If you haven't heard yet Tim Lambesis,
lead singer of Christian metal band As I Lay Dying, was arrested in a
murder for higher plot. Apparently, he tried to hire somebody to kill his soon to be ex wife. This is an awful, terrible thing. If it is
found that this is true, then Tim sinned, and did something terrible.
I'm very, very thankful that God was watching out for everybody
involved and that nobody was killed.
Yes, put it all together: Christian
artist tried to have his wife killed. That's hard to swallow. I hate
to write it and I nearly cried when I read it. First off, I'm sad
that somebody could lose sight so much that they felt like they had
to kill some one else, and I'm equally as distraught at how I think
the Christian community will handle it. As Christians we have a
tendency to leave people like Tim out to dry. They sinned horribly
and we don't want to look bad or be mocked so we speak out against
them.
I for one, will not do it. I am
committing to pray for Tim Lambesis and his family. Why? Because it's
exactly what Jesus did. Look at John 8:1-11. Jesus didn't say that
the woman's sin was okay, she didn't say it wasn't a big deal, but He
didn't join the crowd and condemn her. He had the opportunity to
impress some important people but instead He honored God and helped
the hurting woman.
“But if we don't take a stand against
him we will be mocked, and God will look bad!”Guess what folks.
People are already mocking us and we already look bad. I for one
would rather look bad for doing what Jesus would do then for acting
like the World. This is the family of God. We support even when
somebody makes a mistake.
Well, at least we should. If for a moment we think we deserve God's love and grace more just because we've never done this shame on us. Do we even Bible? I am just blessed that God has taken a sinner like me and forgiven me. He did the same for you and for Tim.
So as for me. I will commit to pray for
Tim and his family. He needs to repent (if he hasn't yet), and I know
that since he's still alive God isn't through with him yet. All I can
pray is that Tim seeks God in this and follows Jesus.
Do you remember when pop punk didn't
suck? Remember when it was just fun to jump up and down to songs
about girls, parties, and pranks? I know, I know, it's been a long
time but there was the moment when we didn't hide our Blink 182,
MxPx, and The Offspring CDs under our beds. We enjoyed them because
they wrote about life for those of us who didn't grow up on the
streets but still needed to rebel. It was nice to know that
sometimes being goofy is the best rebellion to a world that takes
everything so damn seriously.
Enter Hippos of Doom. Yes that is
right. These are the hippos with guns that you see in your dreams
after a night of binge pizza eating. Okay, maybe that's just me but
you gotta love the name. The Hippos bring their melodious, fun, at
times poignant brand of punk to you, for free on their debut EP Road
Trip. If all goes well you can
get the free EP here on Indie Vision music.
The Hippos of Doom
come from the West Coast and blend fast guitars, thundering drums,
and angsty vocals. This EP is a fun little jaunt down memory lane
that transports you back to Warp Tour '99. This short EP, brought to
you courtesy of Thumperpunk Records, does not boast a song longer
than 2:45 and is guaranteed to get you tappin' your foot and playing
drums on your steering wheel.
The Hippos are
unabashedly Christian but it doesn't really feel oppressive on the
album. Wool Brigrade and Judge Not are the two
strongest tracks on the record and they are the most “Christian.”
They are open, honest, but not disingenuous. It doesn't feel forced.
It doesn't sound like some of the old Tooth&Nail alum that would
say, “Crap, we got to put a Jesus song on this record or we won't
make it to Creation Fest!”
Over all, I would
say this EP is beyond worth the minimal space it will take up on your
hard drive and it is 15 minutes well spent. I only hope that the full
length comes out soon!
I never got to meet Brennan Manning. He
died yesterday. He always reminded me of my father. Perhaps this is
because his teachings and interpretation of God's Grace permeated my
home ever since The Ragamuffin Gospel
was published back in the early 1990s. It was an idea that my whole
family could grasp,
“My
deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ
and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.“
Brennan
was a Korean War Vet, renegade priest who
spent most of his
priesthood working with (and I mean deeply with) the world's poorest
and most disenfranchised. He left the priesthood in the late 1960s,
early 1970s and started writing about the Love and Grace of Jesus. He
lived by, talked through, and walked this out until yesterday, April
12, 2013, when this Ragamuffin went home.
What
made Brennan Manning different in my eyes was that unlike most
preachers who, in words or actions, say, “I used to be a bad
sinner” Brennan was open and honest about his currently level of
sin. But I guess being in and out of rehab will do that to you. Every
time he fell off the wagon he came back with a new bump or bruise
that reminded him, and us, of everyone's need for a Gracious and
Loving Savior.
The Ragamuffin Gospel
was the first Christian theology type book I ever read. I was
eighteen and I was slogging through the complex, yet accessible
language I saw what I new everybody else in the world needed to see.
I saw that,
“The
gospel declares that no matter how dutiful or prayerful we are, we
can't save ourselves. What Jesus did was sufficient.”
Aside
from the Bible it was the most important book I've ever read. It
clarified how I see Jesus, myself, and the World. It was a breath of
fresh air into my 18 year old soul to know that salvation was for
those who needed saving not for those who were Hell bent on looking
proper.
