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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Being Broken

Posted on September 14th, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Ethics, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Religon, education, Christianity, Comedy, Sermons.

The Philosophy of Brokenness

So how many of you have heard the cliché…”if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”…?

Most people tend to abide by that with the exception of boys between the ages of 2 and 6.

I discovered this a few years back while helping my girlfriend at the time, Heidi, babysit. Her younger step-siblings were bouncing about in front us us, demanding every ounce of our attention, while we tried to prepare dinner for the four of us.

Because I’m the smartest man in the universe, I thought it would be a good idea to distract them with whatever shiny objects I could find. I gave little Corinne a toy convertible that was lying around. Then I reached into the drawer in front of me, looked at 5 year old Dylan, and handed him a fillips head screw driver. Go me!

Well, Dylan walked away with the screwdriver, and from seeing his dad around the house, Dylan knew exactly what to do with it… or should I say… he at least knew how to operate it.

Dylan took his new found friend and started going around the house in search of something to turn with it. Door knobs, toys, toilet seats… on and on.

When dinner was ready, Heidi walked over to Dylan’s room, but quickly returned with a doorknob in her hand and a look on her face that said “I still love you, despite this…”

We found Dylan in the garage, standing on a chair removing all the screws to all the garage door brackets that he could reach. One click of the garage door opener and the whole door would have collapsed onto the ground.

You see, Dylan’s philosophy was …”if it ain’t broke…then break it”

“if it ain’t broke…then break it” think about that for a minute. Do you realize how utterly God-like that is?

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all.
- Psalm 34:17-19

You see, God wants us to break. He promises to be “close to the brokenhearted,” to be our source of power, courage and wisdom, helping us to get through our problems. This is when he can show us how great he is and how much we have to learn..

Oswald Chambers said this about brokenness:

When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship—when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.

The Method of Brokenness

So let me tell you about another member of Heidi’s family, her youngest sibling, Corinne. When Corinne was real young, she had this pillow-like stuffed animal that she referred to as “Puppy.” It was really just a cheap pillow. The material was thin, the colors faded rather quickly and it really wasn’t something that you were proud of when you went out with her and she would want to take ’Puppy’. Countless times while babysitting we tried to bribe her into leaving it in the car. Never happened. She was as proud of her Puppy as anything. If you knew Corinne you knew Puppy. They might as well have been sewn together.

Then one day, while I was again helping Heidi babysit, the “Puppy” had a run in with the “Dog.”

Needless to say, the Dog won. Puppy was strewn from one end of the house to the other. There was stuffing everywhere. I never knew that Puppy had so much in her. And of course, before we could pick up Puppy’s remains, Corinne walks in and finds Puppy’s tattered corpse lying by the couch. But being the trooper that she was, and much more adult-like than either Heidi or myself, Corinne picks up Puppy and brings it to her big sister….still leaving a trail of stuffing behind. She holds Puppy up with big blue, wet eyes and simply says… “Puppy’s bwoke.”

And that would have been fine if both of us didn’t burst out laughing. Which instantly caused Corinne to run to her room and slam the door. What then emerged was a tug of war between Heidi and her sister over Puppy. After going on for what seemed like days, Heidi finally looked down at Corinne and said:

“I can’t fix her till you let go of it.”

And she let go. And through the years she gained a lot of experience with letting that thing go, because poor Puppy had to be fixed a lot. If it wasn’t an animal tearing it up, it was her brother pulling the puppy’s tail off, or the dryer burning a hole in it’s cheap fabric.

“I can’t fix her till you let go of it” isn’t that what God is telling us too?

If it ain’t broke….then break it….but let go of it when it breaks.

The Problem with Brokenness

We need never be ashamed of our tears,
for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth,
overlying our hard hearts.
- Charles Dickens

In our age of disposable everything, what do we normally do with something that is broken?….we throw it away and get a new one. It’s easier that way isn’t it?

Well God does things a little different. God is in the restoration business, so rarely does he give us an easy road to take. He wants to see us repaired, instead of replaced. He wants to see us turn to Him, instead of ourselves. He wants us to get down to the point that we can confess those parts of our lives that are painful and hurting, those parts that are not perfect an don’t measure up. God knows that when we get there, our humanity and it’s frailties will become instruments of healing if we allow it to lead us to confessing to God. He wants us to know that our dependence on Him will set us free.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:9

Letting go of it. This is where Bryan can tell you I have a major struggle. I’m one of those classic types that much prefer to suppress my feelings and hurt than have to share it with anyone. I always rationalize it by saying that it’s easier that way. I just try and bury it all and think that it won’t affect me nor will it affect others. However, doing that never works very well, now does it? Bryan can tell you about many a times where my emotional bottle broke, and everything torrents out over a hysterical phone call.

I know that some of us are much like that. It’s usually the quiet types, but sometimes it’s the outgoing ones as well.

