Whisperings...

Oh give me Samuels ear,
   an open ear, oh Lord;
Alive and quick to hear each whisper
   of Thy Word.
Like Him to answer to Thy call,
   and to obey Thee first of all.

"And my teacher said, 'Billy, if you pay attention to whispers, the annointing of God will be on your life.'"

~ Bill Hybels.

Where Am I?

Intended Consequences by: Jonathan Torgovnik

I do not understand the world. I often feel like the world I see is not the one I live in. How can the same world that celebrates National Secretary Day, have genocide? How can the same genetic design, a human, cry at a wedding, and yet that same design, that same model, can kill the innocent without remorse, or worse, with joy.

I do not understand what we call "the church". How have we sat by for years and years? How did this happen? How have we mistaken our purpose in the past? When did we start arguing over songs? When did we begin to value programs over people? When did everything change? When did our vision move from the community at large to the building on the street corner?

I'm not sure I recognize this world anymore. I only realize now that I've seen it not as it completely is, but as through a stained-glass window. I don't think Christ saw it that way. I think he saw it for what it was. He accepted it, and people. Even the awful ones. He accepted them. I don't understand this.

I don't want a new tv anymore.

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Great article on perspective

Seth Godin is the man. He has an awesome blog and is a profound thinker when it comes to marketing and the art of perception. His most recent article is a really refreshing view on the current state of our country, and really whatever ails ya.

Do You Have 16 Boxes?

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Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
2 When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.

4 The one thing I ask of the Lord—
the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
delighting in the Lord’s perfections
and meditating in his Temple.
5 For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
he will hide me in his sanctuary.
He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
6 Then I will hold my head high
above my enemies who surround me.
At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
singing and praising the Lord with music.

7 Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
Be merciful and answer me!
8 My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
9 Do not turn your back on me.
Do not reject your servant in anger.
You have always been my helper.
Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me,
O God of my salvation!
10 Even if my father and mother abandon me,
the Lord will hold me close.

11 Teach me how to live, O Lord.
Lead me along the right path,
for my enemies are waiting for me.
12 Do not let me fall into their hands.
For they accuse me of things I’ve never done;
with every breath they threaten me with violence.
13 Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness
while I am here in the land of the living.

14 Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

The Life Argument

I'm going to veer for a moment away from my sinful revolution thoughts because I need to get something off my mind and into the tangible. It's the issue of pro-life vs. pro choice.

Presidential voting is coming up and always this seems to be the dividing line. Economy and war and all that... the abortion argument is the front line in every election. But I'm beginning to see it less as an abortion argument and more as an overall life issue.

The pro-choice argument has for years made it's claim that it "favors the life and health of the mother", but that argument should be continued to say "... over the life and health of the child." Now, the church has said that they are killing babies and that it's murder for years. But looking at it a bit broader, the intrinsic argument is much deeper than that. What it is saying, is that one life is more important than another. It categorizes ALL human life into a hierarchy system.

To say you favor the life of the mother is to simply say you agree to the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors have taken for thousands of years. Every doctor taking this oath swears to the protection of life. So to say that a doctor will favor one life over another in the time of birth is ludicrous in it's own account. Mother or child, they both get the same treatment. And in no situation should a doctor say, "Well, the mother is screwed, let's just get the kid." What I am saying is that they should both be equal in importance. Here is an interesting article on the matter.

But that again is the abortion issue, which I think is only the surface of a deeper life issue. The real argument in abortion is that this life is more important than that life. Out of the issue of convenience and importance, this life should be allowed to choose the outcome of another. Looking at this argument at it's root structure, I think we can see a greater scope of influence.

The same argument that says "mother life" > "child life", will eventually (allowing for social gravity) say that "healthy life" > "sick life"; or "young life" > "old life". The fact that there is an argument of one life over another introduces a hierarchy that should never exist in the first place. The reality of truth is that a stance that says "mother life" = "child life" will also allow for "American life" = "Iraq life"; or "Christian life" = "Islamic life". Life = life. There is no order of importance.

