Lyrics To Make You Think

POD Lyrics
Tell Me Why Lyrics

Happy Independence Day

Love's Revolution

Yeah, I gotta pistol,

     but the clip ain't loaded.

Trying to live a better life

     than what's been promoted.

The manger to the cross, shows

     Love's Revolution is The Way.

Can't argue with the effects

     MLK, Gandhi and Trocme'

Do you hear their pistol shots?

     ...nope silence.

Do you hear their bats clanging?

     ...nope silence.

Do you hear their fists banging?

     ...nope silence.

From the cross to an empty grave, proof

     we are meant to rage with them.

My Brother's of Nonviolence.

To Start with She is UUUgly!

So I guess people are in an uproar over Miley Cyrus' "topless" photos (http://www.hollywoodgrind.com/miley-cyrus-vanity-fair-pictures/)? The real question, and I am shocked that people aren't in an outrage over this, is what about the poses with her dad? Is she his daughter or his child sex slave? Come on what do we pay DHS workers for anyways?

U23D Movie

To: Our Dumbass Government. Free Michael Vick!

I know it has been a week or so now since Vick was sentenced, and his teammates lost their minds, but I agree with them. Free Michael Vick! I don't know if there is a dumber thing to waste tax dollars on than imprisoning a dog killer. If you can get over your emotional attachment to the gruesome way he killed the little puppies, that would rip your throat out and eat your babies, then maybe you can understand where I am coming from. I don't pay my taxes so the government can waste them for two years feeding and housing a dog killer. Make him pay a huge fine. Make him do community service at animal shelters. Put him on probation, and make him pay huge fines for breaking it. Make him start and fund an animal hospital. Don't allow him to ever own a dog, or maybe any pets, or maybe just don't let him own animals that can be used to fight ever again. Put him on house arrest for so long that he will be to fat to play football when he finishes the sentence. Just don't use our money to feed and house a dog killer for two years.

Can't Remember?

If you have a problem remembering what day you are to celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ...

Where he went up on the mount with two disciples, and heard from Moses and Elijah. Where he was told he would go to Jerusalem and in a nonviolent way die for God's creation. Where God told the disciples to listen to his son. Where we are told to follow and not fear.

...well it is the same day America celebrates being the only country to drop an atomic bomb on another country.

I Need More Real Laughter

I went to a funeral yesterday. I know this is a horrible thought, but I think I like christian funerals (I hate christian as an adjective. Sorry.) better than weddings. Weddings are always so planned, formal, and mostly boring. (Plus an extravagant waste of money.) I mean most people, including the bride and groom, have to get drunk to have fun. If there isn't some type of alcohol at a wedding people can't seem to leave fast enough. By the end of non-alcoholic weddings the bride and groom usually have to take turns throwing rice or blowing bubbles on each other. Outside of not seeing your friend or loved one until the after life, which is horribly unfair and painful, funerals are much more enjoyable. People celebrate a life well lived. People share stories. We laugh together, cry together and if we are lucky maybe learn to love each other just a little more. No one rushes out. No one checks their watches. No one gets to many hugs. No one hurts enough, or laughs enough and no one feels guilty for doing either one. There was alot of Jesus talk yesterday, but the guy's spirituality was not what hit me the most. I was really overwhelmed by his apparent love for life. I didn't really know they guy, but I came away with a sense of having lost a chance to have been really loved. I hope I never let my fears of intimacy cause me to miss out on life and love again. I plan to take a look around and see who seems to be really enjoying the here and now, and get to know them.

Girl on Girl? Hot, and Hot is Where You're Going

So over at the SNU MySpace Forum they have a topic going on do homosexuals belong in the Kingdom of God.

This was my reply. (To let you know Gin and I both think loving people is all we are called to do. Unless they are oppressing people by law, religious or other wise, and then I am flippin' tables and twisten' caps fool.)

I see a few problems with this post.

First, people seem to be using Kingdom and Heaven interchangeably. Kingdom is present. Whether people choose to believe and participate or not. That is what the gospel is. The proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The word gospel is a direct stab at Rome. When Rome had a military conquest they sent out the Gospel of Ceaser, or announcment of victory. Thus the Gospel(s) of Christ, or announcment of the establishment of his Kingdom. Heaven is future. A place Christ said, "I go to prepare." So There for, all humans exist in the Kingdom, but do they choose to participate? By that I mean follow The Way. (Freshmen read a book if you are lost.)

Second, although we might be called to judge each others fruit we are not call to judge eternal destination. Bewarned that is the type that comes back to haunt you.