But I learned something very valuable about all that: You see, those hurts you are feeling are the beginnings of a brokenness. Call it a crack if you will. But what I, and maybe some of you, tend to do is to try and take some emotional cement and try and patch that crack up. And that may work for a little while until that crack happens again. Stuff starts to seep out and it begins to affect your relationships.

So we may take that cement and try and patch over the patch. And it may work a little while until it starts to crack again. We repeat this process over and over and each time it works for a shorter duration. Finally one day the patch no longer works and most the gunk we kept putting in there, finally explodes out.

It is written in the Psalms that tears are like seed and weeping is like the sowing of that seed in prayer. (Psalm 126:5-6)

God will never plant the seed of his life upon the soil of a hard, unbroken spirit. He will only plant that seed where the conviction of His Spirit has brought brokenness, where the soil has been watered with the tears of repentance as well as the tears of joy.
- Alan Redpath

The Strength in Brokenness

Is this brokenness? That depends on your next move. You see, you still will have bits of that patch on top of the crack that hindered all the gunk from coming out. And if your next move is to try and patch it again yourself, it will remain the weakest part of your heart and the whole process is destined to repeat itself. I know this because I’ve been there and done that many times.

However, if at that point, you turn to God and ask him not to throw in a quick-fix or replace it or simply hide it away, but to restore it, then you have reached brokenness and true healing can begin.

This is His plan for you.

God wants you broken so that you turn to him for help. Then God wants to restore us and make us stronger. But how, you ask, is something stronger once it is broken?

Lets look at the word restore. That word comes up over a hundred times in the Bible. The word itself back then, was a medical term that meant, “to set a broken bone”. And as a Christian, when we fall into sin, it’s much like a broken bone that affects the rest of your body…it needs restoring. When you break your leg, you normally end up on crutches and then your arms and other leg must then support the weight of the injured leg until it heals or is restored.

And once that broken bone is set, it actually heals and becomes much more stronger than the surrounding bone.. Almost as if nature were determined to fortify herself against another attack.

And look at other examples of something becoming stronger after breaking.

Immunities…you’ve heard of developing immunities against a sickness before. Like the bone, your body will become more resistant to illness, the more you have them.

A piece of steel can break, but once welded, the weld itself is many times stronger than the surrounding steel.

Also, a piece of steel becomes harder and stronger when you temper it. This is a process of heating and cooling it many times, thus breaking down its internal structure to become stronger. Tempered glass is much the same way. It is breaking down its internal structure to produce something 5 times stronger.

The incision that is made into a heart during open-heart surgery, if properly cared for and allowed to heal, becomes the strongest part of the heart muscle.

If it ain’t broke…… then break it….you’ll become stronger.

The Greatness of Brokenness

So then how does God use something that is broken?

In Judges 7, we see that after Gidean’s army was whittled down from 32,000 to a mere 300. God equipped them with only a trumpet, and a torch inside an empty jar. But when they broke those jars and blew their horns, the Midianites were thrown into chaos from all that racket and turned on them selves.

Could you ever ride a horse that has not been broken? A broken horse makes a great companion, but a stallion out of control is dangerous. A horse does not give up its strength or power when it is broken, but rather it is just brought under the control of its owner. Kind of like us and God don’t you think?

Countless times, God has restored a broken heart to achieve greatness.

- Before Abraham became the father of many nations, his wife suffered from a barren womb.
- Before Joseph ruled Egypt, his brothers sold him into slavery.
- Before Job’s estate was doubled, he lost everything he had, including his family.
- Before Moses led Israel out of Egypt, he was a fugitive running for his life.
- Before Samson crushed the Philistines, he met Delilah.
- Before David was anointed king, he was rejected by his family.
- Before Hosea became a powerful spokesman for God, his wife betrayed him and returned to prostitution.
- Before Peter preached 3,000 souls into the kingdom, he denied his Savior three times.
- Before Paul brought the gospel to the Gentiles, he was blinded on the Damascus road.

Before these ministers here have brought you a message, they were all broken.

These men experienced brokenness before greatness ever became them. Breaking is a good thing. God established a pattern long ago of preceding greatness with brokenness.

If it ain’t broke….then break it…..greatness will follow.

The Call to Brokenness

I want to share one more example of brokenness from the bible, which I think will hit us all close to home.

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner.”
Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
- Luke 36:48

This sinful woman became broken in front of Jesus and all else there.

You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. - Psalm 51:16-17

My question to you tonight is this: How can we, be more like this woman? How can we break our hearts for God?

The Puritans, a group of people I personally have much respect for, are known historically for actually calling themselves “repenters” rather than Christians. Can we say the same? Can we call ourselves “repenters”? Can we submit to a life filled with repentance and brokenness, just like the sinful woman in Luke 36?

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation… - 2 Corinthans 7:10

God is close to the broken hearted. And you know why?…because the broken have discovered what is really important in life.. The broken have learned the difference between what is real and important, versus what is fake and unimportant.

