Bleed Between The Lines

In life we’re given a very special brand of conditioning. When our goal is sustenance we use food as a means to meet that end. When we need rest we use relaxation and sleep to regain our strength. We even go on love finding websites to find a partner to meet our needs. When we get divorced it’s because the relationship was not meeting our needs or our needs changed. This is a very natural response birthed from survival instinct and yet it is a dangerous part of our nature which if left unchecked can lead to spiritual destruction.
When people talk about universalism and spiritualism, their referring to the actions and feelings that keep us high with a feeling of joy, things that give us a feeling of worth or a feeling of completeness. This is a disposable and renewable state of being that is based on endorphins, hormones and natural opioid production inside of our mind. As Christians we sometimes fall victim of this by looking at every part of our walk with God and asking, how can I apply this to my life? We want to know how we can use our growth with God to fulfill some sort of meaningful need. We need to understand that when we find a place in the presence of God we are fulfilling a meaningful need. We have a need for a relationship with God. God is not a Santa Clause figure that brings us gifts and toys. God is a gift and we are blessed because we can be close to him. I find it ironic and tragic that the human desire to keep afloat could be the very thing that brings most to their death. Another way to understand it would be to say that if you make God the goal then you will find happiness. If you make happiness the Goal you will be miserable or as C.S. Lewis said it,

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

I found one of my favorite bible versions ever. Normally I stick with the NIV, and lately I’ve been reading the original language. Many people have strong opinions about what the “right” translation is but few have ground to stand on because a translation is still just a translation. If you don’t learn the original text, then your getting your bible second hand. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly trust many translations and believe that when you read them you are getting the holy word of God but it’s still a translation. Here is a new sort of summary of the bible that I enjoy and I hope you do to. The Brick Testament

I was at camp a few years ago and we’re singing “Feed us, Jesus” a song about going to Jesus for food, when I turn to bishop Sam Grey and say hey do you think they mean let’s go to Jesus and get something to eat, or lets go have some Jesus and potatoes? He laughed and then in perfect timing we overhear a kid right in front of us go hey, maybe they mean fetus Jesus, like before he was born. I was overwhelmed and just darn amused with his shenanigans and that night I started thinking; I wonder if Jesus did anything cool as a fetus. He was still God, I wonder if Mary was like, “Joseph… get me some peanut butter and waffles” and then Boom! there it was and she was like “Jesus!” and he was like “HA HA, I’m so deserving of worship” But then after the first wave of ridiculousness was over I was thinking about what Jesus did do before he was in the womb. Believe it or not Fetus Jesus (this is what I’ll refer to the pre-incarnate Jesus as) was the redeemer in the old testimate. I’ll show you one example.

Hebrews 11:26 talks about Moses choosing disgrace for the sake of Christ, but that was a long time before Jesus,… wasn’t it? Well lets explore. In Exodus chapter 3 God comes to Moses as a burning bush, but if you read the verses carefully it says,
“There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

OK scripture says the Angel of the lord came to Moses, then the Angel refers to himself as the Lord. You guessed it, Fetus Jesus! Jesus being a redeemer isn’t something new, Jesus was there in the beginning and he’s been redeeming people as long as people have been redeemed. Jesus isn’t just a part of God, Jesus IS GOD! The entire old testimate points to Jesus, he’s always been there. As a matter of fact John 14:6 says Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

That means no one, anytime anyone spoke to God in the old testimate, Fetus Jesus! Think about it. I’ll cover this much more extensively in my video ministry. I love you all, remember you’re strangers in a strange land, Divorce the World!

I don’t watch much TV but I’m a big fan of King of the Hill and it’s honest look at the world. In this clip Hank tries to tell the truth about his bosses fake environmentalism and… well just watch.

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We’ve been breaking down the pieces of salvation and now we’re going to look at PROPITIATION. Propitiation is the act of giving a replacement sacrifice and in the terms of the bible refers to the actual act of Jesus dying on the cross in place of us. Propitiation is found in the, “for God so loved the world that he gave.” A nice little note is that giving freely is a natural byproduct of love. Propitiation can also be looked at as a response birthed from God’s great love in response to his holy nature. In Romans 3 Paul writes “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Right there was the Propitiation. It is a complete attack on our pride and feelings of entitlement that we only have place with God because first God Gave.

A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE:

“Doctor, I have an ear ache.”
2000 BC - “Here, eat this root.”
1000 BC - “That root is heathen, say this prayer.”
1850 AD - “That prayer is superstition, drink this potion.”
1940 AD - “That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill.”
1985 AD - “That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic.”
2000 AD - “That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!”

When would killing your child be in their best interest sounds kinda sick when you say it. Under what circumstances would killing your child be a good thing. If you love your child then you would want them to live… wouldn’t you? That really depends on your outlook on the world. How do people die? Is it random? Some people believe that God created the world a long time ago and now it’s just his giant twisted ant farm where he sits back and watches school shootings and little girls getting raped. The bible says that it’s not like that at all, God in his vast understanding has worked out a plan to bring people to him, it’s not about this world it’s about God. This is relevant because God has ultimate control over the entire world; when lightning strikes and someone dies God has control over it, when someone chokes to death on a chicken bone God is still in control, When Hitler killed and tortured people and committed violent crimes against humanity do you think it was his glorious power that gave him the authority to kill or was God in control? You guessed it God was in control. God lets us run freely and spread sin because we have free will and we’ve taken this world from God. He gave this world to us and we screw up but he’s going to use it all to bring glory to himself.
Abraham’s story goes like this, in Genesis 17-22ish God gives Abraham a son in his old age, then he says to Abraham, Take you son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Ok so long story short Abraham obeys and at the last second God stops him from killing Isaac.
Would killing your kid be in their best interest if God told you to? Well think about it, God has control over your child’s life anyway. If he wanted he could take your kids life without your help and there’s nothing you could do to stop him. And also if your child was lying in a hospital bed dying what hope would you have other then prayer. So the point of this lesson, God is more important then your family! I know a lot of people who say that they would put their family before God but that’s just not logical. In the end we’re only here temporarily, if you really loved you kid you would want them to make it to heaven and that takes putting your faith in God and loving Jesus first above all else. As a parent you want to protect your child and if anything ever happens to you, then you pray to God that they’ll be OK. Well if you put them before God there going to learn backwards priorities and put what’s important to them before God and that doesn’t fly well with God. If you put God first then they’ll learn that God is what they need and believe me when their kid is in the hospital and God answers their prayer to keep them safe they’ll thank you. So while God proved with Abraham hat he wouldn’t ask us to take our child’s life, hypothetically if he did it would be in your child’s best interest to bury that knife deep in their chest. (they’d thank you for it in the long run.) Jesus loves you and keep the faith!

