The Foundation of the Kingdom of God

January 19th, 2010

The Apostle John records for us a key exchange between a member of the educated religious elite and authority … and some poor carpenter from the armpit of the world who had never gone to one of their schools.

Realizing that Jesus was indeed someone of spiritual authority, Nicodemus came to him in the middle of the night.  Jesus’ message was one of source and end.

Jesus realized, because of where he actually came from (not Nazareth), that source was important.  Source determines end.

So he begins to teach Nicodemus this by basically saying, “In order see the Kingdom of God, you must change your source.”

Of course the recorded words are: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus reacts with an understandable amazement.  What do you mean?  So Jesus further explains.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus is clearly stating, and not even implying: there was something eternally inadequate in the first birth.  So what must change is the source of things, not just to adjust the things themselves.

Nicodemus’ lack of understanding, despite his immense education and social position, serves to be an example of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus points this out.

“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”

Many Christians and Christian teaching proves how much we misunderstand this, as well.  We use the term “born again” and the resulting testimony in the lives of those who claim it is so far from a “born again” life that the term is a byword and a mockery.

Let’s first understand exactly what Jesus is saying.  Because without this understanding, we can’t really have revelation about the Kingdom of God at all.  We are blind men who claim to see, which is a dangerous thing.  Everything else rests in this one concept:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This understanding will change how you read the whole of the New Testament, and then in that reality, help you to properly appreciate the Old Testament as well.

Jesus is essentially telling Nicodemus that all that he is about is worthless.  It is all by the flesh.  He is, by flesh and blood, a Jew, but that does not enable someone to see the Kingdom of God.  Nicodemus is highly educated in the scriptures and theology.  But that won’t help him see the Kingdom.  Nicodemus is a person of some authority and position, and assuming he is also a person of wealth and stature, but these things don’t give you a better position to see the Kingdom.

The only solution is to count all such things as what they are, rubbish, and plead with God to be born a second time, to be given a life that so transcends such things as to make them worth nothing.  Because without the ability to see the Kingdom of God, they have no worth in and of themselves.

The solution is to change the source from one of flesh to one of spirit.  Then one can see spiritual things.

In the next chapter Jesus makes it clear that “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.”  That the place of worship will not matter, this mountain or another one, but the source of the worship matters.

Why?  Because of its end.  Paul tells us that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.”  The things of the flesh, the things that are by nature temporary, will not inherit the Kingdom of God: nationality, personality, talents, personal achievements, all things that are temporary will end.  The end of the flesh is destruction.

Paul further exemplifies this in Philippians by listing how many things could give him confidence “in the flesh”: his Jewish heritage, his circumcision, his religious education, his legalistic following of the Law.  Paul of all people realized that those things meant nothing.  He had them and was violently opposed to the Kingdom.

So he counted all those things as rubbish, as crap, as nothing, so that he could have Christ and Him alone and a life of true righteous living by faith in God.

The promise given to us is the Spirit.  God did the necessary thing, the promised thing in a New Covenant, where he made available not just repentance and forgiveness, but an opportunity to be born from a different source, a spiritual one.

Jesus’ good confession before Pilate?  “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  It is made of different stuff.

Without understanding the difference between spiritual and fleshly foundations, there can be no revelation or participation in the Kingdom of God.  A life of the Spirit will look drastically different and beyond the understanding of the world.  “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

That’s an absolutely all-inclusive statement.  A truly “born again” life will be led and motivated and empowered by the One unseen.  That will be the testimony of a truly “born again” person.

This is the foundation of the revelation of the Kingdom of God.  No wonder so many misunderstand and misrepresent it.

Peace.

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Seeking First the Kingdom — One Aspect

January 11th, 2010

For those  of us who claim to love and follow Jesus with all our hearts, one statement bears repeated meditation:  Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking of two different perspectives.  The first perspective is the worldly one where your focus is worrying about your own provision (what you will eat, what you will wear, etc.).  The true and right perspective, in contrast, is a focus on the Kingdom of God and the righteousness that results from that focus.

You prove the focus on the Kingdom or your own worldly needs by the choices you make.  The choices you make prove where your priorities lie, not your words or pieces of paper you may have signed.  Proverbs lets us know that even a child is known for what he does.

One of the many aspects of seeking first the Kingdom of God is making your local fellowship a priority.  Jesus spent the bulk of His time with a select few people.  Sure He ministered and called the multitudes, but there was a special relationship with those that, although they also annoyed Him, ministered to Him as He intimately discipled them.  Jesus even testifies in Luke how they “have continued with Me in my trials.”

