away most of our principals to win. This did create a sense of pragmatism that’s created a false mindset in this nation: that we will go to any length to achieve our objectives no matter the rules that we have. This is an American problem that both political parties adhere to and this is shown in every element of our society from the way that it spends it’s money to the way that we talk. Everything is geared to making America the bright shining city on the Hill without thinking of what’s truly the right thing to do. The political talk is always about what is best for America rather than what is the right thing to do. Just as Lincoln had done in the past, so too, every president had continued following his example up to the present day in some from by placing America before all other concerns. As a result, we have ended up wiping out most of the native Americans, we have imprisoned Japanese without cause, we detain people of middle eastern decent and we keep people from coming into our country when it is not to our benefit. We demonize groups of people when they don’t line up with our core values when we have a political difference or a cultural difference. We place that we are first, right in what we believe and anyone that sees it differently is then someone who needs to change their perspectives to our view for things to come out right. We decide that we must implant our culture into other societies, regardless of the cost to them, because we are the ones who live right. We place blame on others when things don’t go right when they are not the problem. The true problem is how we think. We are a country that holds to the ideas on individualism and we think that each of us individually can make it on our own without any help from the people around us, other countries or even God Himself. We say “yes we can” prove that we are the great thing in the world when this is not true. We are arrogant.

A deceleration of dependence
In our founding document, The declaration of independence, the defining words are “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” At the time that was written, it was intended to convey to England that they do not have the right to take life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness away from us and that is a true statement. However, as we have aged as a nation, that statement has evolved even further to mean that our government must provide these things for us when our government can not provide. In order to provide life for our citizens then that means that we must go abroad and take life from others to ensure that we have it. In order to ensure liberty for our citizens then we have to take it from our own people so as to not trample on others rights. Finally, to create the possibility of the pursuit of happiness then we create a system that leaves many loop holes and allows for people to get caught up in and they never find what they were looking for. Most of the wars that we have fought were because other people were living in a way that we did not like rather than because we had to fight that war so that we would survive as a nation. The only two wars we have fought where we would not have continued existing as a nation if we had not won was the revolutionary war and world war two. With all of the wars that we keep on fighting, it only continues to keep fueling the hatred for our nation because we fight every war with the assumption that we are right that may or may not be the case. Thus, we continue taking life so that we can provide it for others. We enforce copy write laws to ensure that people to do not take someone’s work and use it for a profit when they themselves have taken that idea from someone else. There is nothing on this earth that is truly new and in reality, everything is just a recycled idea applied in a different way like having an internal combustion engine replace a horse or replacing a mud hut with wooden and steel houses. We stop certain people from releasing a song because they have certain words that are the same to another that may be right or may not be right. Or we take the house of another person so that we can build a highway to move people faster around the country. Thus, we take the liberty from others to ensure it for others. We have created the market economy so that the people that work the hardest are the ones that reap the most reward out of this nation but yet what it all comes down to is blind luck. Everyone in the housing market was making millions of dollars and was working really hard to get there only to find that we built too many houses and no longer needed so many thus causing them to loose out on what they worked so hard on. While at the same time a kid who has never worked a day in his or her life can just get all of the money their parents earned and just waste it away. At the end of it all, I keep finding that the most ambitious people in the world are also the most unhappy. So to ensure the pursuit of happiness usually ends up creating our own unhappiness. We don’t follow what we preach in this country!

Let us take a step back for a moment and realize certain truths of this world that we can not change. Life is not ensured because at any moment you can die in millions of different ways. So in reality, the very fact that you take another breath is actually a gift because you may not take another. Liberty is never ensured because anything that you want can become something that controls your actions and thus you end up enslaving yourself to your desires. To truly be independent of everything means that all of your actions must be devoid of all passion. Happiness is something that things can not provide for you but it is something that you have to choose to be on a daily basis despite what this life brings you. So the more and more that we keep on focusing in on how to fix problems that are part of a world that we can never change, the more that we will keep spending and fighting and working we keep on pushing ourselves into slavery. Every single person on this planet is a slave to something and your only choice is what you choose to be a slave to. So given all of this, what can we possibly do about our problem here? The only answer here is to take everything that we have in this world with gratitude and live the best that we can and allow forces that are greater than us to correct what is wrong in this world. We need to push aside our arrogance and admit that we don’t know everything and that we can’t correct everything in this world. We need to live a little simpler with our minds set on where we are truly headed all together as a whole. We need to realize that everything in this world is a gift and that we are only still living by grace that this world have not taken our lives yet. We need to stop thinking of what we are entitled to but rather what we can do to celibate the fact that we are still living. We need to declare that we are dependent on each other and need to keep focused on the people around us rather than focusing on things that we can not change. I propose that we change the way that we think.

Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do despite your country
We are a country were most of the population clams to be Christan but yet the funny thing is we rarely act like Christians in this country. So it’s really quite funny to see every president tout their Christaness about when they never do things that are “Christan.” For one, Jesus was never concerned about popularity and in fact usually said things to purposefully drive people away when He would start to get popular. Also, He never cared much for government workings and in fact usually attracted hatred from government officials. However, for the purpose of this post I am not talking of evangelizing people, that is a subject that I have talked about and will spend a lifetime talking about but for now I’m focusing in on how we act and think. For example, our founding fathers had the Boston Tea Party where we destroyed the property of the British to make our point that we didn’t like the taxes England was placing on us. But on the other hand, England was paying for a costly war that we had benefited from and they had bills to pay. Now was it right for England to be placing all of the high cost on us and enforcing the control on us? No but we were also not right in destroying what was not ours. And we constantly keep doing this by butting our heads into conflicts that are not ours to deal with. So why didn’t we go about this another way? Why didn’t we work off the dept that we had accumulated for that war and then continued on living our lives as if the king of England didn’t matter to us? But we can’t change what happened in the past so we can’t possibly know what would have happened if we had followed that course. So let’s just fast forward 234 years to the present and ask the same question, why don’t we live as if the federal government doesn’t matter? Well then that means that we won’t be worried at all about who’s in office and might not even bother to vote at all. That doesn’t mean that we keep ourselves out of the loop and not know what’s happening but instead of worrying about the things that we can’t control, we keep focused on what we can control. We can’t control what Washington is going to do but we can control what we say and what we do. So if we live life with the principals that government is by about and for the people (even though it’s not) then that means we don’t have to stress ourselves over everything the government is doing. We can better focus on the people around us and our local communities if we’re not worried about government. We don’t have to waste our money on a system that’s completely broken and almost useless. We don’t have to keep fixed into the 9 to 5 work week and then go home and quickly lock the door to make sure the neighbors are thous scary terrorist that we keep hearing about. No, we can get to know our neighbors and actually find out for sure if they actually have bad intentions. We can turn off the TV and and just not care about all the useless hype that we have going around the country. We can instead look to helping out the people in our own back yard instead of relying on a system that doesn’t the people that it hands out checks to. May I suggest that we stop relying on the government.