This
post may very well serve my own catharsis, but I'm okay with that. I
hope that through this you can, in whatever way, see that you are a
sinner in need of Grace. I say that not from a stand point of
arrogance against you, but partly thanks to Brennan Manning, I say
that from a stand point of gratefulness towards God for my own sins
being covered.
I love Easter. I love everything that
goes along with it. I love Good Friday, this year thanks to the new
Pope I accidentally gave a crap about Holy Thursday, and Palm Sunday
is always fun with the kids at church hitting each other with wisps
of palm leaves(let's be thankful it wasn't baseball bat Sunday,
right?). When we compile all of this with the ending of winter and
the beginning of spring it's borderline magical.
But then, like Christmas, it ends. The
chocolate bunnies go on sale, all the ham in the northern hemisphere
is eaten, there isn't standing room only in church, and we're back
with our regularly scheduled programming Jesus died and rose again
for the reconciliation of mankind to God, so how are the Red Sox
looking in spring training?
One of my atheist friends put up a
status that said, “Remember everybody, Jesus had a really
inconvenient weekend to redeem us all from our sins.” Like most of
these things I reacted first with an eye roll, then took a little
offense, and finally figured out what God was showing me. Now, I ask
that you read til the end of this before you write me off as a
heretic.
While the redemption of man was the
only reason Jesus came to earth it wasn't the most time consuming
part of His life or ministry. It was the most painful, it was the
most important, but it really was the quickest. It was the climax of
the story. It was the section where all the rising action peaked and
then it was concluded in the resurrection and Ascension. Jesus showed
the Universe who was boss and now we're stuck in the sequel that
will hopefully end soon.
But ask yourself this question: If
Jesus came to die for our sins why did He wait 33 years? He could
have been a child savant that was killed at the age of 9 because of
his miracles and teachings. Hell, Jesus could have been a still born
baby and it would've sufficed. The goal was perfect life, perfect
death, save the world Why wait the 3 decades? Earth couldn’t have
been that much fun in comparison to heaven, could it?
In
Luke 19:10Jesus
tells us His scheme. He had a two fold mission of seeking and saving.
While the saving was he most important, He did spend the lion's share
of His time seeking. That's all the miracles were. That's all that
the teaching was. Jesus did not come just to provide free health care
and encourage a good moral compass. He totally could have done that
without dying. He came to seek out people. He came to show people
their need for saving. He spent the first thirty years posing a
question and exposing a need, and three days providing the fix.
Philippians 2:12 is not a coffee mug,
t-shirt verse because it is one of the most honest verses in the New
Testament. Fear and trembling is not something we often connect with
Salvation. It's true though, isn't it? Half the time we're worried
that we're not doing it right. The other half of the time we're
worried that everybody is going to see us for what we are and the
n
we're going to embarrass God and completely screw up what Jesus did
on the cross all because we can't quick smoking or looking at porn on
the internet. We live in victory but we also live in fear and
trembling. The majority of our life is spent showing off why we need
salvation.
Jesus'
life modeled this. Salvation, death to sin, victory over death, while
not the easy part, was the quick pull off of the band-aid. It's the
same way when we accept Christ. It's easy to see our need. It's easy
to see His fix. But that is just one quick, yet important, moment in
the rest of our lives. But the three decades of walking, teaching,
healing, being talked about, lied about, betrayed, used, and
abandoned. The three decades of all that, and still trusting in God,
still praying to the Father, still doing the Creator's will; that's
the marathon. That's the punch. That's where Jesus modeled the fear
and trembling. That's where He modeled walking the walk.
Back in the late 90s I bought a
t-shirt that said “Reject Religion, Embrace Jesus.” I was still
in high school. When I wore it out I got some funny looks from both
Christians and non. This shirt helped me engage in many conversations
and more than one argument. It was an edgy idea. It was the idea that
religion and God were not one and the same. I loved that shirt.
Now I see those shirts all the time.
There are sermon series, books, bumper stickers, podcasts, viral
videos, Tumblr, Pintrest, and Facebook posts all about this. It's
borderline become the mantra of Western non-Orthodoxy: God is a
Relationship not Religion. The church is not a building. Shrug off
the old and bring in the new. Reject religion, Embrace Jesus.
I still agree with this philosophy.
Nothing that I just said is untrue or un-Biblical. God desires a
relationship and not empty religion (Mark 7:8-13, Isaiah 29:11-16).
But like all things that get put on a t-shirt, bumper sticker,
Tumblr, and Facebook, this whole idea has become trite. It's fun to
say. It's a great thing to drop on people when we talk to them about
Jesus and they say, “I'm not religious.” It becomes the next fad
and it eventually dies out.
Anybody out there rocking their WWJD?
bracelet?
The thing that gets lost in all of
this is the source of the main problem. Religion is easy, but
relationships are difficult. Rejecting the standard way of living in
favor of something that most people would find crazy is not an easy
way to live. One of my atheist friends acquainted my relationship to
God to his “relationship” with the invisible leprechaun who lives
in his bathroom. It is a lot easier to say, “I follow the teachings
of Jesus, and go to church to be a better person” then it is to
say, “I have surrendered all of my will to Jesus, and I love Him.”