However, you can’t choose how you will be broken. Puppy didn’t choose the encounter with the Dog. God uses all sorts of methods to break us. It may be a friend-of-a-friend that you don’t particularly like, an event you don’t want to attend, or circumstances that may seem unfair. At some point you will need to stop asking “why is this happening”? and then turn to God and say….”so what do you want me to learn”?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 5:3

You are the only one that can surrender to brokenness. God may bring you to that point over and over, but he won’t push you through it…he won’t beat you into submission. You have do it yourself.

And if you refuse to be broken in this life, well… you won’t have any choice in the next.

He can’t fix you until you’re broke….and he can’t fix you until you let go.

So if it’s not broke….then lets break it…..let it go…….become stronger…..and let the greatness God has in store for you….. come through.

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A nice shock!

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Ethics, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Christianity, Cultural.

An alternator. You know that device that spins about magnets in it’s self inducing a charge inside it’s self and then uses diodes to direct that charge to the batteries to keep them all happy and ready to start up the engine at your leisure. I guess one might get the impression that thous diodes are completely a one way street and only go out of the alt. and not into it. Well a flash of light and an orange glow will quickly tell you that was a stupid thought! So I just did what any good Christan would do: high tailed it over to the fire extinguisher rush back to the bus I was working on, jab out the pin and let thous yellowish-white chemicals fly! After the chemicals start settling (that really does have the same exact taste as the stuff that comes out of air bags) you start to find all of your co-workers hacking up the fumes and the foreman sanding right there with the look that you don’t have to guess what’s coming from him. So you bet him to the punch! “I was removing the back plate to the alt. and it touched the power wires inside and grounded out with case and thus it sparked and lit all of that oil and brake cleaner in the engine compartment.” Now if I was a better mechanic I would have simply flipped a switch thus cutting off the batteries and preventing the elections from making their eager charge to complete the path through the alt. making that nice little spark and the subsequent fire that followed and I wouldn’t have to be rushing my butt off to get the fire extinguisher. But I wasn’t being smart! I was being stupid!

While I’m sitting here making up a post to try to make a witty and funny laugh of that moment, the reality is that I could have died last night. It just so happened to have to be (most likely on purpose) that at the end of my shift, one of the day guys was reading off what the chemicals in brake cleaner do when they ignite on fire. Apparently when one of them combines with water, like the water that’s in your nose, it makes hydrochloric acid. Another one of the chemicals is the same exact one the Germans used in World War I to kill off the enemy. So if I had actually had a really good whiff of that stuff, I most certainly would have passed out into the flames that were going on in the engine compartment. So point being that it was only by God’s grace that I didn’t end up dead last night like I could have been. So you just rationalize it away saying that God still has plans for you yet, and that statement is exactly correct and true. He’s set His plans in motion from the very beginning and He knew, just as I somehow knew, that that night was not the night for me to take my rest until His return. But yet that still raises a good question in my head! Am I really doing what He wants me to be doing with my life? Truth be told: I haven’t really had my head in my work for a while now. Not that it’s completely boring now, nights like last night prove that to be an incorrect statement. But the reality is: it doesn’t take much effort to understand what I need to do. That piece is broken so I just need to replace it like this. It’s really like I only spend 10 percent of my thought process to really come up with what I need to do at work. While the rest of the 90 percent of the time I’m thinking about what I could do or what I could say to help make someone life better. Someone that I know and care about, not someone that I don’t know! Or maybe someone that I have yet to meet or re-meet. But I have bills to pay! I can’t very well quit and leave my brothers who I own a house with hanging! But yet I also have to admit that this job is taking it’s toll on me. Not that I’m upset at it! No! I’ve been greatly blessed by it! But I have days of brimming energy after only 2 hours of sleep and then days where I completely crash and sleep 12 hours. So this does now present quite a problem for me! Because of the agreements that I made a little less than three years ago are now keeping me boxed in to where I’m at now when I would actually give every last piece of everything that I own up if that would mean that I could spend every waking moment doing everything I can to help everyone that I love. So in the end, I don’t have a solution here! So I keep handing it up in prayer, hoping that a simple dream will come true.

1 comment.

Why have faith?

Posted on August 27th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Ethics, Philosophy, Religon, Christianity, Cultural, Sermons.

My little bible study group and I are going down to Crestone, Colorado this weekend having a little camping trip down there. Crestone is a little town about half way between Durango and Denver but one of the interesting things about this town is that it is a religious town with many different Faiths building up beautiful temples and churches around that city. At a time like this, it’s easy to ask why do we do all these things. We fight and struggle to try to please this God that we have never personally met. We try to be good and obey His commandments. But what real right to we actually have to clam that Christianity is the only true way to reach God? Doesn’t it seem quite arrogant of us to say that all these other religions we have around us in this town are all wrong when in reality we really don’t have any proof of our claim. Now we do have a lot of evidence to suggest that we are right and that’s mostly due to the fact that we are telling a story that quite frankly was too crazy to make up! What sort of person makes up a God who is said to love us more than we could possibly love Him back so much so that He would make Himself flesh so that he may walk among us. But the story gets even more crazy when we say that this guy also choose to die so that we may live. What kind of crazy story is that? Why would someone possible need to die for us human beings! What could we possibly need saving from? Being bad people? Well that’s actually quite absurd because Christians are no better a group of people than of any other religion, we still go through as many divorces and commit as much sin as the rest of humanity. Not to mention that all the other religions have just a good a moral code as Christianity does. I have a friend a work named Mohamed and just like his name implies he is a Muslim. Now if I were to get overly religious on this guy then he wouldn’t be my friend, he’d be the enemy because he believes something different. He’s the enemy because he thinks differently than I do. And most certainly he does! Most of Christianity preaches that the ideal of life is to have only one spouse and this guy has three! But yet he is one of the nicest and kind guys that we have in the shop and he’s fun to hang around. So again what right do I have to tell this guy that he’s headed straight to hell when I find that some of my fellow Christians act far worse than this guy does!