Now don’t misunderstand me here– I am not suggesting that we start another revolution or march on Washington and demand changes. No, I really mean pretend that it doesn’t matter. Not that we decide to not pay our taxes or anything illegal like that but just that we live without the government in our heads every day. So in order for us to start moving us forward in a manner that allows for us to correct our local problems despite what the government is doing I have a few points to think over.

1. First things first– smash your TV! or at lest stop watching the political news and hyped up television that will have you constantly griped by by the culture. All of the constant reports are just things that will keep you worried over one thing that you can’t change to the next thing that you can’t change and so it’s just something that’s just going to keep draining you out. It’s wise to know what’s going on in the world but news papers and other such media formats are less intrusive and allows for deeper thought than TV news.

2. Find a community– Churches or your local temple of your religious believes are by far the best places to go for this or if you happen to be atheist or agnostic then I suggest you try one, it might just be a good experience for you. And pay close attention to the people there, find out what they are like and what they need and help out if you can. Don’t look at it like it’s a place for getting good and services like your local market but more like a second home with people that you can help and can help you. Let it enrich your life with cares that have nothing to do with the government.

3. Form a new identity– We all have been living in a culture of being Americans first that overrides everything else in this life and we need to break from that habit. We need to care more about the people around us and the world at large rather than our country or creed. America is not the most important thing in this world and someday it will fall just like all of the empires and countries in the past have also risen and fallen but the world keeps on going on despite that. So don’t let that trouble you! Instead, try loving the people around you just as you love yourself and place more value on being part of your community rather than a citizen of America and this also goes the same for all of you living in other countries as well.

4. Work with others– Start living a little simpler with what you have! Instead of rushing out to buy that nice car you always wanted, find one that meets your needs. Don’t rush out to buy the big nice house but find one that meets your needs. With the excess of money that you save here then you can pour it into your local community to help out with others helping build an establishment that you all can benefit from. It’s easy to tear down but it takes generations to build up places of shelter and comfort. As you work and commit to a place to build up, you start to leave good traditions in your children and the people around you.

5. Take joy in your life– None of us was given the choice to be born into this world and none of us has the choice on when it will end. So take hold of that! Live your life as if it were all as song of praise for all that you have been given. Yes, you will have pain in your life and yes you will be hurt and will hurt others, this is inevitable but your only other option is to end it prematurely. But that would be a horrible same for you to do such a thing! If you have people around you that love and care for you, then take hold of that for that’s more precocious then all of the finest gold in the world. Fame will fade in time and countries will eventually die out but the people that you encourage and love will turn around and bless others. That’s what changes societies!

None of what I suggest is going to be easy but if we are to move forward in this country then we are going to have to start learning how to straighten out our priorities. We have lost our way completely! We no longer do what is right in this country but rather what is more expedient and easy to do and that’s caught us in a terrible snare. Life will go on despite what this country does, so why should we let us control us? There’s so much more out there than this country has to offer.

0 comments.

The Unmistakeable God and His Unmistakable Word

Posted on August 6th, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Political, Philosophy, Christianity, Cultural, Sermons.

Imagine, after nine long months, having a child; and imagine that your son had been born with some serious complications. The doctors, unsure if he’ll make it another hour, put him in this large rooms and every 10 feet are these clear plastic boxes, and in each one of these are tiny babies… some of them hardly weigh in at 3 pounds.
Imagine standing over that clear plastic box, watching your son battle for his life, and he’s got these tubes and wires coming out of his chest and his stomach and his mouth and his nose, and imagine the kind of prayer you’d pray, asking God to heal him. And, what if… he didn’t make it?
Ask any doctor and they’ll tell you: that kind of thing happens every day.
I had a friend who I’ve known for a while, and she told me that her mother had just been diagnosed with this rare bone condition and that not very many people survive the first few months. So the family all started praying, and then they took her in for another round of tests, and after that round of tests the doctor said to the family that, somehow, he couldn’t find anything wrong with her… she’s healed.
What do you do with That? I mean does God answer some prayers, but not all, or sometimes, but not all the times, or does God always answer prayers it just sometimes God says, no?
Have you ever heard people say, “We prayed and then God just showed up and did a miracle.” Well then where was God the rest of the time? was God somewhere else doing something else, and then apparently decided to show up here and do something that hadn’t been done, but should have been done, then God all of a sudden at the last minute decided to do?
I mean no wonder prayer gets… confusing. And other people say “well, you just have to understand, that God is going to do what God is going to do”. Well then, why pray? and others say “well, you don’t understand, God can do anything!” Well then why doesn’t He?
And I don’t think now would be a good time for me to mention those people who pray to God for a parking space…
Many of us have experienced situations where we’ve prayed and it felt like God wasn’t listening. Many of us have been confused by God and His apparent absence in our lives at the times when we needed Him most. And, if you really think it through, does it ever seem like all these answered, and unanswered, prayers are simply… (don’t strike me with lighting for saying this, but…) are they simply mere chance?

The Bible says this:

“Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things.” (Jeremiah 33: 3)
“If any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you.” (James 1: 5)
“We have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will.” (1 John 5: 14)
“Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help?” (Luke 18: 7)
“If they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.” (2 Chronicles 7: 14)
“everything you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22)

When God is silent, what do we do with that?

I don’t know about you, but I want to know a God that is real. Or, more precisely, a God that makes Himself real in my life today. When I read these things, and God isn’t bursting down the door, pulling rabbits out of His hat and turning water into wine, I start to wonder if God is all that real. I start to wonder why we worship a God who keeps making himself out to be completely indifferent. And this BIG question begins to bubble up in my soul: Can God even hear me?

For me to reach my point here, I’ll need to switch gears for a second. Everyone knows that Jesus says the darnedest things in the Bible.

Jesus says in Matthew 12:39 AND 16:4 “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. . . ,”

Now what was going on when Jesus said what he did in Matthew 12? That is explained in a bit more detail in Luke 11:

And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.
- Luke 11:14-16

This was repeatedly demanded by the Pharisees, and what they probably meant was some spectacular wonder, without moral value, which would cater to human curiosity. Jesus never allowed himself to be maneuvered by such evil requests. Not only were the Pharisees incapable of judging such signs, but they were already the sworn enemies of the Lord, intent on killing him, and they would likely have rejected anything that even the Son of God might have done. A sign in the skies, or from above, would have been no more convincing than raising the dead or walking on the sea. As a matter of fact, Satan’s destruction of Job’s sheep (Job 1:16) was explained by some as “The fire of God is fallen from heaven”; but it was no such thing; it was a lying miracle of Satan. Furthermore, their conceit that some sign in the sky was necessarily from God was erroneous. Satan caused fire from heaven to fall on the animals that belonged to Job. Jesus would indeed give them a sign; but it would be of his choosing, not theirs.