To be fair it is just as easy to say, “I reject all the trappings
of religion and I follow Jesus” without actually doing it.
A relationship with Jesus has a lot
more riding on it then talking to the invisible leprechaun in your
bathroom. Jesus puts some pretty clear boundaries on the relationship
(before you get all arrogant remember the very nature of
relationships is boundaries). Jesus says to follow Him in His
sacrifice (Luke 9:23). Jesus tells us if we love Him then we show
that through our obedience (John 15:9+10). Jesus promises us that
with a relationship with Him we will have trouble with the world at
large (Matthew 10:33-35).
When we tell people it's about a
relationship and not religion we leave all that stuff out. It sounds
to religious that Jesus would want us to live differently. It sounds
so constricting to have Christ be the center of our lives. It's hard
to seal the deal when we reveal that following in Christ's sufferings
means discomfort, and no longer being able to be true to oneself.
Nobody likes to be a disciple when the Romans come in with torches
and clubs.
Religion sounds so sweet at this
point. That's why we've turned all this into the Religion of
Rejecting Religion. A lot of us like the idea but few of us like the
execution. For those of us who don't like rules we just turn this
into the rule of no rules. We drop this line so we cannot be judged.
We are quick to jump on all the issues with organized religion
without mentioning the plights of unorganized religion. We've become
what we hate. We've become rote.
This is not a condemnation it is a gut
check. If we consider ourselves religious or not we need to see if
we're hiding behind what we've built or standing firm on what Christ
has done.
One
of my favorite punk bands is Bad Religion. They are punk rock
veterans who are against government, religion, and are pro thinking
for yourself. A lot of my friends, Christian or not, wonder how I can
justify liking a band like that. Don't they hate my God? Aren't they
philosophically opposed to me? Aren't they condescending towards me
as a person? I won't deny any of that. They are opposed to organized
religion, they worship science, and believe that if God does exist
(which they are sure He doesn't), He is of no consequence.
One
day I was listening to Bad Religion and I was feeling spiritually
weird. This is bound to happen when you listen to somebody who sees
the world in a way that you do not. I was feeling odd because I
wasn't disagreeing with a lot of what they were saying. I have times
when I feel like God isn't there. I have times when I feel like
religion causes more hurt than help. Dare I say it, I have moments
when I feel like I know better than God does. Listening to Bad
Religion had put me in such a weird mood that I made a very startling
admission.
I am
an Atheist.
I
said it. I said it out loud and do you know what happened? The Spirit
of God fell on me in such a real way that I started to cry. I hadn't
felt that close to God in a long time. All of my doubts and fears
about God had be pushed aside at that moment. I became a stronger
Christian and God used Bad Religion to do it.
If
you are still reading, which I hope you are, I owe you an
explanation. As a Christian the difference between my flesh and
spirit is at the forefront of my day to day. I totally relate to the
Apostle Paul when he said:
“For
I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry
it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not
want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that
does it.”
Romans 7:18-20
All
day long I see the good I want to do and I do the bad instead. I see
God's will, which I know is right, and I do my own thing. All day
long I do stupid, stupid, stuff that is covered by the Grace of God.
My flesh is atheist. It doesn't want God, it thinks it doesn't need
God, and sometimes it wins. Sometime I cuss, sometime I lie,
sometimes I lust, sometimes I get mad, and this is the atheist in me
doing what I think is right at the moment.
As
a Christian you might just say, “Well, that's the sin nature,” or
as an atheist you might say, “That's just human nature,” and
you'd be right as well. “Well, that doesn't make you an atheist,”
is what both sides are probably saying in unison. To a certain extent
I guess you'd be right. What I can tell you is that the two halves of
me are diametrically opposed and that's how it should be. There is a
part of me that God has to beat down and make submit and a part that
He has to nurture and enhance. There is a part of me that kicks at
the idea of God and there is a part of me that embraces it. This
polarity is needed.
It's
the blending, deliberating, compromising, and joining of the two that
make issues. This, ironically, is the breeding ground for both
fundamentalist heresies and Unitarian heresies. This war will wage as
long as we have breath. It wages whether we acknowledge it or not.
That is why we need Christ. If we can't tell the difference between
who we used to be without Jesus and who we are with Jesus then we
don't know Jesus. If we rely on rules and not Jesus to be our
salvation from our atheist side then all we are is a better behaved
atheist.
I've
watched a lot of my friends become atheists because they were taught
that if you are loved by Jesus you never want to sin. They can't kick
the desires they have. They here a different philosophy. They meet a
gay person who isn't trying to take down the whole American
infrastructure. Sex is fun. All of a sudden God is on the chopping
block and it makes more sense to kill Him off then to follow Him. Off
with His head. The war isn't worth it so somebody has to die and it
might as well be the thing that they can't remember seeing, touching,
or feeling.