Every believer needs a local fellowship that they are intimate with and live life with as a family.  This by nature goes beyond your natural family.  Jesus said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?  Those who do the will of my Father.”  Do we really believe this?  Do we really believe that our true family is our spiritual one, not the one of blood?  Hebrews tells the Church to encourage one another daily to keep from unbelief.  The first church in Acts spent all day every day with one another.

The fact that we live differently than the testimony of those that turned the world upside down should not cause us to seek to justify our own lifestyle but to seek the higher way.

This isn’t about a mental belief but a true conviction that determines our perspective and, by extension, how we make choices.

For many Christians, worldly concerns take precedence over treating their local fellowship like a family.  But Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us.  The greatest expression of the Kingdom of God is in His people, and if your investment and focus and priority is there, these other worldly concerns will be taken care of.

A couple more scriptures before we get a little practical.  Jesus says that those that give up these worldly things (houses, lands, family) for Him will receive a hundred fold in THIS LIFE and in THE LIFE TO COME.  So often we hold onto these worldly concerns under a pseudo Christian idea of being a “good steward” and miss the greatest return investment we could imagine.  Ask any investor how much you should invest in an opportunity that truly guarantees a hundredfold profit … they would say everything.

In the parable of the soils, one of the plants was choked out by “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches”.  This creates an unfruitful plant.  And it can be scary what Jesus does with unfruitful plants.

In the search for the things of this world, many allow themselves to be drawn away from the spiritual family God has for them.  This happens with new jobs that make more more money and take more time.  This happens with new houses that are just a little too far now from the fellowship you felt so intimate with.  All because worldly concerns took precedence.

I wish I could find it now, but I heard a sermon once that I still remember vividly.  This pastor said that his church lost more people to their front yards than to sin.  He explained the process.  A man buys a house, usually claiming God’s blessing in his life.  This house is big and nice.  In order to pay for this house, this man has to work a good amount of time during the week, so he doesn’t have time available for the Body and barely enough time for his own family.  Then he’s got the house itself to take care of.  The only time he has to work on the house is on the weekends, so he doesn’t have time to come to Sunday worship times, either.

In some search to have “better things” in life for himself and his family, this man has essentially hid his talent in the ground instead of investing in the most sure way of acquiring true, spiritual and eternal wealth.  You never lose the eternal investments.

Sometimes the new house of the new job takes people physically away from where they fellowship.  The drive, the traffic, becomes too far and people become slowly less involved and have to start “looking for a new church home” … all because they chose to buy a new house.

I’m going to say something that many people won’t agree with and/or won’t like, but it is true.  You shouldn’t choose where to live based on your job or where your physical family lives or the area of town you like or where you found a great deal on the perfect house.  You should choose where you live based on where God has called you to fellowship with other believers as an intimate spiritual family.  This is one very important and overlooked aspect of seeking first the Kingdom.  You must then have faith that other things will “be added to you”.  Instead we seek the worldly things first and think the Kingdom of God and fellowship will be added to us.   Doesn’t work that way.

On to some random thoughts before I close.

So much of our Christian subculture defines us by our flesh and temporal things, and it is tragic.  Many ministries have separate programs based on worldly designations.  Young marrieds.  Singles.  Divorced.  Widows.  Youth.  The elders.  Children.  Personalities.  Political ideas.  Even most churches are racially homogenus.  The larger Christian culture is so segregated that some people actually feel uncomfortable with others not like them.  And they are even encouraged to seek such segregation out by spiritual leaders I can only assume think they are doing something good.

We prove nothing spiritual by being attracted to others who are like us in the flesh. What speaks of Heaven is a people who no longer know one another after the flesh but by the Spirit.  This should be our testimony, but sadly for many, it isn’t.  In fact, giving validity to these concerns keeps us from being spiritually fruitful.  You want to see God teach you and see real discipleship happen in the Body?  Embrace relationships with people who are not like you in the world but are fully committed to Christ and living out the Kingdom and Heaven on earth.  I guarantee it will be uncomfortable, but you’ll end up having a spiritual family based on spiritual things and not because you both like football.

I’ve known people that once they find their spouse, the Body sees less of them, if they see them at all.  Once they have children and a family, the Body must then get squeezed in here and there.  Often in search of being a good father or mother or husband or wife, the Body of Christ gets the raw end of the deal.  Should never happen.