And the amazing thing is this: The utter unreasonableness of the Pharisees is demonstrated by their demand for a sign when they had just witnessed one. Did anyone just notice that they did that? He just finished casting out a demon, and then they ask for a sign!

We see in the Bible that Jesus performed some pretty amazing miracles. He fulfilled prophecies like nobody’s business. He changed lives. He said these amazing things that nobody has ever heard before. And those who followed His ways were in no way doubtful of who He really was. In their minds, Jesus makes it unmistakably clear that He was the one that the prophets talked about. He was God in the flesh. The One who will come and cleanse us of our sins, set up a new kingdom of righteousness that He will reign over forever.

For those who believe in Him, follow Him, seek Him out, Jesus gives you reason to believe, reason to follow, reason to seek. Jesus delivers. As our relationship with Christ strengthens, He becomes more and more unmistakable. He enjoys making Himself known to those who will believe in Him!

The Bible says this:

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10)

“I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.” (Psalms 32:8-10 NKJV)

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” (Psalms 34:8-10 NKJV)

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalms 46:10 NKJV)

“Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand all.” (Proverbs 28:5 NKJV)

“I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel . . . I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other;” (Isaiah 45:2-6 NKJV)

God likes to tell people who He is. He likes to make himself known and He likes to effect those who are willing to be effected by Him.

Nowhere in the Bible is this more apparent than in Matthew 17. Jesus really pulls out all the stops here. Verses 1-7 say this:

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him! ” And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
- Matthew 17:1-7

So, would you say Jesus was beating around the bush here? Is Jesus simply alluding to His divinity?

If the disciples were looking for a sign, this is pretty much it, isn’t it? It’s pretty clear who the Son of God is by this point -Jesus is the Son of God!

Not only that, but right afterwards, Jesus removes a demon from a possessed child. Two chapters before this, He performs another exorcism, feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread, and heals a huge crowd of people.

Jesus likes to heal. He likes to feed. He likes to free us from darkness. He likes to show us just how awesome He is.

But… why, then, is He silent? You may find yourself asking: Where is God in my life today? Where are the miracles? Where are the signs and wonders? Where is the interaction? The connection? The relationship?

How can I receive a sign?

How can I get to know Jesus today, in the same way that the disciples were able to know Jesus two-thousand years ago? Is that even possible?

“And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” Matthew 11:2-3

John’s uncertainty is understandable. He had publicly identified Jesus as the Christ; but the Saviour’s Messiahship was not being proclaimed with the dogmatic certainty yet, which John might have expected; therefore, he did with his doubts what every true believer in Christ should always do, that is, he brought them to Jesus who answered and relieved them. When God’s children are in doubt, they should search the word of the Lord. If John, instead, had taken his doubts to the Pharisees, he would have been confirmed in his doubt, not in his faith; and the same is true today of many religious leaders.

Here is my BIG, FANCY, FINALLY REVEALED, point: Maybe, just maybe, we’re worshiping a God who isn’t there, and the real God had been silenced by everything else we’ve crowded our lives with. Maybe, just maybe, the true, I AM who I AM God, Yaw-weh, Adoni, God of Jacob and Abraham and all of Israel, is being spoken for.

Maybe all of our misconceptions of God have replaced who God really is. We have taken hold of a God prescribed to us by the modern American Evangelical Church. A cut-and-paste doctrine kind of God who thrives off of easy answers and quick fixes.

Just like the Pharisees, our idea of who God really is has been distorted, our hearts have been deceived, and we just keep eating the poisons that our culture is feeding us, because to seek God out for ourselves is way too time consuming and difficult. We’d rather take the easy route and believe what we’re told is tried and true without testing it ourselves.

Deuteronomy 32:16-17, 20 says this: “They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not dread . . . Then [God] said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. ”

In Deuteronomy 32:30 God is wondering if His people can even recollect His miracles as He asks “How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, And the LORD had given them up?”

Have you ever been driving in traffic and spotted someone you know in the lane beside you? I don’t know about you, but when this happens to me, I start waving and honking like a madman. I’ll do whatever I can, short of crashing, just to extend a quick “hello! I see you!” simply because I’m so excited to see someone I know beside me in traffic.

Nine times out of ten, though, I am left unnoticed. My horn is drowned out by the other person’s radio, or my waves are not seen through the tint on the glass.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s how God is feeling towards us today. Just trying to say hi, but He’s completely drowned out by misconceptions, distractions, and idols.

“Did the priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me; The prophets prophesied by Baal, And walked after things that do not profit.” (Jeremiah 2:8) …Sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it?

And here we are asking for a sign… demanding God to hears us, and to let us know, by our terms and in our ways, that He hears us.

Jesus says that “a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign.” (Matthew 16:4)

The best way to know the true God and to avoid deception is to read and know what His Word, the Bible, says. Anything outside of this or contrary to it may be a deception. Just because someone wrote a book and Zondervan published it, doesn’t make the words inside of it true. The Bible is truth. That’s it. And other books can only gleam truth from it… but the Bible is the source.
The Bible says this:

“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

What I’m trying to say here is that there is no simple answer to finding an authentic relationship with Christ. If you want to know who He is, if you want to experience Him authentically, then you have some reading to do. You have some praying to do.

Because it’s all to easy to simply say that God is working in your life. It’s easy to mistake indigestion for the Holy Spirit when you’ve forgotten the real thing.

When the true God, the God of the Bible, the God who wrote the Bible, takes a back seat to all the deceptions you’ve come to believe, then you start saying things that make everyone want to puke.

“…and then God just showed up and did something amazing!”

“…I prayed and I prayed and then the perfect parking spot just opened right up!”

“…and you just have to understand that God’s going to do what God’s going to do!”

If you want to see Him active and alive in your life, there’s a lot of work involved. You can’t just start things off demanding a sign. You can’t pretend that everything you see and experience is a sign, because that’s selling God short.

Signs come to those who wait. Signs come to those who can be trusted with them. Signs come to those who seek Him, and obey Him, those who meditate in His Word and worship Him alone.

You can’t expect or demand Jesus to perform for you. Especially when your heart is in the wrong place.

Maybe, just maybe, your idea of what’s best isn’t God’s idea. Maybe, just maybe, there’s idols in your life, tying you down and keeping you from hearing what God has to say. And maybe, just maybe, what God is trying to say to you right now, today, personally, lovingly, desperately, is to soften your heart and let in his truth. Let in His word. And let out all the spoon-fed answers you’ve been given about Him that have ultimately led you to an understanding of Him that has been repetitively letting you down.

We have to remember: God delivers!