Last, Christ seem to dish out plenty of love and compassion, except on those that bound people by religious law.

I hesitate to point out, because of the sheer ludicriousness of those holding nails still, that you can put gay guy into the samaritian story, lesbian chick into the women at the well, and the homo on the cross that Christ said, "See ya in a few." Can you put you? (Admendment to original. I am not judging the right or wrongness of homosexuality here. I am stating that we view them in the same hands off, overt your eyes and cross the street way that they people were viewed in the original stories. We are call to not have that response. Period.)

It Is Not a Small World After All

I have been to Disney World twice. Both times I rode the ride It's A Small World After All. (Which I imagine is not the real name.) The song is catchy and easy to buy into. Especially in our day and age. Cell phones, government subsidiesed airfair, MySpace, text messaging, Second Life, Face Book, iChat, and so on....

I can see pictures of friends and family all over the net. They can take them and have them sent out with in the hour. I can text my wife at work, and discuss dinner plans. I can go to Europe for $150 bucks on certain days. It sure is a small world.

I can interview, or be interviewed, via web cam for a job in Australia. I can broker a business deal in Second Life in a made up conference room. (Or go to church.) I can catch up with your day to day life on your blog. You get my point.

It is a small world after all.

Or is it?

What do you do when you cousin has his first son? What do you do when two close friends get married on the same day? What do you do when a college friends dad or mom pass? You can't be at every birth, marriage, death, graduation or major event in every friend and family members life. Especially when you don't live close. Especially if it is not a $150 deal to Europe day. Can't get off work. Or what ever combination of life events restrain you.

How small is the world when you need to give a physical hug right now? How small is the world when you want to hold a baby in your arms today? You want to spend that last night with your bro be for he gets married? You want to keep that weekly prayer group going by conference call? How small?

What does our techno revolution do for us then?

We ache for intimacy, and keep pushing buttons to find it.

I just want to set in silence with you my friends, and know peace.

People Empire vs. Jesus Empire

I am reading a book right now called A Peculiar People: The Church As Culture in a Post-Christian Society, by Rodney Clapp. In Ch. 3 Clapp makes the claim that the Church is as real and definable as America, or any other nation. He does this by pointing out how we use maps to establish borders, but that this is really a political weapon. He gives a brief synopsis of how the Oklahoma Panhandle became part of America. I will give you a more brief one. No one should own it according to an agreement signed by Mexico and the U.S. goverment. So we started making it part of Oklahoma on maps, and now no one disputes it. Basically what I take that to mean is Mexico is not big enough to fight for it anymore. Which leads me to my question.

What is the difference between church and state? If as Clapp says the Church is as real, but seperate from, nations on maps, what is the difference? Church in this question is refering to the Universal Church outside of physical location or time frame. Meaning everybody from Peter, Paul and Mary to this current generation.

As I see it only three things seem to be different. The Church should be nonviolent/noncoercive, The Church should be concerned about body and soul. The Church should function out of a sense of compassion towards the world. I say should because we have not always, or currently always, act/function this way.

I can only judge from my understanding of how other denominations and sects of christianity function,compared to my own, but we all seem to mostly function like the government. What I mean is we seem to set up our denominations/sects (from here own out denomination also includes all nonprotestant sects too.) in a governmental type hiearchy. Which then leads to a system based off worldly concepts of power. Those at the top want to stay there, and become motivated by this. Those below are motivated by a need to keep an income. (It seems.)

You can't say The Church is different than The State, because of things it does. They both take care of people. They both build things to help society. They both collect money to do these things. They both establish laws and critiria to define who is or is not, and to judge the peoples rightness.

What I do see is that The State will use violence to protect it's people, and gain territory. While The Church doesn't normally do this, and should never. A nation will use it's laws to force you to do what it wants. You won't go to jail for not paying your tithes. While The Church doesn't normally use physical force, I will admit psychological abuse/coercion is quite common. i.e. excommunication to "those looks". The State ,while concerned with it's people in the here and now, does not have any reason to be concerned with your soul or it's eternal statis. The Church should be concerned with both, and working to improve, heal and save both. The last difference really comes down to motivation. As I stated earlier The Church should be motivated, as Christ was, out of compassion for the world. While a country is motivated out of what is best for it's survival and growth.

Maybe I have missed some difference(s)? Also as I have tried to make clear this is how The Body of Christ should be different, and not how we always are. For that I ask forgiveness of all my pagan friends:) Most of the times we The Seed of Abraham meant to bless the world have failed is because we have allied ourself with the wrong king or president. We are called to be the light, not to hold hands and pat each other on the back.