The problem
So we Christians are faced with quite a problem here: we go around saying that we have the answer to everything but we don’t act how we preach and yet these are the same people that get really self righteous and preach the hardest at people. So they’ll start with the idea that their right and you’re wrong. And so they’ll do everything that they can to tell you how wrong you are and force you to think the why they do. But yet that sort of mindset is exactly the same thing that Jesus preached against when he says in Mattew 5:21-22:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Now Raca is a Aramaic word that essentially means empty, or that you’re calling someone here empty headed. So this would be just the same as one of us saying that someone is retarded or stupid today. So Jesus is telling us that if we even say that someone is stupid then we are in danger of going to hell. Well why would Jesus be so extreme? That’s because this is a horrible thought to get caught up in. As history tells us the Nazis thought they were right in everything that they did and the Jews were the people causing all of the problems of the world. So they killed six million of them. So thinking you’re right and everyone else is wrong will lead you to murder as you let that grow in your heart.

So then some people will react to that and do the opposite, a sort of masochistic line of thinking that I’m quite famous for. So this one says you’re right and I’m wrong. Well that certainly stops you from condemning anyone else! In stead of saying it when someone does something wrong you go around and say your in your head that you’re even more horrible than them and have less to offer than they do. But in the end is that really any different than what the first person was thinking only now you’re calling yourself empty instead of them. Wouldn’t that still lead to murder only this time it’s yourself rather that someone else? Jesus also said in that same sermon:

Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

So Jesus is saying that if you don’t believe that you have anything good to say then what good are you? You’re salt that has no saltiness and that’s completely worthless. So we also can’t be going around thinking that everything we say is worthless.

So if we can’t condemn others and we can’t condemn ourselves then that must mean we have to be the live and let live types, right? So now this one is I’m right and you’re right. So everything is just ok and we can just go around singing Kum By Ya and everything will be just fine. Why worry about what’s happening in this world? All good things come to an end so just live a good life and let it be. But yet that’s not what Jesus was saying either. In that same sermon Jesus says:

Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now the Pharisees were the best of the best here! They knew everything and had all of the right answers and you couldn’t trap them. They were like Billy Gram on crack! You couldn’t surpass their goodness, their righteousness. You couldn’t out teach them the law, they were the experts on the law! So isn’t this all completely contradictory and nothing here can be done because no one on the earth is that good. Who among us can possibly keep every bad thought out of our minds? Who among us can possibly keep from any kind of lust like Jesus told us to. Who among us can keep every single thing about us completely pure? We can’t! We fall sort of that! So we have a big problem here. How can we preach our religion when we can’t hold up to it’s own standard?

Why believe?
So in the end the real true answer is that we have to say I’m wrong and you’re wrong. That nothing in this world is right and everything is completely messed up in this world! But isn’t that just a little messed up here to be saying that nobody has life right here! That everybody lives their life wrong in this world! Well yes we can say that and mean it and it is true. Why? Because we all die. If we really could work a way into God’s favor then why would we all have to die someday? That’s the one truth that none of us can deny: we will all die someday. Back in October I had lost a good friend of mine and I do keep on bringing him up because I don’t want anyone to forget him. His name was Jon Hutchinson and if you ever want to see a life well lived he’s most defiantly a good example. He was always a joy to be around and you always saw a smile in his eye. He was just happy to be living and went out to grab life. He went on a lot of missions trips and gave all that he had to give. And the wonderful stories about this man are endless from the people who knew him best. He was afflicted with brain caner a few years back and he beat it twice but it still came back a third time and he died from it. Now if there was anyone who could have possibly earned his way out of death and straight into heaven then most certainly it would have been my friend. But he still died young at the age of 24 from a horrible disease that he most certainly didn’t deserve to have. I never had somebody close to me die like that before so his death hit me very hard. In the year that followed was by far one of the hardest that I ever had to live through. I saw every little dream and hope that I had be shattered one by one until everything that I hoped for was gone. And I had sat there many nights wishing that I had switched places with Jon. That I had gotten the brain caner and he had lived on, that just seem to be much more fair to me. But it just wasn’t so.