We have to remember, that when it comes to a relationship with Christ, we are not on the altar. Christ is. And we serve Him. And when we’re in His will, things will happen to glorify Him. Not us. And His glory will bring us joy!

We are to rejoice in His holiness! We are to mock His holiness! We are to be changed by His Holiness day in and day out in our every situation, not because of our situation.

Jesus says that “a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4)

Don’t let that be us. Don’t be the one refusing to hear God. I pray that tonight we soften our hearts to His unique voice. His unmistakable voice. The voice He used to speak the entire universe into existence.
And others may write books and host television shows proclaiming some other God that gets you rich, makes you friends, pulls you out of addiction in ten easy steps, but you have to remember that your God, thankfully, is not their God.

Paul writes to the Corinthians this:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.
-I Corinthians 1:18-31

1 comment.

To the Manufacturers of Hand Dryers

Posted on May 5th, 2009 by Distinguished Bean.
Categories: Environment, Poetry, Creative Writing, Cultural.

Have you ever felt the sticky sensation of dried piss on your hands?
Or the gritty pleasure of sand between your teeth?
Do you ever look up into the sky and realize what you have taken for granted?

To you, life is like a never ending carousal of misery and pain.
9 to 5, and over again… sand between your teeth (piss on your hands).
I’ve heard that dryers help the environment, but what if paper towels help the soul?

Look into the sky and see the sign (as Seven things go passing by)
Were you ever born, or have you lived to die?
Piss and sand and dust and dry…

why?

Why not live… why not cry?
Why not laugh, and why not sigh?
Why not feel love, and joy, and grace, and… life
9 to 5 (9 to 5)

2 comments.

Dear Girl sitting in front of me eating dates and knitting pt 2

Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Bear.
Categories: Death Penalty, Ethics, Abortion, Constitutional Law, Terrorism, Philosophy, Republicans, Parental Advisory.

Wale is not a delicious meat. You shouldn’t eat it, because most people would consider that cannibalism due to the fact that you’re fucking huge. It’d be like me saying “Yeah, they don’t have laws in Japan about peopling, but I understand because people are delicious.”
Wales are awesome. You’re not.
Fuck you,
Sam

5 comments.

Ipod shuffle 3 part 1 (Pete can be redeemed in the sencond part)

Posted on April 8th, 2009 by Dark Poet.
Categories: Creative Writing, Drugs, Stories.

This story starts “South of the border”. People were “crazy in Love” with this thing, this thing called cocaine. Pete Wingfield is “18, with a Bullet” in a “flight test” for a new Cessna that can carry more of the stuff north of the border. And so, after awhile, this plane Pete Wingfield has “Jump[ed] Around” in enough times to be noticed and NOT cared for. When seeing Pete’s plane, the Border Patrol agent just say , oh, that’s just Pete Wingfield, always taking people up for a ride. Pete Wingfield always delivered “A [uno] Cubano” - Orishas. Pete Wingfield used that bullet, and the Cubano’s “Life [didn’t] go[] on”- 2Pac. Pete Wingfield then got into the business with the Cubano’s business partner; a shrewd Jew (”Hava Nagila” - Harry Belafonte). The Jew wasn’t too upset over his business partner’s demise, and to show he Biltz the Ballroom - Tia Carrere. “California Love”s the stuff, which Pete Wingfield was mainly selling to. In California, the only opposition for the moment is the church (”Track 08″), but “The Devil’s Been Busy” in a major church in San Diego; long story short, San Diego is game for business. The region, too. Cocaine flowed as cash did into the pockets of Pete Wingfield and the Jew. The life was getting faster and faster Pete Wingfield and the Jew. “When [they] Ride” - 2Pac, police would not stop them because they were paid not to. If the policeman did, then they were soon paid not to.
The theme of expansion and growth was always on the mind of Pete, so Pete tried to expand transportation of product to shipping. He was looking into a transport ship that looked “Like a Ship”, but that was the “End of the Line”;
A customs agent got a hold of a whole entire shipment. The customs agent asked the FBI agents in charge of incinerating the stuff to “Handle With Care”. Pete Wingfield was furious, he was on the phone trying to reach the FBI agent in charge. “What’s [His] Phone” - 2pac, number?! Once he found outz where they were going, he had one his best thugs destroy the convoy. The thug said, “I’d die for You” and left. Pete got his boat back, a asked the Jew to “Come Sail Away” while the dust settles. The Jew said he had stuff to do. In a “Wilbury Twist” the shipment of coke was not aboard. Pete Wingfield was mad, but sailing away.
Now, up until now in the story Pete Wingfield was in Mexico testing a new aero plane, being evil as he can. He killed the Cuban, and took his place. Who, perhaps, helped him do such? Well, a man who presently has the “Young Lover Blues”, was “Down In Mexico” with Pete. The guy was a producer of the product, a chemical engineering genius. The guy always asked, “How [pure] Do You Want It”? - 2pac. Unfortunately, Pete was “In The Waiting Line” for product always, and, also, having to keep the product in a “Cool Dry Place” - The Traveling Wilburys. But keep this guy in mind for future reference in the plot of this story in part two.
Pete went back to California, and discovered the Jew was in prison, and murdered in prison. After retribution of death to the Jew’s killers, Pete also found out he had more competition to “Run Tha Streetz”. Pete, Pete’s thugs, and the competition were all “Wanted Dead or Alive”, but that’s what made it exciting.
“It’s like Romeo and Juliet”; California and cocaine. Life started to get really fast by then. If someone wanted cocaine in California, half the time it was the bell of Pete’s dealers that they were ringing (”Ring My Bell” - Anita Ward). Pete and his inner circle of lieutenants were in the fast lane, calling everything with two legs their “Butterfly”. In one case the lady had only one leg, but they wouldn’t remember; they barely remember when “Check Out Time” was at the local hotel when they check in on how business was doing in that sector. Several had “[Gone] Through The Big D” - Mark Chesnutt, and went to “Do it Again”. Life was fast, and money and coke went through their hands fast, too.
A lady named “Clementine” took Pete’s heart, or so he says when every lady passes his way. This one was/is different, though. She’s devout Christian (”Track 02″). Pete said very convinced to his thugs one day, “If I Can’t” have sex with Clementine, then I’m going to mad and go to straight out war with the competition. She still went to a church that still was not corrupting to cocaine, though (”track 05″). Change happened to Pete. He didn’t know what was happening to him. The religious fervor of these people got to him, and the concept of God. “She[ still wasn’t his] baby” - The Traveling Wilburys- even though at times he says to her “You Took My Breath Away”. She still rejected him, and he went to a “Lowdown”. Business ebbed.
When he come out of the “Lowdown”, Pete wasn’t mad at any of the competition (”I Ain’t Mad At Cha” - 2Pac). Not until the “Ruff Ryders”, shot up one of his dealers, and then, an other three more dealers got killed. Pete got “Skandalous”, he got even via the police, FBI, CIA. He observed the “Ruff Ryders”, and took notes of everything. Pete also got notes from Paying some of them, and taking notes from what he knew of his business with them. Pete started to give those notes to the FBI, and money stopped for the “Ruff Ryders”. He gave more notes, cocaine shipments disappeared from ledgers; More notes, “Ruff Ryders” started to drop dead with 9mm bullets in them or surrendered to be put in prison. In prison, Pete’s guys would shank them dead. So the police would confine them to solitary cells. On one occasion, when moving a Ryder from prison to prison a sniper put a bullet through his head.
Police did not really need to put a surveillance teem on the leadership the “Ruff Ryders”, because the news media picked up the stories fast, as if someone was suppling them with info. “All Eyez [were] On [the leader]” -2Pac - of the “Ruff Ryders”, he couldn’t go out of his house with out being followed by the media. Low grade “Ruff Ryders” were arrested for trying to buy weapons to fight, and 90 % of the time arrested for selling coke. Other low graders quit. If a mid grade Ryder got arrested, then five to ten low graders would be arrested just afterwards. Pete dealt the “Dirty World” card to the “Ruff Ryders”, “7 Deadly Sins”.
“I Love Rock and Roll” was playing at a Ruff Ryder party at a warehouse. In back room, the top guy for the leader was in the process of buying a big quantity of coke from a contact of Pete’s. Outside across the street in another warehouse, FBI were saying “Congratulations” to each other for tracking down this deal, that if busted, will deal a deathblow to the “Ruff Ryders”. Someone was “Sing Sing Sing[ing]” - Louis Prima- in prison. The raid teams and FBI snipers were standing by. “holla at me” for the go signal, the SWAT team leader said to the FBI agent in charge. Long story short, Pete did not have to deal with the Ruff Ryders anymore; they came to a stop at their road (”Winding Road” - Bonnie Somervi).
Money went faster through the hands of Pete and his gang. He bought a house in the middle of his zones of control. Paid Dire Straits to play just one song at the open house party, “Sultans of Swing”. Vacationed and then bought the “Balinese” in Mexico, in “[] The Sea” - “Beyond The Sea” - Bobby Darin, in the Gulf of Mexico.