Believe it or not, but this principle works here, too.  You want to be a good husband and father, wife or mother?  Raise your children and love your wife  in context of the Body of Christ as your intimate family.  Include them in your search of the Kingdom above all else.  I speak from experience when I say that the spiritual reward in your family is worth it.

What does it mean to have a hundredfold return on your investment?  This doesn’t mean that if you give money to a ministry God will make you monetarily wealthy.  God might make you monetarily wealthy as you obey Him and seek Him, but that’s not the main principle here.  If you choose the Body over your own career advancement or upward mobility in housing or some other idea of American suburban success, you get more than you gave up.

It is one of the principles of the Kingdom that you cannot give more than you get.  Becca and I have spiritual family around the world, people we feel just as close to, if not closer, than our own family.  We have a fellowship now that fills homes and, more importantly, our hearts with love and support and challenge and encouragement and even rebuke at times.  There are homes around the world that are as open to us as our own physical family might be, if not more.

I’ve lost my job and my family has not wanted for a thing.  The Body has been more of a support to us than the government ever could be.

I can tell you with all honesty that I will probably not die materially wealthy, but I am the richest man I know.

As a final aside, I know many of my military friends might be frustrated with some of this teaching because much of their choices are made for them, especially where they are stationed.  But for many of you, I know you well enough, that those choices you do have prove that you understand this more than you think.  And when the time comes that even that choice is open for you to make, remember the things I’ve said if they ring true to you.

Congrats if you made it to the end of this post!  It was a long one.  Love God and His people above all else.

Peace.

Posted in misc messages, shared life | 2 Comments »

Some Thoughts on Christmas

December 22nd, 2009

santa-claus-kids-cryingFunny how things change.

I vividly remember being one of the few I knew who adopted “house” or “organic” church ideas back in the day, way before it became more popular and buzz worthy.  I remember being more anti-tradition and people getting all upset at me for questioning the status quo.  Funny how some of the same have seen what I’ve seen and become even more dogmatic than I was then.

In regards to Christmas, it is true that most of our traditions around Christmas are non-Christian in origin.  The tree, the presents, and even the date itself are borrowed from pre-Christian Roman sun worship (equinox and all that).

More problematic to me than any of it is the whole myth of Santa Claus.  Let’s look at what some people tell children about Santa as if it is actually true.  He is an immortal man, can do supernatural things, is omniscient, and rewards those who are good based on his omniscient knowledge.  Not only that, but how we’ve taken the gift giving superfatman and connected him to a capitalistic consumer driven season.  He sits on a throne.  In malls and department stores.  And people line their kids up just to tell him what they want for Christmas.

None of this is true, and yet we tell kids that it is.  Multimillion dollar movies are made almost every year based on this myth.  We have a secular media that rarely acknowledges the truth and the foundation for what Christmas is supposed to be about, and yet they highly value and contribute to a myth.

So my kids don’t know that much about Santa.  We don’t make a big deal out of it, but my children know that friends and relatives give them gifts, not some imaginary person.  And we try to be sensitive to those children who believe in Santa Claus by telling Micah that he probably shouldn’t tell them … but for me it is halfhearted because I’m rebel enough to not care if some kids get upset when you tell them the truth.

I remember a wise woman, one of my mothers in the faith.  Her name is Rose Palmer, and she was an older woman from Jamaica, about five feet tall, but I was totally humbled by her on a regular basis.  I remember many of the things she said to me, usually in some sort of loving and stern rebuke, but I will always remember this one thing she said to me when I was a teenager.

She talked about how she never told her children fairy tales.  She told them stories from the Bible.  And those stories are amazing enough, but they are true.

While Micah loves all types of entertainment, he is also in awe of stories about David and Goliath or Daniel in the lion’s den, or the three young men in a fiery furnace.  And he loves to watch movies about Jesus, to hear stories about what He did, who He healed and that He died and rose again.

And I make sure to continually point out to Micah that cartoon characters and superheroes are not real.  Micah told me one time how strong the Hulk was.  I said, “You’re stronger.”  He looked confused.  I explained.  “You’re stronger because you are real.  The Hulk is imaginary and can’t pick anything up.  He can’t do anything.  You are stronger than the Hulk and Superman and all the other superheroes put together because they are pretend and you are real.”  He understood.

Then Micah said, “But God is the strongest of all.”  Why?  “Because He is real.”