The real hope
A little more than month back, I was having horrible nightmares but I couldn’t remember any of them. I just knew they were bad because I would wake up extremely tense and petrified so I knew they were filled with evil thoughts. I talked to Invot about it and he did suggest that I should start praying over my dreams too. So then the next day I prayed for God to let me have a dream that is pleasing to Him and to let me see that lived out in life. I had a dream that day and I saw a woman who I had never seen before in my life. In the dream I walked up and kissed her and then at that moment I knew that she was pregnant and her name was Molly. Weird dream and it was a nice drem but I had no idea why God would give me this dream. So I just went along with life as usual until one day I just deiced to just go up to the mountains. I went up to rocky mountain national park just driving along the stop off points to take pictures. But then I came to another one of the stops and I saw her there. She was there with her husband and she was pregnant and even more crazy was that I did hear her husband call her Molly. In God’s own unique way, that only He could possibly do it, He stopped me right there and reminded me that He is pleased with life. That He is pleased with a new child coming into this world. When they found Jon they said he had a smile on his face. And why would he have a smile on his face? He knew he was dieing! He had a smile because he knew that he already won victory over death. Because Jesus came to this earth, the one true and perfect human being on this planet, who had never sinned one bit but yet still choose to die anyway to take our sins. Yet, He still rose up from the grave a changed man being perfect in spirit and in physical body to prove to us that He did win victory over death completely. So now Jon rests with that smile on his face knowing that his death is a temporary thing because Jesus said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) And that’s why we do what we do! We don’t go out there to say that we’re right and you’re wrong. No! We go out to boldly proclaim that Jesus is right, that Jesus has the answer to this world and that Jesus won victory over death. Jon was a great man because he lived out a life grateful to God for giving him his life. That’s what this life is all about! It’s easy to get caught up in all of the worries of this world and let them take your attention off of God but we have to try to keep focused on God. Jesus said: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) If you’re seeking out Jesus, you’ll find Him. If you’re looking for new life, you’ll find it. If you’re looking for God to redeem you, He will. And you can find Him in prayer, in His holy word, and in His believers. And so I conclude with Jesus’ great commission:

Matthew 28:18-20
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

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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

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Ecclesiastes series part seven: Chapter twelve, Remembering God in all your days

Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Reviews, Books, Philosophy, Religon, Christianity, Cultural.

A lot of people might say that Ecclesiastes is book that you keep going through a lot of terrible things and then right at the end you then start to get into the really good stuff. Well, if it’s anything that I tried to discourage in this study, it’s that sort of line of thinking. No the whole book is full of very good and valuable wisdom and it does have much beauty to it but it does have a completely different perspective than the rest of the bible. For the most part the rest of the bible starts off with God and what He’s like and then translates that to us and what it means for us. And that is good and it should be that way! However Ecclesiastes starts of with limited human wisdom and builds up to how that relates to God and then what it means for us. One of the best examples of this is in chapter nine:

Ecclesiastes 9:11
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

So this is a very true point about life on this earth: it’s not fair! Thous that work the hardest get punished the most and thous that are lazy get rewarded! Brilliant inventors don’t get noticed and die penniless and thous that do what is right get mocked. This world is messed up and it’s all about chance that you ever get rich or end up poor. By shear chance did I have the opportunity to be born in a country that has been blessed with great wealth but yet there are billions of others that are born in a country that can hardly feed it’s people. But then yet you start looking at the other side of the coin and realize that the most of the people who are born in poorer countries are blessed with far happier lives than most of us have around here. Their lives are one’s where they are grateful for every little thing that they receive. But how did God deal with this injustice? He decided to bear the greatest injustice of it all! He sent His only son to die for the sins and injustices of this world! The one who was pure in justice and sinless took on all of the sins and injustice so that we may be reconciled to Him. But yet God is still going to make life fair because God also did what was fair by bringing Jesus back from the dead and anointing Him King over all of the universe. So what does that mean for us? Well this last poem that Solomon wrote is about the most beautiful poems that ever been written:

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8
Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
“I find no pleasure in them”—

before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;

when the keepers of the house tremble,
and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
and those looking through the windows grow dim;

when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;

when people are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags itself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
and the wheel broken at the well,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Everything is meaningless!”

While saying repeatedly throughout the book “everything is meaningless” that’s also the one thing that Solomon don’t really mean literally. He keeps on saying it because everything in life is “meaningless” except for God who gave it. And that’s exactly the way that we should be thinking of this life! Everything under the sun is a gift from God– one that we can not repay God for! But it is one that we are to graciously accept from God and be grateful for. The writer then also adds His little bit to the end of the book. The book makes a lot more sense if you think of it as someone writing down what the teacher was saying or as someone that collected a lot of saying from the teacher and wrote them down. But this is what he said:

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the [duty] of every human being.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