2 comments.

WTF: invot’s a Vegan?

Posted on April 7th, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Environment, Ethics, Itelligent Life, Cultural.

So this will likely be the most obscure post I ever write in my life. In fact, I’m debating right now on if I’ll even post this or if I’ll just delete it once I’m done.

Basically, I’ve made the decision to become vegan. Now, this is something I’ve never wanted. I’ve always jokingly stated that I’m racist against vegetarians. The common condescending nature of their kind has always turned me away for perusing such a lifestyle. I’ve told my friends in the past that for every cow they didn’t eat, I’d eat three. And, for a long time I did.

My belief has always been that people who decide not to eat red meat become malnourished and scrawny. And to be honest, I don’t have a problem with animals being slaughtered as long as its humane. (I’ve seen people torch pigs alive and I have to say I was pretty outraged.)

Though I love the taste of dairy and all those lovely meats, I’ve come to the conclusion that my body simply can’t handle them. Case in point: last night I ate a burger and afterwords felt annihilated, but for lunch I had a *cringe* veggie sandwich and felt great!

Though you may think I’m retarded, I’d like everyone I know to support me in this decision. I am not doing this for any moral reason, but for health reasons. My goal is to feel energized and healthy for once in my life so that I persue the things I’m after more efficently. Right now I’m stagnant, and I feel it’s due to my diet.

If any of you are interested in doing this with me, please let me know, and we can help eachother out. I’m excited to start doing this, however I know I’m going to suffer meat and diary withdrawals for while so please be encouraging. I found a list of veg-friendly resturants in Denver that I’d like to try out, so if you’re ever in the mood for a salad (or something of equal gayness :p), give me a ring and we’ll make dinner plans.

6 comments.

Your Mexican stats!

Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Immigration, Race, Comedy.

I just thought it would be a good time to lighten up the mood around here so I deiced to post up this e-mail that’s been going around for you to “Sheck your Mexican status.” You know how thous chain e-mail things go, you just meet some people that like them and then they’re always sending them to you all the time! But I thought this one was funny but if you get offended– I didn’t write it!

Sheck your Mexican status

If you can run and play any sport while wearing chanclas….You’re a Mexican!!

If your late Tio [uncle] left you a van and you turned it into a taco vending business…Yes, you’re a Mexican.

If you pronounce words beginning with the letter ‘S’ by putting an ‘E’ in front of it, (estop instead of stop or esprite instead of sprite)…big time Mexican.

If you call a chair, a sher, you got it…. Mexican.

If you have ever hurt yourself and your mama rubbed the area while chanting, ‘ Sana , Sana , Colita de rana…..’ You’re Mexican, big time!!!

If you have your last name in old English lettering anywhere, your car, truck, or tattooed on your back…Yes, you ARE a Mexican (proud one too).

If you refer to your wife as your ruca, your hina, your wifa, your old lady, mija or your vieja, guess what?…Not only are you a Mexican, you’re a cholo.

If you throw a ‘Grito’ every time you hear Vicente Fernandez…then not only are you a Mexican, but you are a drunk Mexican.

If you have ever been pinched in church and been told ‘pobrecito de ti si lloras’ or ‘ Vas a ver horita que salgamos.’ …Yes, you’re definitely a Mexican.

If you grew up being called ‘chamaca or chamaco’ ..Mexican.

If you grew up scared of La Llorona, or fear the dark because of El CuCuy)! …Yes! Mexican!

Si te persinas (cross) with a lotto ticket in your hand before every drawing….You’re in the Mexican Zone!!!

If you ask for something by ‘dame esa chingadera’ instead of calling it by its name…Yup! Mexican!

If you constantly refer to cereal as ‘con fleys’ or cake as ‘kay-ke’…You’re a Mexican.

If you use manteca (lard) instead of vegetable oil and can’t figure out why your butt is getting bigger…….You might be a Mexican.

If you have some Tias that dress up in their prom dresses to go to a birthday party at ‘el parque’… Guess what? You are a Mexican.

If your Tias and Abuela dress up in their Sunday best with heels and all to go to the ‘pulga.’ (AKA the Flea Market) …Then, yes, you are a True Mexican.

If most of the houses on your block are painted bright pink, mint green, and lavender. …Mexican.

If you use the bushes in front of your house, the fence, or the top of an old car to dry laundry…Yes, you’re a Mexican.

If you’re congested and your mamasita rubbed ‘Bicks’ on you…You’re Mexican.

IF YOU DON’T NEED ANY EXPLANATIONS FOR ANY OF THE ABOVE, YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE A TRUE MEXICAN. VIVA LA RAZA!!!