I don’t boycott Christmas.  If I boycotted Christmas because of its non-Christian origins and traditions, then I’d also have to skip Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Valentines Day, and a host of others.  Non-Christian origins or traditions mean nothing to me; they have no power in and of themselves, only what we in our ignorance believe about them or give power to.

And honestly, I think that a time to meditate on the birth of Christ is fine and completely healthy, no matter when you do it.  All four gospels have some version of His birth for a reason, and the testimony of how the Word became flesh is obviously essential.

While I don’t boycott the holiday, I do think it is important to focus on what is the truth and the message of the whole deal, and whether our secular society wants to value it or not, it is all about Jesus and Him alone, and by extension, the people in whom He dwells.  By necessity, that means that other things that are completely unnecessary distractions and substitutions, like Santa, have to get way less focus or are ignored completely.  It is opportunity cost, to use an economic term.  In other words, all that time I could spend getting my kids to believe in Santa, I could use to teach them about something real and much deeper.

And I won’t have to admit it was all a myth at some point in the future.

Those are my thoughts, for what they are worth.  I hope that we all use the time our culture gives us not to save an economy or uphold empty traditions but to invest our time to the things that have eternal weight.

Give to those in need.  Feed the hungry.  Clothe the naked.  Spend time with those you love.  Try to be the gift instead of getting them.  The world needs that a whole lot more than another dumb movie about Santa Claus.

Peace.

Posted in misc messages, personal stuff | 1 Comment »

The Lord Surrounds His People

December 17th, 2009

I’ve been reading through Psalms lately.  Just feeling like I need to concentrate there for a while …

Of course, being the Bible, there’s a ton of good stuff.  But I thought I would share just a bit from Psalm 125.

Particularly, the verse “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”

This verse has many implications, but I’ll just share a few.

First of all, Jerusalem in the Old Testament is the Holy City of God, where David set up the capital and Solomon the Temple.  In the New Testament, Jerusalem has become a type and a symbol for the true City of God, His people not by the flesh but by the Spirit, those who are born of (and led by) the Spirit of God.

The writer of this psalm uses the mountains around Jerusalem, a natural boundary against enemies, as a simile for the Lord’s protection of His people.  Actually, the psalm contends that the Lord Himself is the protection and the barrier.

First of all, let’s look at the barrier concept.  This teaches us that Jesus is the only way in.  This way is difficult and natural.  Notice the writer didn’t use man made walls, he used a natural boundary.  Or we could use the buzz-word organic.  Essentially, the way is difficult because we must deny ourselves, seek to lose our lives for His sake before we find true life.

We don’t like to think of Jesus as a difficult person, but in order to truly help us, He must be.  It is his “kindness that leads us to repentance.”  His kindness draws us to see we are wrong and need change at the very core of our being, not just a little adjustment here and there because we’re basically okay.  Even though multitudes flocked to Him at times, He was ultimately very offensive to most people, to the point where Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are not offended by me.”  Which means it is highly likely we will be.

The way is narrow not because it is difficult to understand, but because it requires so much of us.  Unfortunately, we have a Christianity better at marginalizing the extreme call of Jesus in His ministry than actually responding to it.

But there’s no other way in.  Anyone who gets in any other way than through the Person of Christ (and His call which cannot be separated from Him)  is a “thief and a robber”.

To those outside of the true City of God (His people), Jesus is a stumbling block of offense.  To those on the inside, God is a refuge and a source of endless protection.

Back in the day, smart people used to build cities situated where natural barriers protected them: bodies of water, mountains, deserts, etc.  Any attack would naturally be by land or sea, so therefore these things protected a city from invaders and enemies.

So secondly, Jesus is also our the protection against the three main enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.  So once you’ve begun to traverse the narrow way, as difficult as it may seem, you are actually safer in the long run … like, the way long run … you know, eternally.

But there’s also no other protection.  We try to manufacture other things that make us feel safe like programs, paradigms, structures, organizations, political ambitions, and sacraments, but ultimately it is only the Son of God who protects and acts as the boundary and defines the Body of Christ.

Our lives are “hidden in Christ” at the right hand of God.  Therefore Paul tells us in Colossians to look there, in the heavens, where our lives truly exist.

Another important scripture to note in relation to this is when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John.  To the world, the Holy Spirit will reveal, “sin, righteousness, and the judgment of God.”  To believers, the Spirit “will lead you into all truth.”  To the world, the Spirit leads to repentance.  But once you’ve repented, relinquished your right to live your own life, to instead dedicate everything you are to the furthering of His Kingdom, the Spirit takes a different role.  He then “leads you into all truth.”