So the narrator also understands that what the teacher was saying throughout the book was quite harsh but that the teacher was a wise man and you should listen to the words that he is speaking. I can sort of picture it now. After Solomon had committed his sins and turned his heart away from God and then after God had dealt His judgment to Solomon. Solomon is then sitting in his courts, knowing that after he dies, his kingdom is going to start falling apart. He then tells one of his few faithful servants to him to help him write down his last words and so he went on with his final speech and his servant named it Ecclesiastes. But that’s just my theory, first Kings doesn’t tell us how Solomon died nor does Ecclesiastes tell us who actually wrote it. The book just suggests that it was Solomon who was speaking and it does sound like Solomon. But if there is any one mistake that the speaker made that he is most certainly trying to make sure you don’t repeat in your life– it is that you need to remember all that God had done for you in your life. For the mast part of my life, I had lived one were I was ignoring God in every respect. Sure I went to church and that was nice but it wasn’t real to me. It wasn’t until I had a night that God did allow for me to see where my life was headed– to hell. That’s a place where God is not present, were all you have there is just the memory of the things you did wrong. You’re far removed from everything that brought you joy in your life and everything that was good. But yet when you do remember God in you life, you do remember everything that is good in you life. You remember all of the ways that he has blessed you and all that He’s given you. And then you can live your life in peace.

Lord you are our God–
and we are your children.
Teach us how to forgive–
as you have forgiven us
Teach us how to love–
as you have loved us.
Teach us how to see–
as you see us.
Teach us how to hear–
as you hear us.
And teach us how to live–
as you have lived.
Allow us to remember to you in all our days–
and allow us to be grateful for all that you have given us.
Amen.

0 comments.

you defend an empty space (tin hearts. straw minds.)

Posted on July 25th, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Creative Writing, Religon, Music.

I heard your blood was in the moat
body broken as you float
But the price, you’d pay much more
to be within the castle doors

I surly trust you split the wine
as your latitudes declined
when the royalty does dine
all the beggars wait in line

Em B7 | G
be not alone,
be not alone,
be not alone,
with me

seeing paths that float away
there’s less every single day
to the drowning you’re devote
blowing bubbles in your throat

all our time has lost its place
better things are not the case
you defend an empty space
you’ve become an empty space

Em B7 | G
be not alone,
be not alone,
be not alone,
with me

you may be cradled by the waves
but your dreams have been depraved
do you know that you’re a slave
living life within your grave

though the waters populate
they simply don’t sustain
wash ashore before you reach the drain…
the drain…

Em B7 | G
be not alone,
be not alone,
be not alone,
with me

0 comments.

Ecclesiastes series part six: Chapters ten and eleven, the proverbs

Posted on July 13th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Reviews, Books, Philosophy, Religon, Christianity, Cultural.

These two chapters are full of proverbial wisdom just like the book of proverbs and that does go along well with Solomon’s style throughout the book. Solomon kept on saying and writing many Proverbs and the book of kings attributes 3000 to him. So it’s no surprise that he would start to end this book with a bunch of more proverbial wisdom. So why don’t we have a look at them:

Ecclesiastes 10:3
Even as fools walk along the road,
they lack sense
and show everyone how stupid they are.

So what does this one mean? The more you do something foolishly the more people see how dumb you are! Simple right?

Ecclesiastes 10:4
If a ruler’s anger rises against you,
do not leave your post;
calmness can lay great offenses to rest.

Another simple one, calm treatment to problems will resolve them far better and getting hysterical about them.

Ecclesiastes 10:8-9
Whoever digs a pit may fall into it;
whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them;
whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.

The line of work you pick can endanger you and that one fits in well with the very next one:

Ecclesiastes 10:10
If the ax is dull
and its edge unsharpened,
more strength is needed,
but skill will bring success.

If you’re going to do this sort of work then work smartly! Make things easier on yourself.

Ecclesiastes 10:11
If a snake bites before it is charmed,
the charmer receives no fee.

So if you’re trying to work some ploy then you better make sure it works because otherwise you end up dead with nothing.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-14
Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious,
but fools are consumed by their own lips.

At the beginning their words are folly;
at the end they are wicked madness—

and fools multiply words.
No one knows what is coming—
who can tell them what will happen after them?

So it’s best to be gracious with people and not be trying to manipulate to get what you want. The more you manipulate people the more you get eaten up by your own words and end up in a place of “wicked madness.” Fools keep on talking and talking but their words are not backed by anything and they don’t know what’s going to happen. So it is best to be gracious with people because then they’ll be gracious with you.

Ecclesiastes 10:16-17 (ESV)
Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,
and your princes feast in the morning!
Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility,
and your princes feast at the proper time,
for strength, and not for drunkenness!

This one illustrates perfectly why I didn’t want Obama to be president. But then again I also need to hear this one too:

Ecclesiastes 10:20
Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird in the sky may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

So even if your king is a child you should be thinking a hoping for bad things to him because otherwise people might tell on you. But what about this one:

Ecclesiastes 10:19
A feast is made for laughter,
wine makes life merry,
and money is the answer for everything.