The thing I love most about Bad Religion is they remind me that the
choices I make can only be made by me. They remind me that I don't
have to take crap from anybody. They remind me of what lives inside
of me. They make me not take my faith for granted. They make me seek
out truth and not just swallow what I am taught. They, inadvertently
I'm sure, show me how much my flesh hates God and how much my spirit
needs Him.
The fact
that God asks anything of us shows the level of intimacy that He wants to have
with us. The depth of any relationship is measured in how high the expectations
are. If you don’t believe that to be true look at the different labels we have
for non-family members. You have strangers, acquaintances, friends, buddies,
best friends, bros, boys, significant others etc. We label people by how close they
are to us and the closer they are the more we expect from them. This isn’t mean spirited; it isn’t
unreasonable, it is the very nature of relationships.
The Man (Johnny Cash) and Wife.
Look at a
good marriage. Each member gives 100% of themselves. There is no 50/50. It is
all or nothing. God often equates our relationship with Him to a marriage. My
wife has higher expectations for me then anybody else on the planet. Are these
expectations given out of distrust or hate? No, they are given out of love and
intimacy. These expectations show the difference between love and like.
God is not out of line in asking us
to love and serve Him. He created us, we goofed, and He saved us. He has put
Himself 100% in this relationship multiple times. He has proven to us that He
cares. Jesus modeled the level of expectation in the relationship God wants
with us. God is not unjust. God is not a tyrant. He leads by example. God loves
us all and with that love comes expectations. The expectations don’t save us
but they show how He feels about us and how He wants us to feel about Him.
Why is it so hard for us to look at
our relationship with God this way? We have super high expectations for Him. If
anything bad happens we say, “Why did you do that?” When we don’t like what He
has for us we say, “You could’ve done better.” When He gives us His
expectations we say, “No, I’m philosophically opposed to that, so You’re
wrong.” Why can’t we look at God’s example, what He’s done and just say, “Thanks”?
Relationships are always messy. The
deeper the relationship is the bigger the mess will be. God knows this. God
knows that the intensity of our relationship with Him will cause some sparks
and spilled milk. The question to pose is where will we be standing after the
smoke clears: closer or further?
For a lot
of us who are on the outskirts of society and church we love to see it in the
Bible when Jesus preaches and teaches in bars, parties, and in the countryside.
What we often neglect is on every given Sabbath Jesus was in church. Not only
was He in church, He was active in church. Not only was Jesus active in church,
He was active in a church where nearly everybody disagreed with Him. He went to
church out of obedience to His Father, and for the few who would listen and be
changed.
To be
blunt, a lot of Sundays I go to church out of begrudging obedience to the God
who loves me and saved me. I hate the show, pomp, and circumstance the church
in America has become. Then I think of what Jesus-the guy who came up with the
whole Temple, worship, sacrifice, Sabbath thing-must have felt going to the
spiritually raped and abused version that was in His day. He went, “as was His
custom.”
Yes, church
can be twenty people in a living room or twenty thousand people in a stadium.
Church is the body of Christ (all Christian believers) universal. However, if
we follow the Jesus model we should be ministering to both the outcast and the
upright. The hardest part about living for Christ in the church is the same as
living for Christ in the world. Standing up for Christ is unpopular. People
won’t like you. People will assume you’re an idiot and they will try to drive
you out of town.
It’s hard
to go to church when people think you’re stupid. It’s hard to go to church when
they are missing the mark. It’s hard to talk about the Bible when others want
to talk about budgets, mortgages, and carpet colors. That’s why we don’t.
That’s why people like us have to be in the mix reminding people that if Jesus
isn’t number one, then lets go fishing on Sundays.
You do what God tells you to do. End of story. But if we stop going to church because people are dumb then we aren't listening to God we're listening to man. All man will ever do is try to push you off a cliff.
Image found at: http://www.holyinnocents.org.uk/library/jesus/colour/jesus_teaching_in_the%20Synagogue%20(700x794).jpg
I once
heard a pastor read about John the Baptist and he said, “You have no idea of
the context here. To say that John was ‘Dressed in camel’s hair with a leather
belt eating locust and wild honey’ is the equivalent to saying ‘John had a foot
tall green Mohawk, punk vest, and kilt and ate what he found in garbage cans.’”
This resonated with me for obvious reasons, but it is much deeper than “God
uses weirdoes.”
The way we
live our lives should not make sense to the World. That’s not to say we should
run around overtly offensive and odd but we should stand out a bit. Our desires
should be different because God has changed them. Our view on the world should
be different because He has taken the scales off our eyes.
Our
behavior change needs to bleed from a changed heart or it doesn’t matter.
Church is not about getting single people to have less sex or getting punkers
to shop at Old Navy. It is so much deeper. It is about the fabric of which we
are made not the fabric of which our clothes are made.
We are so
afraid to offend because so many Christians in the past have made themselves
offensive as opposed to let the Gospel do it’s thing. The Gospel is offensive
enough. We don’t have to use our behavior modification techniques and guilt
about our mortgages to add to it. If somebody is offended by the Gospel of
Christ, good, God is using that. If people are offended because of us then we
need to knock it off.