You know you’re laughing your head off. It’s all in fun, so don’t get all ‘adolorido.’

0 comments.

Addiction and Idolatry

Posted on March 19th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Ethics, Law, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Religon, Christianity, Cultural, Stories.

One of thous stories that I don’t remember but my parents would tell me about when I growing up, was about how I would always keep bashing my head into the ground (probably the reason why I don’t remember any of that!) They say that I would start pushing around my toy truck around the house and then when it would get caught on the kitchen table, I’d get really mad and upset and start to bang my head on the ground! I would do this constantly, every day, several times a day. I did it so much that I had a perpetual bruise on my forehead and that wouldn’t go away! It got so bad that my parents were afraid to bring me to a nursery cause they didn’t want to explain why I had thous bruises on my forehead. Man was I horrible to them for making them have to explain “ahh, no he does that to himself.” But then again I don’t remember any of it so we’ll have to let the Dark Poet confirm that. After awhile it got so bad that my dad deiced that he would take action. So he took my head and hit it a little bit harder than I expected! Well that shocked me! I didn’t want that to happen again, so I stopped banging my head. But now that time has gone on I’ve now realized that the banging of my head didn’t really stop at all! I’m actually still doing it! It’s moved on to a different from– a different way.

A phrase that shattered a mind
I was going along with life and everything was going great last November. I had it all together and I knew what all life had in store for me and nothing was going to get in my way, besides, I had God on my side here. I was doing everything He wanted so that means that I was going to get everything, right. Well that all seem to be true to me until one of my great friends sent me an e-mail and said something that really dumbfounded me (I always learn so much about life from her). She told me “People do not exist to be receptacles for enjoyment and comfort in my life. No, quite the opposite. I exist to bless God and to bless people. and blessing people should not be something that I do when it is convenient for me, or when I know that I will get something out of it. That is missing the point! And God is teaching me that lesson right now.” Right then I felt that everything in the world was wrong. The world went from perfectly peachy to a hell of a nightmare. For some reason I start thinking “what would posses her to say such a thing like that to me.” I couldn’t understand what was going on! But why did it strike so hard to me? Because she accurately pointed out a serous flaw that I had. I was getting under the impression that because I was doing all my best to do what God wanted, then He owed me something. Well that was some foolishness! I wouldn’t have any life to begin with and that Guy just keeps saving me from myself all the time so I already have way more than I deserve! For as God told us in Job: “Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.” (41:11) So what makes us think that we can ransom God into doing what we want? We try to barter agreements with God but the majority of the time God’s laughing at us saying, “come on now, I know far better than you.” And for someone who has all of the wisdom and knowledge at His disposal, why wouldn’t we trust Him when He tells us he’s going to do something or that He isn’t. God doesn’t need us one bit! For as it says in the Psalms:

Psalm 37:18-19
Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
They will not be disgraced in hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.

So He doesn’t need us for anything! And none of us is great enough to throw off His plan or capable of fouling it in any way! If you aren’t going to do what He want’s of you, then He’ll find another. If we have a better look at Job 41, we find God is comparing Himself to a Leviathan. As we go through verses 1-8 we see this:

“Can you catch Leviathan with a hook
or put a noose around its jaw?
Can you tie it with a rope through the nose
or pierce its jaw with a spike?
Will it beg you for mercy
or implore you for pity?
Will it agree to work for you,
to be your slave for life?
Can you make it a pet like a bird,
or give it to your little girls to play with?
Will merchants try to buy it
to sell it in their shops?
Will its hide be hurt by spears
or its head by a harpoon?
If you lay a hand on it,
you will certainly remember the battle that follows.
You won’t try that again!

And it’s certainly right! Have you ever tried a wrestling match with God! Let me tell you that it’s not fun at all! You’ll start finding yourself way outmatched and out gunned even more than this Leviathan that described like this:

Job 41:12-34
“I want to emphasize Leviathan’s limbs
and its enormous strength and graceful form.
Who can strip off its hide,
and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?
Who could pry open its jaws?
For its teeth are terrible!
Its scales are like rows of shields
tightly sealed together.
They are so close together
that no air can get between them.
Each scale sticks tight to the next.
They interlock and cannot be penetrated.

“When it sneezes, it flashes light!
Its eyes are like the red of dawn.
Lightning leaps from its mouth;
flames of fire flash out.
Smoke streams from its nostrils
like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.
Its breath would kindle coals,
for flames shoot from its mouth.

“The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck
strikes terror wherever it goes.
Its flesh is hard and firm
and cannot be penetrated.
Its heart is hard as rock,
hard as a millstone.
When it rises, the mighty are afraid,
gripped by terror.
No sword can stop it,
no spear, dart, or javelin.
Iron is nothing but straw to that creature,
and bronze is like rotten wood.
Arrows cannot make it flee.
Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.
Clubs are like a blade of grass,
and it laughs at the swish of javelins.
Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass.
It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.

“Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion.
It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.
The water glistens in its wake,
making the sea look white.
Nothing on earth is its equal,
no other creature so fearless.
Of all the creatures, it is the proudest.
It is the king of beasts.”

So you get the Idea! this ain’t something that you want to mess with! But this creature is as much a little pet to God as an ant would be to us. It couldn’t do anything to him! But for as much as I fought with God on so many things, I find that it’s much better to wrestle with Him than the devil. Not that the Devil is in anyway stronger than God but that unlike the devil, God will do things to help you get better where as the devil will keep pushing till it kills you (but I talk about that further here).

That arrogant painful feeling
I was hanging out with some good friends of mine in a coffee shop downtown one night having a great conversation. After awhile Invot mentioned that when he first saw me, he thought I was a total duch bag! Then he met me and realized that he was completely wrong about. When I asked him further about it he said he saw to things in my eyes, arrogance and pain. That was something that seemed to be really odd at first but thinking back on life I knew that I didn’t want to be an arrogant person and I had suffered pain in life. So I told him that it sounds like the things that I’ve been struggling with. I left that in memory logged with the heading of “weird thing a Invot told me.” I moved on and taught a Sunday school class for my church and the absolute hardest part of that whole speech was standing there listening to everyone clap for me. I had that place a little more pack out than usual and everyone kept on talking about how good I did. I didn’t really want to hear that too much so I said “Well I try.” Then after the service I had to go meet the brother of music leader who came that day. I love our music leader in our church so I had to meet her brother. So I walked up and introduced myself and asked me about my lesson and hauled off and said “well my pastor forced me to do it.” He came right back at me asking “well that’s interesting. How much forcing did he do.” He called my bluff! I’d been getting away all morning with lines like that to try to stop any praise that would come my way and this guy went ahead and asked the one blatantly obvious question that no one else was willing to ask. So I had to admit that I really wasn’t forced at all. I wanted to do it but I felt arrogant in wanting to do it. Here I am the youngest person in the room except for two and I’m the one teaching everyone! I even said so before starting my teaching. But after some thought, I had realized what I was doing, I had been wrestling with the devil over a massively important issue instead of turning it over to God. I had built an Idol! I had gotten so worked up in not wanting to sound arrogant so much that I would find something to beat myself with all day long so as to make absolutely sure that I don’t ever sound like an arrogant person. As if not being arrogant was more important to me than serving God. That’s the sin of idolatry, and anything can make it’s way there but it’s always destructive to us. Like how I was a kid banging my head against the ground, I’ve still been doing that! Only now it’s in a different from– a mental one. But just like banging my head on the ground as a kid, that too is going to form bruises! You can’t be beating your brain all day and not expect to see some mental bruises! (and they came out with a lot of thous poem that I’ve been posting up here) Thus the more I beat myself to prevent arrogance the more pain I would feel. But that too is something that can completely get in the way of where God want’s you to go. As He told us in Isaiah:

“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
‘How clumsy can you be?’
How terrible it would be if a newborn baby said to its father,
‘Why was I born?’
or if it said to its mother,
‘Why did you make me this way?’”
[45:9-10]

I have to let go of this self beating.

Numbing a pain that just won’t go away
So now we get to the addiction part! Ain’t that great! Well with every addiction, there is always something else that causes it. I’ve worked this post a little backwards, usually you start with the addiction and work your way back to the cause. And I did that as well but I decided to do this post differently (don’t ask me why). But as the time went on and I kept beating myself for a lot of things I couldn’t control. That in turn generated a lot of pain that I didn’t didn’t want to feel anymore when the day was over, so I stayed up drinking to numb the pain a little bit. But as it goes with all addictions, the more you drink the more your body learns to deal with the alcohol and the more it takes to get the same numbing effect. All the while your not really dealing with the idol that you’ve built up in your heart, your ignoring it and using something else to help you cope with the effects of the idol you’ve built. But in every sin we commit there is always some sort of idol or something that you trust in more than God that’s at the center of your sin. At least for a time you’re not believing in God and trusting Him but going your own path. Continuing down thous paths will always lead you to a place of destruction. The more you place something before God, the more you start to chase that thing down until you crumble it. Theirs a reason that God put idolatry as the first commandment: because every sin stems from that sin. Where He says:

Exodus 20:4-6
“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

It’s not even that God is jealous at all! It’s because He knows it’s best for us to keep close to Him and make Him first in our lives because when we place something more important than Him then we hound that thing until we destroy it. But we have to remember that everything given to us is a gift from God that we need to cherish and be thankful for and that without Him we wouldn’t have anything. As Paul told us:

Romans 14:7-8
For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

And it’s when we live for ourselves that we start to loose gratitude and end up destroying ourselves when things go wrong.

Man! I love that woman!
One of thous really classic love stories of the bible is of course Jacob and Rachel. And man! He did love that woman! You can go reading through Genesis 29 and you’ll find out all that he went through to get her. He worked for his uncle for 7 years so that he could marry Rachel and then in the morning he finds out that really he ended up with the not so pretty older daughter who he really didn’t love at all (Leah). So then he works another 7 years for his uncle and finally ends up with the woman of his dreams! So you think that’s all just a nice little love story, but then you find out that his idolatry of Rachel really ends up tearing his family to shreds! So we see at the end of chapter 29 that God starts making things hard for Jacob:

Genesis 29:31-32
When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive. So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me.”

So now Leah’s having the kids and that’s making Rachel jealous! So what does she do:

Genesis 30:3-8
Then Rachel told him, “Take my maid, Bilhah, and sleep with her. She will bear children for me, and through her I can have a family, too.” So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son. Rachel named him Dan, for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.” Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!”

Here start banging the maid so that I can have some kids to raise! That’s a really strange way to go about it but it seems that Jacob’s happy, he’s getting plenty of action! But this keeps getting worse:

Genesis 30:9-13
Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Soon Zilpah presented him with a son. Leah named him Gad, for she said, “How fortunate I am!” Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. And Leah named him Asher, for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”

So now Jacob has four women after him all the time because he placed Rachel above everything else in his life instead of trusting in God first and loving them equally. Just as his father had loved Esau more than him, Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Although that’s something that next to impossible to get right when where talking about a romantic love. But instead of trusting God with the situation he kept charging down his path to get what he wanted until he met God. As some of you may know the story Jacob had fooled his father into giving him the blessing that was reserved for his older brother Esau. Isaac had loved Esau much more due to the fact that he was the bigger and stronger brother. He liked doing manly things! Going out hunting and sinking them and all that stuff. While on the other hand, Jacob was a moma’s boy. He stayed back and helped mom cook and all that. But Jacob so much wanted the love and appreciation from his father. So when it came time for Dad to give out his blessing to his favorite son before he died, Jacob stole it. Isaac was old and couldn’t see well and Jacob had put some wool over his arms to that he’d seem like his older brother. He did the stupid thing just to try to hear thous words! Of course Esau would come back and find out and get really mad and Jacob knew his brother could smash him like a pine cone! But he did it anyway. He was scarred stiff of Esau ever since then till he had a night to wrestle with God:

Genesis 32:22-30
During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions.

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

“What is your name?” the man asked.

He replied, “Jacob.”

“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

“Please tell me your name,” Jacob said.

“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”

And that’s always the place where you meet God: alone, broken, terrified. Searching for some way to fill thous holes in your heart that you just can’t seem to fill. That’s where I’ve found Him. That’s where you have to learn to trust Him with your hole in your heart that someday he’ll make you new. But when you find Him you have to be broken, you have to be looking for his blessing. But as I found, God gives you another pain and doesn’t make everything right for you because He needs your trust in Him for Him to bless you. He needs you to start thinking of others and start doing your best to help them. Why? Because He made you that way and when you start using the gifts and talents for Him that’s when you see His blessing coming through. You get off of thinking of yourself and start thinking about how you need to be to help others.

Genesis 33:1-11
Then Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and his two servant wives. He put the servant wives and their children at the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother, he bowed to the ground seven times before him. Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.

Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, “Who are these people with you?”

“These are the children God has graciously given to me, your servant,” Jacob replied. Then the servant wives came forward with their children and bowed before him. Next came Leah with her children, and they bowed before him. Finally, Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed before him.

“And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?” Esau asked.

Jacob replied, “They are a gift, my lord, to ensure your friendship.”

“My brother, I have plenty,” Esau answered. “Keep what you have for yourself.”

But Jacob insisted, “No, if I have found favor with you, please accept this gift from me. And what a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God! Please take this gift I have brought you, for God has been very gracious to me. I have more than enough.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau finally accepted the gift.