There are many things I could discuss, but those were the two main points I thought needed sharing.

But one note as I close.  The picture we are given of the people of God is a city.  In Psalm 122 it’s “built as a city that is compact together.”  You are not alone in a city, and the more “compact” the city, the more you have to do to be alone and isolated.  In other words, you weren’t designed to do this alone.  You need a fellowship of people to walk this out with on a day to day basis, to live closely with, those who also do all they can to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, who make the Kingdom the foremost thought in their brains.  It’s really not designed to work any other way, no matter how clever we think we are.

Peace.

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The Rise of Hate Crimes During Recession

November 24th, 2009

Interesting article today in the USA Today detailing how hate crimes, which are somewhat problematic too define, have risen over the last year, more than likely as a result of the economic recession.

The article spent time talking about how hate crimes against blacks and gays and lesbians have risen, according to FBI reports, 8% and 13% respectively.

But the most interesting part of the article was that hate crimes against Catholics have risen 23%, more than any other group.  The reason given?  The targeted Catholics have conservative viewpoints, they are pro-life and anti gay marriage rights.

All hate crimes are wrong, but it is compelling to me that the sharpest rise of victimization are those with conservative religious moral viewpoints, and that total religious victims (which I’m sure included hate crimes against Muslims, Hindus, evangelical Christians, etc) were second only to those due to race (all racial groups).

Peace.

Posted in misc messages, sounding off | 2 Comments »

Defining God

November 17th, 2009

I’m borrowing heavily here from a number of different sources, namely Plato’s cave analogy and some comments by Tozer, but I’ve been meditating on this a lot this week.  So I thought I’d share.

Let’s assume a man born blind, who had never seen color.  How would you describe the color red to him?  You would, by limitation of the subject, have to use other senses to attempt it.  You couldn’t give objects that are red, by the same limitation.  You would have to relate it somehow to sound or smell or touch.  To say the least, it would be difficult.

There is the great old t parable about the blind men who all come upon an elephant.  One touches the hide, one a leg, another the trunk and another a tail and so on.  Bound by their experience and limited by their perception, they each give a different definition of an elephant, which is not an elephant at all.

But what is needed to truly understand the color red or the elephant, is a completely different sense altogether.  The blind men in these analogies need to SEE.

God is the only uncreated being that exists.  And since our only experience is with other created things, we by nature have a faulty definition of God.  We are material and “fleshly”, while God is Spirit, not immaterial necessarily, but made of a different material altogether.  And the only way to have a true understanding of God is to have relationship and experience with Him by that different material … the Spirit.

This is why many people of all theological and political camps serve a very worldly God.  They can only relate to Him through worldly things and therefore can only define and see Him as such.  This ultimately becomes a “work of their own hands” and idolatry since the God they are worshiping is not really God at all.

Even Jesus came up against this limitation.  How often He said, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like …”  But the Kingdom of Heaven is not a pearl or a field or a servant or whatever.  While some teach that Jesus taught in parables to help people understand, the scripture tells a very different story … He told parables as a type of obstacle to see who truly wanted to know God.  Because while the parables related some truth, they were still by nature worldly and must be gotten past to get to the root of truth, a spiritual truth.

We can read the Bible and go to theological schools or what have you, but all that is learning ABOUT him.  That’s like me reading all I could get my hands on to read about my wife, looking at nice portraits of her that others have done, all the while she sits in the room with me.  I could look her in the eye, touch her face, know her intimately.  And yet someone has made me believe that reading books and looking at pictures is actually having a relationship with a PERSON.

If I could trace the problem with Christianity back to one thing, it is this.  We’ve been convinced, and have passed this on to generations, that knowing about God is the same as KNOWING Him.  It’s not.  And yet we settle for something less, arguments about doctrine and theology, as if taking sides on predestination or the sinners prayer means you actually know God.

So how do you have this experience, this relationship with God?  it is reserved for the select few (it is difficult and therefore a narrow way) that will seek after Him with their whole heart.  It is simple, but some people want to live their own lives way too much to truly seek after Him with their WHOLE HEART.

And through the grace and faith available through Jesus, we are given the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This is completely necessary, because what we’ve been given at that point is a new nature, the scripture calls it the “new creation”, and it is a new creation because we have been given the ability to see on a whole new level.  With the Holy Spirit, we are given the uncreated nature to properly commune with the uncreated God.

Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.”  The Greek word there is actually “spirit-truth”, not spirit and truth, as if you could separate the two.  Seeing the whole elephant makes certain arguments unfruitful.  Experiencing God in Spirit gives the proper perspective.

One of the most mis-quoted scriptures is in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has entered into the mind of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”  And then we stop there, throwing up our hands and quit (usually as a license to live our own lives the way we want).  That isn’t the end of the thought, though.  It is only the setup.  The next thought is “but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, and the Spirit searches ALL THINGS, even the deep things of God.”

This isn’t to completely throw all theology out the window.  You can call a monkey an elephant, but it isn’t actually an elephant.  God does have aspects of Himself that are true and unchangeable, no matter what our modern sensibilities might think archaic or progressive.

It might surprise you, but God doesn’t really care what we or celebrities or philosophers think of Him.  He is.  Take Him or leave Him (I would strongly suggest the taking part, as difficult as it is … way cooler in the long run), but He’s not changing, nor is he in need of enlightenment or a modern makeover to be relevant.

But we make the mistake of taking those theologies and doctrines, some of them very true and central, and using them as a substitute for actually knowing Him deeply and intimately.  And by such substitutes, we must rely upon modern day priests to mediate for the laity.  Doctrines are passed down but not what truly matters: do you hear God talk to you?  Do you obey when He speaks?  Communing with God gives life to truth, otherwise you’re parroting words.

You have to see God by the Spirit to truly follow Him.  Otherwise you’re just following another man’s walk, if you’re that lucky.  He might be only describing God’s butt, and then writing books and starting a whole denomination based on his experience with God’s butt.

As a leader, I have for some time focused my concern not on doctrine alone (yes, important), but more importantly on whether or not people know God.  Really know Him.  Why?  I completely trust the Spirit to do exactly what is necessary.  I believe that God wants people to follow Him more than I do, and He woos and calls.  I try to be very sensitive to whether people are following the call to Christ Himself or to me or my teaching.  There is a difference.

Unfortunately, many other leaders I talk to see this as leading to chaos.  I think God can be way more in control than we or our organizations can be, and it will look much cooler and be so much more genuine when we let Him be the Shepherd He wants to be.  And I also heartily believe that the world will see an expression of Christ through His people not seen since the first couple centuries.  Maybe even greater than that.

But I’m pretty weird sometimes.

So in conclusion, I encourage you (and myself … this journey isn’t done for any of us!) to get to the place where you hear from God and obey the Spirit when He speaks to you.  Let me warn you though.  This is not for the faint of heart.  You will probably say “woe is me” a few times and feel like you’re dying to what you want a lot of the way.  But you’re being built into a habitation for Him to dwell in and express Himself through, if you’re willing.  You’re basically trading your life for His life.  You can’t have both.  But in the end you don’t get to keep yours anyway, so it’s a pretty good deal.

Peace.

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Politics and Compassion

November 14th, 2009

If anything convinces me that I don’t want to be a liberal or a Democrat, it is the way they treat others who happen to disagree with them.

Ironic to me that those supposedly dominated by compassionate ideals would say such horrendous things about another human being.  And the only true distinction made is political beliefs.  Rapists and adulterers are defended ad nauseum if they happen to support liberal causes, and perfectly fine people, at least as far as we know, are accused of the most horrible motivations.

I’ll give an example.  For some reason, Sarah Palin is the beneficiary of such hate in ways that would appall liberals if the same actions were levied against one of their own.  How would they feel if conservatives made T-shirts calling Pelosi or Hillary Clinton a “c*nt” or hacking in her private email or burning down the church building she attends?  This doesn’t include the constant references to her being “stupid” or an “idiot” or her abilities as a wife or mother, which again, would be a reprehensible attack against feminism if done to a liberal female political leader.

Of course, the way George Bush was attacked for 6 or 8 years was borderline insane.  It is not insane to disagree with his political ideas, even all of them, but insane to interpret everything he does as not only wrong but motivated by some deep evil intent.

As I’ve made my own observations or opinions known, I’ve been accused of just blindly accepting all conservative beliefs, and someone who is supposedly my friend recently implied that any misgivings I might have about universal healthcare is related to a desire to see more poor people die.