This is
hardest when we want to fit in. We don’t want to get all camel’s hair and
locust so we rush to the other side of everything is okay. We either try to get
people to not accept us up front or we beg, borrow, and steal to get people to
like us. This is short sighted and defensive at best. I need to trust that God
is in every interaction and in every reaction.
This is a
fine line to ride on. Sometimes we doubt that we are serving God because nobody
is listening. God doesn’t guarantee that people will listen and change their
lives. Some will, some won’t. Look at the ministry of Jesus. Where the faith in
Christ comes needs to take hold is in how we decide what to do and when we need
to change. John the Baptist didn’t change his message or tactics even when it
made him unpopular. This only shows his faith in God.
“He must
increase, and I must decrease,” was one of John’s famous lines. If we apply
this to our love for God we will spend a lot less time wondering about how we
should be behaving around people.
I heard a
sermon about Jesus getting anointed by the sinful woman and the pastor pointed
out a nice bit of irony. The expensive perfume that this adulterous woman had
in the alabaster jar was probably what she used to entice men into her bedroom
or what she used afterwards to get rid of the stench of her sin. Either way,
there she was, pouring it out on Jesus’ feet, mixing it with her tears, and
wiping it with her hair.
The people
at the party had the snide, Christian comment of, “If He knew what kind of
woman she was He wouldn’t let her do that.” Hooray for missing the point. Jesus
knew what kind of men they were and He was eating food with them. At least she
was real. At least she came in with a humble heart, the truth of her situation,
and all that she clung to.
What’s in
your alabaster jar? Mine is the desire to be accepted. I need to know people
like me and care about me. I’m really an insecure egomaniac. That’s what I
bring to the Master’s feet. That’s what I use to get what I want or cover up
the stench of my failure. I’m in constant need of “Ataboys.” Whether it is
kudos from my boss, followers on my blog, obedience from my kids, or affection
from my wife: I vainly thrive on affirmation.
This woman
was probably similar to you and me in this respect. Yes, I’ll lump you in too.
I only know you because you’re human and you do stuff to fill voids just like I
do. This lady probably became a floozy because it’s easy to get quick love and
affection from sex. I would even be as bold to say that like the rest of us, the
more she received it, the more she needed next time to get her fix.
So she did
what all us posers and fakers deem unthinkable. She took the very symbol of her
biggest issue, regardless of the cost, and poured it out as an offering to
Jesus. She was admitting that she couldn’t fake it anymore. She was admitting
that it wasn’t working.
I bet she
was the only non-divine being who left that dinner with peace, joy, and
fulfillment. She had an epiphany, a salvation moment; she had a true
interaction with God. She was surrounded by bullshitting hypocrites who were
trying to put her down and she said, “No, I’m going to Jesus!”
Here I am
plowing through all this again. It feels like I’m dealing with it for the
zillionth time. I can’t wait ‘til these distractions go away. I can’t wait ‘til
my doubt because obsolete and my faith becomes sight. I put some much time and
effort into these things that I will one day just lay at the feet of Jesus. I
can’t wait until the day I don’t have to worry about filling my life with stuff
that I know doesn’t work but I do it anyway.
This idea
that the Bible is a cute book of stories for right living must have been
perpetrated by some one who ever read the Bible in it’s entirety. The Bible is
full of grade A screw ups that end up in situations where no philosophy, good
deed, or moral imperative could possibly help them. The heroes of the Bible end
up in places where God must intervene or the hero will die or at least look
horribly foolish.
“Aha! So it’s
all about getting people to ascribe to a religion! It’s all about making people
live a certain way to get a certain thing!” I would lean towards that point of
view myself if the Bible wasn’t also littered with reminders that we aren’t
saved from our daily calamities by being pious and religious. Those who were
cute, pious, religious, and good for the sake of getting stuff from God were
often humbled, told off, or eaten by the ground. Religion saves about as much
as a broken seat belt.
The Bible,
in its entirety, is horrid for controlling the masses. When the powers at be
attempt to use Scripture in that capacity it always fails. Some punk always
goes and reads it for what it is and listens to what it actually says, and that
flips the whole system on its ear. We fall prey to all sorts of evil, secular
and religious, when we start reading and following, solely, other people’s interpretations
of Scripture. Other people’s opinions are a poor substitute for the Spirit of
God.
In years
past, and in other parts of the world, people fought and died to be able to
read the Bible for themselves and let the Spirit of God speak directly into
their lives. Now, in this culture, we happily give up our rights to read the
Word of God and have Him lead us so we can have a “Purpose Driven Life” or make
“Everyday a Friday.” I’d be pissed at the people writing all this stuff if it
was there fault. It’s not. The fault lies in those of us who will settle for
less.
The rub is
this: if we search enough we can find other people to back up what we think or
feel about scripture and God. But like my favorite English professors used to
say, “I don’t give a damn about what you think or feel the author is trying to
say, what is he saying?”