Man! Didn’t think you would ever see the bible say that money is the answer to everything considering that Paul told us this:

1 Timothy 6:9-10
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

But yet Paul said the love of money not that money it’s self is evil. And that does go along with the proverb of being gracious with people. If you’re using money right and not seeking to take as much as you can, then yes, money is the answer to everything. But that also requires, like always, that we guard our own hearts so that we don’t start loving money.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-2
Ship your grain across the sea;
after many days you may receive a return.

Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight;
you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

So keep what you earned safe! and invest in a lot of different things. This principal works on a lot of different things and not just in money. Make a lot of friends and guard them, have a lot of hobbies and keep at them, and you’ll see that when disaster falls on you then people come to your aid.

Ecclesiastes 11:3-4
If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain on the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

You have to live life now and not in the future! If you keep on watching for what might be then you’ll be missing out on what’s going on now.

Ecclesiastes 11:5
As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.

Well this one is a little absurd now considering that we can track the wind now and we do know how the body is formed in the mothers womb now. but the point is still well taken, we don’t know what all God is doing in the world so what are we do do about it?

Ecclesiastes 11:9-10
You who are young, be happy while you are young,
and let your hearts give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you into judgment.

So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.

This one is the best piece of advice that Solomon gives us here right now because it is fear and anxiety that keeps us from approaching God. We get tied down in our troubles and and try to make things work in our lives but yet we need to learn that all thing are from God. With every trouble that we face in this life, God always has a solution for us. There is always some way that God provides a way out but you have to hear Him. Like it says in Isaiah:

Isaiah 64:4
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

So too we need to learn to wait on God and give up all of our troubles to Him in every way.

3 comments.

Ecclesiastes series part five: chapters eight and nine, the coming King

Posted on July 7th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Reviews, Books, Philosophy, Religon, Christianity, Cultural.

Chapter 8 starts off with a very odd question:

Ecclesiastes 8:1
Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
Wisdom brightens the face
and changes its hard appearance.

So who do you think that Solomon is talking about here? Who is he looking for that can explain everything that troubles him? Well If we just consider the last thing that he said in the last chapter, that gives us a good hint:

Ecclesiastes 7:29
This only have I found:
God created humankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

So in other words he is saying the only one who is like the wise is God and the only one that truly knows the explanation of things is God. But then he stats right away talking about obeying the king? Now the next verse is a little odd, the today’s new international version says it like this:

Ecclesiastes 8:2
Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.

Where as the English standard version says it like this:

Ecclesiastes 8:2 (ESV)
I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.

So we have one translation that has a little more looser saying you are to obey the king because of your oath to the king while the more literal word for word translation says you are to obey the king because of God’s oath to him. What translation is more correct here? Well they both are completely correct in what they are saying. Because God appointed the king with an oath that means that we are to obey the king because he has an oath from God. But it’s easy to say that we don’t have to pay attention to this verse. We don’t have a God appointed King anymore but a elected president, elected by the people, and with how this country is going, God has less and less of a role in American politics. Or I will say that people allow God to make that choice for them less and less nowadays, and I’ve been just as guilty of that as well. But do we really just completely dismiss this verse altogether? Well do we really not have a king anymore? Isn’t there still a king that gives us commands just like how Solomon gave His people commands? Have a look Acts 17:

Acts 17:5-7
But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”

So Acts does tell us that we do have a king right now and it’s not one that’s tied to any of the political governments of this world. Our King is higher than any of the politics in this world and it’s no tied to any particular party or group. Jesus is king over it all and that’s also the very reason why early Christians were being killed. Caesar didn’t care one bit about cults in his empire, they had thousands of them! But he did care about people defying his decrees and saying there’s a better king than him. Caesar’s the one who’s suppose to have all the answers and be giving the orders. But these people weren’t taking orders from Caesar but from Jesus. So now Jesus for us is the king that Solomon is telling us to obey because of our oaths to God and because God has an oath to Jesus. So Solomon Goes further in telling us this:

Ecclesiastes 8:5-8
Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a person may be weighed down by misery.

Since no one knows the future,
who can say what is to come?

As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

But is that really true that all thous that practice wickedness can not get out of it? Don’t we have another way out? Well he still gives us the answer in the verse before it: there is a proper procedure to getting yourself out of wickedness. You can see that in Isaiah 53:

Isaiah 53:10-12
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

So we have the sort of king that brings us out of sin and makes us right with him. We have the sort of king that forgives all debts if you’ll only give them to him. Solomon is big on us not knowing what exactly God is doing in our lives and what his grand plans are:

Ecclesiastes 8:17
then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. People toil to search it out, but no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

But even Solomon has to admit that we are in Gods hands:

Ecclesiastes 9:1
So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.

And he keeps on going over and over again that we all have the same fate:

Ecclesiastes 9:2
All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.
As it is with the good,
so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.

And again he goes back to what he see as the ultimate solution for our lives here:

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

So just go enjoying our lives because we’re just going to die someday, Right? And everyone is going to get the same fate so what’s the use of trying to make things better here. But isn’t there still something to hope for? Well our blessed hope is in our King!

Isaiah 65:17-25
“See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

“Never again will there be in it
infants who live but a few days,
or older people who do not live out their years;
those who die at a hundred
will be thought mere youths;
those who fail to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.