It’s when your thinking of helping others is when you start to find, they’re really helping you back

Reforming life so that life could be given
The more and more I kept looking to the things that went wrong in my life, the more and more I was forgetting the very reason that I had been given life to begin with. I kept on looking at the hole in my heart that wouldn’t want to heal up and just keep weeping over it. So then I started looking for every opportunity to make that hole bigger because I was upset with God for not grating my dream. I told Him that he owed me this when all along I didn’t deserve anything at all. I had placed this well above everything else in my life and when it didn’t go right, I let myself go crazy over it. But I wasn’t placed on this earth to obtain the things of this world but to help God build the things of the next world. I was given life so that I could encourage faith in God and the more I went away from my propose in life the worse things were in my heart. I used to be the happy guy at work. Everyone loved me there! I bring smiles to the biggest frowns, because I’ve felt worse frowns than them. In a world today where everyone is trying to look for the specific thing that went wrong and place the proper blame, they’ve all started to miss the point. The more and more we keep trying to look for the thing that went wrong with ourselves the more self-absorbed we get. Can you ever really say that deciding to make yourself right makes the world a better place? Well that depends on what your doing it for. If you’re trying to make yourself look right to get the things that you want, then the more and more you’re going to look arrogant and heartless. But if you’re doing it to so that you can make an example for the people you know and help pull them up, well then you don’t look arrogant but caring. Can it be done perfectly: No, but you can try and if others reject you then theirs nothing more that you can do. You can only try the best you can and love everyone to the best of your ability and the more you try to find solutions to others problems the more you end up stumbling upon your own solutions. The parable of the prodigal son is most likely the most head truing story you could have ever heard if you actually pay attention to it. It’s actually completely misnamed: it should be the parable of two sons. Jesus was talking to some Pharisees, who are the super religious people of the time and had everything down right, when he told this story explaining why he would associate with the absolute scum of the time:

Luke 15:11-12
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

So another words the younger son was saying “I wish you were dead so that I could have you money.” Not a really nice thing to say to your father and in thous times that would really catch people’s attention ’cause you could get killed for saying that. But instead of killing the dumb kid like the law said you could, the father gave the kid what he wanted. So that would got all of these law holding citizens wondering “what the heck is up with this guy!”

Luke 15:13-16
“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

So of course the son blew it all away and ended up in the gutter. So all the people are sitting around right now thinking “well no duh! What did you think was going to happen!”

Luke 15:17-19
“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

Can’t you hear the people listening to this story thinking? They’re thinking right now “well fat chance of that happening. You get back to daddy and he’s going to whip you real good and that’s if he doesn’t kill you first!”

Luke 15:20-21
“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

“He ran and kissed him! that stupid son spit in your face and you ran and kissed him! This father is nuts!”

Luke 15:22-24
“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

“killing the fatted calf!” The fatted calf was one of thous once in a lifetime sort of parties. You give that at a wedding or something of that sort but not when a son that spit in your face comes back. So these people are thinking this guy is completely nuts!

Luke 15:25-27
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

So now the older brother is sitting their thinking “what the heck is my dad doing!” and If you can picture it, I’m sure the servants looking at him thinking “don’t ask me buddy, your daddy’s crazy!”

Luke 15:28-30
“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

Well of course the older son is getting angry! He’s seeing his fatted calf be eaten by his younger dumber brother wearing his fine robe, saddles and ring. All his stuff is getting squandered on this stupid kid! So he makes sure that he brings out the squandering of money on prostitutes even though Jesus said wild living and not necessarily prostitution. But he makes sure that he pushes that in there to make it hurt.

Luke 15:31-32
“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

And that’s the end of the story. Kida a big cliff hanger ain’t it? Where’s the rest of the story? Everyone’s sitting around thinking “well what does the older brother do?” Jesus didn’t give you that part of the story because you’re living that part of the story right now. Both brothers had a real big problem: they both were concerned about getting the fathers stuff and not with the father. But the father was concerned about the well being of his sons and didn’t care one bit about the things He had. So if the older brother really loved the father then wouldn’t he have seen the pain in the father’s eyes every day that his younger brother was gone? If he really cared for the father then wouldn’t he have gone to look for the younger brother? And if he had then wouldn’t the father really been motivated to work as hard as he could for the son that brought his lost son back to him? Wouldn’t he have been that much more grateful and then the older brother would have been in a grand party for his accomplishment of bringing the younger brother back? Thank God that there is an older brother like that! His name is Jesus Christ. You should get know Him cause he’s a really great guy. We could work everyday of our lives to be good but we’ll never truly be good until we start trying to help Him find younger brothers.

Happiness is a serious problem
That just so happens to be a title of a really good book by Dennis Prager. And that title is completely accurate: it’s a really serious problem! It’s a constant struggle especially today since we do have a seriously self-centered society! That also makes it the society that produces the most younger brothers that need to be found. And it’s so easy to get caught up in that cycle. It’s so easy to keep looking at yourself to keep trying to find that one thing that’s messing your whole life up. But as you keep looking through it all you keep finding more and more things that are messed up in yourself. Is that really how you want to live your life: in constant search of what’s wrong with you? I’m telling you, I’m probably far more messed up than you in a lot of ways but I have decided not to live that way. I realized that just the opportunity just to wake up the next day is a blessing. Will there be pain opening thous eyes the next day, absolutely! But you could also just as easily have not opened them at all the next day without knowing why. Remember Jonah? God told him to go preach to these evil people and he refused and ran away. Then God made a storm for him and the guys on the boat thew Jonah overboard and he got swallowed up by a big fish. That’s where he was alone and crying out to God and said:

Jonah 2:7-9
“When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

“Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the LORD.”

Do you see how Jonah came back to God again? He first came broken hearted to the lord, then he confessed his idol and then he sung praises to God. And that’s the same thing that Job also did:

Job 42:2-6
“I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you.
You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me.
You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!
I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.’
I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

It’s not that God wishes you to suffer but it is that wants you to trust in Him. For he knows the right path for your life and He knows the ways you can follow. When you seek Him and look to please Him, that’s when you’ll start to find solutions. When you move out of yourself and look to helping others, suddenly then, you start finding solutions to your own. For you can never see yourself clearly but you need others to reflect your true self back to you. That’s why Jesus was so big on loving everyone including your enemies. You may not want to put on a happy face, but others do need a happy face. They need to see that someone can care for them and try to uplift them. And when you put on that smile, even though there is no good reason for you to have it, you might find someone smile back at you. For the real key to happiness is gratitude.

May God bless you and keep you,
may He make His face to shine upon you,
may you learn to come to Him–
when your troubles plague you,
and may you keep remembering Him–
when you reap great joys.
May the Lord keep you safe–
though all of your days,
and may you be grateful–
to the One who holds–
all wisdom and power–
forevermore.
Amen.

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