Pray. Talk
to God. Read the Bible and do what it says. Don’t be a robot and don’t fear man
or their opinions. Read the Scriptures for what they are. The Author had a very
specific purpose in mind when He wrote it. Anything else is man’s selfish,
ignorant, ambition.
Those of us
who have been saved often forget it’s exactly that: Salvation. We don’t get
better. We don’t grow up and deserve Heaven; we get saved. We get pulled from
the fire. We are dragged from the burning building. We are snatched up from the
sea. Saved. Self-Righteousness is born out of the forgetting that. Crazy
fundamentalism and ugly Unitarianism is often born of that forgetfulness.
We get into
a very, very rough place when we start comparing ourselves to others. Granted,
it is as natural a thing to do as breath, but it is still detrimental. When we
compare we start to justify or vilify ourselves. As long as we know that there
is somebody worse than us or better than us we can go through our day. We want
the hierarchy. For those of us with a rebellious streak we like to have
something to prove that we’re better. For those of us with a follower’s streak we
like to see that people are better. It is nice, easy, and organized.
Today, I
finally understand the whole “first shall be last and the last shall be first”
thing. It’s not about trading places but becoming equals. One day it will only
be us, our shit, and God. The only thing standing between damnation and us is
Jesus. That’s where the equality comes in.
How
bassakwards is that from what we’ve been taught? Religion and God is supposed
to promote our inequalities. It’s supposed to separate the good from the bad
and who is to say what’s good and bad anyway? We’re taught that equality is
when we focus on how everybody’s inherent goodness.
The Bible
says differently. Equality comes when we all stand before a perfect God and see
how imperfect we really are. I am no different than anybody else. I’m no worse
than anybody else and I am sure as heaven and hell not better than anybody
else. That is true equality.
Preacher
who was saved at eight or felon who got saved on death row: equal in the sight
of God. So the last don’t go to the front of the line and the first to the
back: everybody stands together.
Faith like
a child…Become like a one of these…or Jonah in the whale.
Our entire society is in high gear to push people into “adult hood.” Then when
we are there they continue to push us with words like “professional” and
“responsibility” or “success.” To sound very juvenile: FTS, really?
I’ve seen
it. I’ve seen people get everything that we are told to achieve and they are
miserable. I’ve seen people with the highest level of education, the highest
level of money, and the highest level of success in their chosen field and all
they are looking for is that next level. “…Let the little children come to me…”
When the focus is turned inward it is always found wanting. We can only better
ourselves so much. We can only go so far and the ladder is only so tall.
What do we
find at the top of the ladder? We find a bunch of pissed off, entitled little
bastards nipping at our heals just trying to pull us back down. So many people
view other people’s success as their personal failure. I’ve seen this in the
World and the Church. If that person who is not as good as you or not as
educated as you or doesn’t think the same way as you is somehow put on the same
playing field as you then obviously they cannot be congratulated. They must be
stopped. They have nothing to offer you and your fancy degrees. They must be
destroyed or passive aggressively attacked.
…Like one
of these…Faith like a child…it is so simple. My son is entertained simply. He
feels loved simply. He feels success simply. He feels anger simply. With Jesus
pointing back to us being like children and being His children He reminds us of
our place in the Universe. We are all God’s children. We must act accordingly. We
must live simply. We have no control over the biggest things. God wants us to
trust Him. Why? He wants us to trust because we’ll worry ourselves crazy trying
to keep up with everyone else. He knows why we’re here, He knows what we need
to do, and He knows what the outcome will be. It is simple.
As the days continue on I see how I
am not of this world. I don’t care about what they care about; I
don’t think the way they think. The stuff that all of these, professional,
career driven, 401k-ing adults get excited about doesn’t get me going. I need
more then a paycheck. I need more then a retirement plan. I need more then
employee of the month.
Everyday feels like a little more paint is being
peeled off the window. One day I will see clearly what now is so foggy. One day
this too shall be made right.
I don’t see
God tearing people or countries down without a reconciliation plan. The times
in the Bible God says, “Go wreck house and level them, leave no survivors” are
relatively few. If you do a cursory study of the history of those people you
can usually see why God said that and most people often agree. If God’s desire
for mankind were total annihilation then He would've done it in Eden. If God’s
desire were to let us do whatever and have to relationship with Him or to
destroy us while He watched. He wouldn't have sent/come as Jesus.
We don’t
view our thinking as flawed yet we are okay to point out how God’s is all
messed up. If we can justify how we’d do it that way, why we’d do it way, then
we act like we’re better then God. The issue is that God can see the entire
Universe and eternity at the same time and we can only see our little
microcosm. I've met a lot of arrogant people in my time but I haven’t met
anybody who said they know everything that’s going on in the Universe and
eternity all the time.
It’s
because of His knowledge and love that God has been in the business of
reconciliation since the second we started the business of sin. It was
automatic. Adam and Eve sinned and in that first conversation afterwards God
gave them a hint to His plan. It
is never God that bucks reconciliation. It is never God who pushes away. I
understand getting pissed at God for when bad stuff happens. It’s a gut
reaction. But if we sit back, take inventory, we can see that this was not His
original plan. We can’t let that keep us from seeking his aid. We have a
tendency to think we’re going to show God what’s up by not listening to Him
when it was not listening to Him (or somebody else not listening to Him) that
got us in this mess in the first place.