I hate to go here, but this argument of one life over another is the origin of the genocide argument. For the sake of these lives, namely, "my life" or "our lives", all other lives in contrary position should be considered forfeit. How arrogant can human beings go in this system?

This argument in it's full and blown out state of being will at the end of itself ALWAYS come to "my life" > "your life". Always. Because humans are self-obsessed, and given to our own devices we will eventually fall back to a self-protection mode. In this light, how unique and wonderful is the message of Christ. "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," John 15:13. In fact, the message of Christ flipped the argument: "My life" < "your life". "I make your life more important to me than my own." Even to the point of "Christ's Divine Life" < "our earthly dirt life". What an amazing choice of humility to flip such a profoundly obvious order of importance; that God would find His own life worth forfeit to save ours.

Look past the obvious pro-choice, pro-life argument. Listen to the candidates, and anyone really, with a different filter. If they favor one life over another (even if they happen to say pro-life), then test the wisdom of their decisions. We may find the presence or absence of Christ more obvious than we thought.

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The sinful "revolution" - pt 2

I realize from the previous post that I've mainly just bounced an idea right of the surface of the obvious. The reason people sin, or more specifically choose a different direction than Godliness, is that they are sinners. The reason people sin is that they are following a basic sin nature instead of a Christ redeemed one. But I think it's more fair to say that people sin because they don't know a different way exists, or they can't help it.

I think there is much more to this than we give people credit for. Christian's are quick to judge others' actions because we are expecting them to make decisions based on our viewpoint. We can't understand why they don't see it our way. I read somewhere recently that everyone generally makes the best decision based on the information they are given. That most people, by and large, are acting on the direction which seems best to them. Under this notion, people aren't sitting around drinking poison for the sake of poison. People drink poison because they think it's grape juice. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a very normal American who purposefully sought arsenic flavored beverages because they loved the taste of arsenic.

Instead, people as a whole have no idea what they are doing. The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit as a light. That He brings about change in people by showing them where they have been blind. It verifies the verse in Amazing Grace, "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see."

In understanding the fallen nature of man, especially the fallen nature of our society and culture today in America, we have to grow into the revelation that people are for the most part totally unaware of the true results of their actions. The more realistic idea is that there is a rampant blindness to truth. We as the church have to get past this idea that people are all suicidal idiots running as fast as they can off a cliff, even though, justifiably, that's exactly what it looks like.

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The sinful "revolution" - pt 1

Tonight I saw a brief history of "the sexual revolution", which occurred in America in the 1950's. It talked about how America lived very pent up during most of it's past and in the 1950's people began to emerge out into the public as healthy sexual creatures. Just prior to the status quo being violently overturned, it was known that people in this country viewed sex as something you just didn't talk about. It was, for the most part, whole heartedly avoided in discussion.

What seems fascinating to me is that people became so quick to overthrow goodness. It seems that all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, our culture suddenly found purity something that wasn't valuable. And their main cause for justification was the statement, "This is just naturally who I am. I should just embrace it. Why fight what you want?"

Why are we so quick to throw away goodness? Why do we refuse to protect purity? What happened in the psyche of the United States that we no longer found the strength to uplift cleanness and wholeness? It's so odd to me to hear the argument that you should be sexually healthy by acting on your impulses, especially if it means acting on them with someone you love. And yet studies and just basic commonsense at this point shows that the result of sex without real commitment takes an enormous toll on your physical, emotional and physical health.

Why do people do what so obviously leads to their downfall?

I made this a multiple part post because this very idea is on my heart as of late; this conflict in all people to do and act contrary to what their heart hopes the best for. It's an interesting question to ask, but I'm beginning to wonder: why do people justify and argue for the things in their life which mean them the most harm, while fighting and ignoring the few true things which would mean their joy?

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