They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.

So just as Solomon said: there is a proper procedure for everything. So our proper procedure is to keep working and praying for God to bring His perfect justice to this world and while we are doing that– we keep listening to God and keep giving our lives to Him and enjoying it while we can.

0 comments.

Ecclesiastes series- Part four: Chapters six and seven, Seek first the kingdom

Posted on June 22nd, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Reviews, Books, Philosophy, Religon, Christianity, Cultural.

These two chapters are mostly about death and women and that makes sense because they are two things that go hand in hand, Right? Just have a look at chapter 7:

Ecclesiastes 7:28
I found one [upright] man among a thousand,
but not one [upright] woman among them all.

So all the women in the world are just trash! Well, no. Again we have to consider who’s writing this book and this is a man who had a thousand women as wives and concubines and they weren’t moral women. So of course his opinion is being swayed by his personal experience and Solomon didn’t pick good women to be his wives. They were women of royal birth that worshiped other gods and they had agendas that conflicted with the will of God and Solomon allowed that to turn his heart away from God. So now he’s looking back and making the conclusion that there isn’t an “upright” woman. He also had a lot of his friends betray him at the end because he had been turning his heart away from God and that why he doesn’t have a very high view of humanity. But he is still correct in keeping a low view of humanity because we do evil and vile things in this world. Just as we talked about last time with all of the oppressions that go on in this world we are very sinful and harmful people. As Solomon says:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV)
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

So we are all equally worthy of the judgment of hell but yet again we have grace now because we trust in Jesus that He paid the price for our sins. Just as Paul tells us:

Romans 6:14
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

So we don’t have to live sinful lives anymore and we can become greater than what Solomon says the whole human existence is doomed to because Jesus has given us that grace. But as we have seen in Solomon’s life he rejected that grace that God has given him! And that’s why he’s writing this sorrowful book hoping that someone will not repeat the same mistakes. Just as Jonah’s prayer tells us:

Jonah 2:8 (NIV)
“Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

So Solomon did forfeit the grace that could have been his if he hadn’t placed the women that he married as more important than God. So how are some of the ways in that we actually start to place something else as higher than God? How do we make idols that are more important to us? We can also see another thing Solomon had idolized more than God:

Ecclesiastes 7:23-24
All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
“I am determined to be wise”—
but this was beyond me.
Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
who can discover it?

So actually wisdom was another thing he valued more than God. That’s actually quite funny because only God has wisdom– that is seeing things the way God sees is and that’s something that is far beyond us. So what does he do:

Ecclesiastes 7:25
So I turned my mind to understand,
to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.

He tries to understand things with human knowledge but you can never find full understanding from a human prospective is very limited. As we see in the proverbs:

Proverbs 3:4-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

So how are some of the ways that we trust in our own understanding? How about when we think that if we just do the right things then God will give us what we want. But Solomon warns us about that:

Ecclesiastes 7:13-14
Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?

When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, you cannot discover
anything about your future.

So we can’t ever know what the future hold for us! To keep on trying to dig in deep and figure everything out and know were this world is going to go is pointless. God will bring about the end the way He has set the end and we need to be trusting in His promises not letting anything get between us and God. And we are to wait patiently for it.

Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.

You see God doesn’t separate out from the good and the bad but rather the humble and the proud. No matter how good or how bad we are we all still end up with the same fate that none of us can change: we all die someday. So it is best to just give our lives to God and enjoy it while we can.

Ecclesiastes 6:3-6
A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man— even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

So why should we be grasping for things that we can not have? No we need to be grateful for the thing that God has given us and enjoy it while we give up our lives to God and let Him be the guide of it. And there are many thing that try to get us out of that and ensnare us. This world is all about what’s going to happen in the future and how we can make things right– but we can’t do that! Only God can make things right in this world and we have to keep living in the present for that’s where God has placed us. For Solomon, his trap was women. As he says:

Ecclesiastes 7:26
I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.

We have to say in constant prayer ask that God will guide us out of the traps of this world. That He’s keep us focused on the things He wants us to do today and not keep chasing after tomorrow. Just as Jesus tells us:

Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And that makes it nice that Jesus mentioned Solomon here, the flowers of the field were more richly clothed than him. And that is dew to the fact that Solomon spent his days worrying about being the right ruler and wise and didn’t give that trust up to God. And everything he worried about happening did happen because he didn’t place his trust in God. But We who do place our trust in God will get His eternal life.

2 comments.

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Index for posts concerning Religon

On Going to Church

Being Broken

A nice shock!

Why have faith?

The Unmistakeable God and His Unmistakable Word

Ecclesiastes series part seven: Chapter twelve, Remembering God in all your days

you defend an empty space (tin hearts. straw minds.)

Ecclesiastes series part six: Chapters ten and eleven, the proverbs

Ecclesiastes series part five: chapters eight and nine, the coming King

Ecclesiastes series- Part four: Chapters six and seven, Seek first the kingdom