Yes,
God will tear down our sin. He has to destroy it because it separates us from
Him and us from what He made us to be. Yes, that will hurt. But let’s be fair,
shall we? God’s final answer to sin was letting Himself get torn down in the
place of it all. That’s what makes God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit different
from other religions. That’s what makes God’s plan so much better: It’s
personal.
There is no
formula or equation for this. Either you are listening to the Holy Spirit or
you’re not. We are either obeying the commands of Love or we are not. If we are
seeking gray areas it is out of our sinful nature.
We can’t
forget Grace. We can’t forget love. That’s what the Spirit of God gives us.
It’s out of Grace and Love that we are reconciled to God and are capable of
doing anything productive.
Why do we
look for the catch? Why do we look for the trap door? So much time and energy
is wasted on debating this minutia.
Do I have
the Spirit of God in me and am I obeying it in spite of the possible
“ramifications” in this temporal world?
I wonder if
this whole identity struggle ever leaves. Israel always seemed to have issues
with it, Paul addressed it, and it all came back to the Holy Spirit.
I love
Jesus and I like Punk. I love serving Christ and telling people about Him and I
love to slam around in the circle pit. I guess it’s hard because the air and
persona that goes along with punk isn’t all me. I’m not looking for a fight. I
didn’t come off the streets. I don’t hate anybody.
If
I’m supposed to go and be a missionary to a culture perhaps it should always
feel a little uncomfortable. I am different because of Christ. That’s not just
with the punkers, that’s with anyone who’s not saved.
Fourteen
songs, twenty-four and a half minutes. I haven’t picked up a punk record in a
while that had an average of less then two minutes per song. The Old Timers’
disc Soli Deo Gloria is a powerhouse of hardcore punk reminiscent of
Minor Threat, and The Business. This angst-ridden album reminds me why I got
into punk in the first place.
The crunchy
guitars and fast drums are a great companion to the screaming Scottish tinged
vocals. The lyrics leave no one safe. The Old-Timers are mad at self-righteous
religious folks, poverty, the government, and culture at large. Unlike most
bands that just bitch and complain The Old-Timers offer a solution and that
solution is Jesus Christ.
Now stop
right there. I know what a lot of you punks are thinking. Yes, listening to a
lot of Christian Punk is like getting stuck behind the school bus on your
morning commute, “Oh, for cryin’ out loud! Can’t we just be done with this?” I
assure you, this is not the case for Soli Deo Gloria. Not often does a
Christian punk (dang near, Oi!) band actually have the chops to be able to pull
off a record that can be enjoyed by more than just pastor’s kids looking for a
way to piss off mom and dad.
The album’s
“Intro” drives it right home that this will be a fast paced, circle pit, punch
in the face record. On top of that it leaves nothing to the imagination as far
as the lyrics go: “We’re the Old-Timers pressing on/longing for the day we
go home/ Holy, Holy, Holy, worshiping the Ancient of Days.”
This bleeds
well into the pro-Jesus, anti-religion track “Adoni’s Agape” which then
transitions perfectly into “This City” which leaves nobody unscathed. For the
rest of the album they pick apart everything from how we rebel, to how positive
thinking isn't enough, and of course how we all need a little more circle pit
in our daily lives.
This band believes that Jesus is the answer
to all of societies problems just as much as Bad Religion thinks He is the
cause. It is no preaches no more about Jesus then the Dropkick Murphys preach
about the plight of the working man. It rails hard against religious hypocrisy
and governmental and social negligence. There is no lack of confidence in this
band. They take full control of the medium and the message. There is no doubt
that they are true punkers but more importantly true Christ followers.
I
give Soli Deo Gloria a solid 8 out of 10. This is a great introduction
to these South African punk rockers. You can pick it up at their label, ThumperPunk Records.
Why do I
continually get amazed when the World acts like the World? Uh, duh, right? They
gossip, they lie, they cheat, they blame, they run after success, they are
bitter, they do drugs, they have sex, they think I’m crazy. They are exactly
how I am apart from Christ.
Again, uh,
duh? I wouldn't be upset if a guy in a wheelchair didn't stand to pray, so why
do I get upset when the people who haven’t been redeemed by Jesus don’t act
like people who have been redeemed by Jesus? Apart from Him I can do nothing
and neither can they. The only difference is I know that. That pisses them off
even more.
Most of my frustrations (and probably most of a lot of Christian's frustrations) come from forgetting where we've been. After being submersed in Christian culture for so long we forget that at one point none of this God, Jesus, Spirit stuff made any sense to use either. That's when we become condescending religious nuts. That's when we start acting outside of God's love, grace, and wrath. That's when we, ironically, start acting a lot like what God saved us out of.
The whole foundation of Christianity is Jesus' redeeming work on the Cross. The whole foundation for that is God's love for us and our inability to fix the problem of our sin. That realization should allow us to show Grace, and only Grace to those who are no different than us.