Ok so a wonderful thing happened in Christian music. While all the problems I’ve talked about came from over regulation and middle aged men deciding what makes good rock, one sect of the industry wasn’t touched by anything but passion and Jesus, Hardcore Metal!
One of the greatest metal bands on the planet (not one of the greatest Christian bands but one of the greatest bands period) is called as I lay dying. I thought of writing a review that sounded like it came from a metal magazine “Their pounding vocals and gut wrenching guitar riffs…” instead I’ll let them speak for themselves.

1 Samuel chapter 24 is a perplexing chapter for lots of believers. David is being perused by King Saul and the king intends to kill David. This has been going on for a while and then in verse 3

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.” With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Many times after reading that passage I hear people say, “David was crazy, if Saul was there for me to kill then I would have killed him” I want to look at this passage in a very abstract way and talk about a concept that David understood very well. As people we have things and we place certain values on them. Here is my car, I need it for my job. This is my job, I need it for my house. This is my house, I need it for my family. When you add other people into the equation, you can get other results. He hit my car, I’ll hit his face. My boss took my money, I’ll take my time on his project. He came into my house to take my stuff, I’ll shoot him in his chest. Or in more moderate examples; He is sitting in my chair I’ll give him the cold shoulder. He took away my authority on this project, I’ll choose not to participate. You didn’t take off your shoes in my house, I’m not bringing a desert to yours.In our lives we make so many decisions based on our things and what we want to do with them.

I’d like to introduce a simple principal to you that can completely change your outlook on how you live every aspect of your life. The house you live in, it’s not yours. Your wife and kids, not yours either. The very life you live belongs to God. If you are a follower of Jesus then you own nothing. You are simply a steward of Gods things and you should handle them accordingly. I want to make it clear to you that if you are at a restaurant and you witness one person collect all the money use the tip to pay for his own bill and then leave $2 for tip, you could leave it alone and say to yourself that’s between him and God or you could call him out on it and make him do whats right but either choice you make, make it with the understanding that you are dealing with God’s money NOT YOURS! If you can learn to approach life this way than you are bound to please God with your choices more often then not. David understood this and that is why he wouldn’t lay a hand on Saul. David respected the fact that Saul was God’s anointed. God ended up rewarding David and he became king. Remember if we want the world to change then we need to be the ones to change it. Love God, love each other divorce the world!

It was the Easter of 96′ and I woke up to a new type of Easter basket. I was too old for a traditional one so my mother had the Idea of getting me a base ball glove with more age appropriate presents inside. As I peered into the glove I saw one word and one word alone No Doubt. My heart began to race as I remembered the exciting new band I had seen only a month earlier for the first time. I watched and fell in love with punk singer Gwen Stefani. As I looked over the face of the CD I began to feel a strong twist of despair. This wasn’t a CD from No Doubt at all. I was holding a D from a band called Petra that was titled No Doubt. There were 4 very faux-cool men on the cover who looked like they were in their early 30’s. I was horrified. My mother had already seen my excited expression so I couldn’t show any sign of disappointment now. I put on my best poker face and asked my mother what this was and she said, “I told the woman at the christian book store that you wanted to find some christian rock and this is what she suggested.”

At this point I have no desire to bash any band trying their best to glorify God with their music. I would like instead to direct my comments to the Christian music industry in general. The Christian progressive movement always approaches media by looking at the secular world and then copying. This is a horridly backwards trend from the great Christian minds of the past; C.S. Lewis, Tolken, George Washington Carver, John Newton. These people were living fairly recently and they we’re incredibly innovative. It’s sad to see how little creativity is found in main stream Christianity.

As for the contemporary music movement, it’ a joke. CCM has always trailed mainstream music by about 5-7 years and it has a distinctively sans-genuine feel. But as opposed to attacking the superficial things I’ll get to the main reason for my contempt. Christian music is one place where the people in need are completely rejected as stupid and or illegitimate by the people God has called to fill those needs. Music trends are now and have always been about youth. Think about it, the same bands ou listened to as a child are the ones you listen to as an adult (for most people). It is the youth that cry out for a unique voice that gives birth to new and exciting genres of music. Youth drive and define what is cool and yet if you are a christian teen, you are stifled and told to listen to what middle aged board members think is cool. Now I want you to understand that I don’t hate the music itself, I hate the attitude of the industry and it’s treatment of the people it is supposed to be providing for.

My goal is to give to those in need, the way I wanted to be provided for. I can tell you as a teen in the mid 90’s I felt neglected and ignored by those who said their desire was to bring me closer to Jesus. My final words come from a christian song that makes me happy, (as God) If you really love me then feed my sheep.