Lord, help
me show Grace to those who don’t know You and act accordingly.
So I prayed
about being a Christian Punker. I gave it to God and I got the same thing I got
when I prayed about my comic books years ago: Go for it, but if people aren't getting saved, what’s the point?
I pray and
I found Caustic Fallout radio, Christian Punks Facebook, CYI World Wide and the
Kings Kid’s. It’s nice to be lead towards others like me.
Amos was
just a kooky shepherd who heard from God. He heard some serious stuff, too. He
had fire and brimstone fanaticism stuff that would get him lambasted by Piers
Morgan. God gave Him some hardcore preaching to do. That must have been
uncomfortable to go from talking to sheep to preaching to people.
Switch to
the disciples in the boat worrying about bread. They were so focused on what they
did or didn't do that they missed what Jesus was actually saying. They needed
to realize what was important.
If we don’t
live by faith the locust come in and munch all the things we've built. If we
don’t live by faith in God but only faith in our own bootstraps then all of
this will crumble.
Yes, faith
is action. On top of that it must be incessant prayer and Bible reading so that
when our actions turn from faith to self we don’t head that direction very
long.
For me I
wonder if the punk thing is an action of faith or an action of self. Like most
things I do, the motivation flip-flops. Sometimes it is totally an action of
self. Anything we use to define ourselves, other than Christ, is an action of
self. The question really is, can what we used as an action of self get
redeemed to be an action of faith in Christ?
Sometimes
it starts in faith and moves to self (i.e. helping people, ministry, parenting,
marriage,), while other times it starts in self and gets redeemed by faith
(i.e. your job, your marriage, desires, hobbies, etc). I truly want to glorify
God and watch people come to faith in Christ. I also want to stay punk. The
question is, if God told me to toss all the punk stuff and become “cute” would
I?
I don’t
know. I want to say I would, but why lie in my journal?
“Lord I
wanna love you…with all of my heart…all of my heart…” –Keith Green
Lord,
that’s all I have today. That’s all I have any day. I have nothing to offer
anybody except loving You. I don’t want to fake it or trivialize it. I just
want to love You more. Let that be what people see when they see me. Holy
Spirit, I pray You would be the number one person in my life and that people
would see You and be called by You.
Wow. 2013. It's a New Year alright. Happy Tuesday. To start off the New Year you get an off the cuff invitation to the inside of the Exyle Dome. We have plenty of seating, no admission fee, and no guarantees.
I'm old enough to have had years of total awesomeness and total crap.
01-04 were fantastic.
05+07 were great years.
06 was pretty bad.
09-11 sucked hardcore.
2012 had it's moments of incredible happiness and pain.
If I looked over my three decades I think I would find myself in the positive as far as good vs. bad years. God is faithful even when the locust are hungry. I have a great wife, great kids, a good job, and some sweet tattoos.
I think we love New Years Day because we like artificially mandated times to start over. We really feel that if we try super-de-duper hard this year all of our dreams will come true. This will be my year. This will be the year I run that 5k. I will quit smoking. This will be the year I have sex three times a week, every week. This will be the year my boss finally notices all the hard work I put in. This will be the year I save money for retirement. We need that day. We need January 1st of whatever year to give us a point of reference.
The February 1st rolls around and we wake up, drink a nice tall glass of EFFIT, and lay back down. The gym can wait. Cigarettes are on sale this week. You've got a headache. Your boss is a prick anyway. The furnace blew up. How many days until January 1st? Then man, this year is totally shot, so I will start next year on the up and up and THAT will be my year.
January 1st is a day off for me. It's a day off where I sit at the computer and let the kids run wild because my age is catching up to me. Who the hell needs to see midnight anyway? That is such a stupid time of day to be awake. Am I saddened by this? Am I as hopeless and crotchety as I sound? No. I refuse to bitch and complain without having the answer.
Everyday is new for me. Does that sound as cheesy as it feels to write? It's true. I have been blessed with shorter spurts. Everyday, week, month, minute, hour, what have you, it's all new. I know that the second after I screw up I can start over. I know that the second I spill the milk I can clean it up. I know that the Monday I skip the gym there's a Tuesday with my gym bag already packed. I know that just because the kid was up all last night puking and my wife doesn't want to see me doing anything but schlep a mop and pail that there is another night on it's way.
What's my secret? How do I have this mindset? Well for four easy payments of $29.95 I'll tell you....okay, I'll tell you anyway:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24
Does this mean I have it all figured out and I have no issues? Yah, no. If you even think I feel that way read the rest of the posts here or follow us on Twitter and you will see why I am under no preconceived notions that I am anything more than another beggar who knows where to find bread. What God has done and is doing in me is too amazing for me to take any credit for. Everyday I feel the fight between my flesh and His Spirit in me.
Everyday is new because He makes it that way. I have received so much Mercy that I know that every minute offers a new shot, a new chance, a new lease. I don't need an arbitrary day because I know what happens when I hit my knees and pray.
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