Others might be different, but for me, that’s probably not the way I’m going to begin to consider a differing view, and that’s for two reasons.  Number one, it shows a lack of an ability to truly hear what another is saying, which by nature means that no intelligent conversation or exchange will take place.  And two, if you have to insult others to make your point, you don’t actually have one.

All of this has led to my stubborn refusal to question Obama’s deep motivations while disagreeing with his policies and ideas.  Because seeing the ugliness of that level pervasive in the media, I choose not to step down to it.

It is my right, and some might even say duty, to disagree with leadership where conscience dictates, and it is the duty of citizens and educated people to critically analyze the ruling power, but I cannot know the deep motivations of the heart of another man … unless God somehow reveals them to me.

There were things Bush did that I did not think were wise, but for all I know he did them out of a desire to help and do a good thing, as wrong as those things might have been.  I feel the same way about Obama.  He truly believes that doing certain things will help others.

And even my stubborn refusal to question Obama’s deep motivations have gotten dirty looks from my conservative friends at times.  Of course my conservative friends are just as capable of saying the same types of things.  Like “Obama wants to destroy our nation” or other things.  And when I open my big mouth to make sure I don’t take part in questioning aspects of character I can’t know, then an awkward vibe settles on the room.

And where Obama has done things that I think are good or positive, I have and will continue to acknowledge those things, something most liberals were not able to do for 6 years or so for the previous president.  And I will not oppose something just because Obama does it.  That is also a sign of closed-mindedness that is unhealthy in life, not to mention a republic.

To be honest, I kinda feel for Obama at times.  While I disagree with 90% of his policy, the dude can’t swat a fly at a speech or try to encourage students in education without someone making more out of it than it is.  So this is also a suggestion to my more conservative friends to disagree on issues of substance and be willing to listen and weigh things out before reacting.

And to those of my liberal friends who are willing to engage in real life and realize that politics is largely forgettable in the grand eternal scheme of things: thank you for listening to me express my view at times without questioning my character or intelligence.  I hope to continue to make informed decisions of my own and respect the rights of others to do the same.

Peace.

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Welcome Back from the Jungle

November 13th, 2009

About a year and a half ago, I got more serious about my songwriting.  I’d been seen by others, and even saw myself, as a fairly gifted and talented songwriter.  So as my desire to be the “artist” or performer has somewhat subsided, I decided to try and concentrate more on seeing if I could just write songs and possibly sell them.

While I realized this was difficult, I can say even now that I had only an inkling of an idea of how difficult it could be.  Not impossible, surely, but one of the more difficult things I could try to accomplish in this life.

And the humbling part has been the realization that while my songwriting has been top notch for local bands and the local scene, I seriously needed to work more on the craft of songwriting, especially as I began to explore a new genre and style for me: contemporary and modern country.

Now, those of you who have known me for a long time, you know that the last thing I would have ever found myself writing or enjoying was country.  But country music has changed over the last ten to fifteen years, and I’ve enjoyed it more and more as it has changed.  It is no longer the country of Randy Travis, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Hank Jr., and George Jones.  A more modern rock and pop sound has dominated modern country in recent years, just with a more country flavor.

While I’ve heard other people grimace at such a change to their traditional country … I’ve begun to really enjoy the music.

So I joined a little organization called TAXI and have been submitting songs to them, getting rejected, and working on aspects of my songwriting.  Every year in November TAXI has what they call the Road Rally in LA.  i didn’t go last year, but I really felt like I needed to go this year, even to the point of leaving my month old daughter and missing a dear friend’s wedding.

I could take a guest, so my good friend Josh went with me.  I also have some family in the LA area, so I got to visit with them while drinking from the music business firehose.

Registration for the Road Rally started on Thursday night, so we found a cheap flight out to Burbank.  We left my house at 4:30 am and got there at around 11am Cali time.  My uncle Dave came to pick us up and then we did a little drive through tour of Hollywood and downtown LA, which was incredible.  We ate lunch at Phillippe’s, a very popular place in downtown LA that serves French dip sandwiches.  They had ten lines going at lunch, each about twenty people deep.  We each had lamb French dip sandwiches.  Very good.

Then Uncle Dave dropped us off at the hotel and we checked in and got in line for registration.  After registration, I talked with my cousin Rick (one of Uncle Dave’s sons) and he took us to a local Mexican restaurant which was also good.  I hadn’t talked to Rick in a while and it was good to catch up with him.

We got back to the hotel exhausted.  Josh went to sleep and I checked out the open mic in the main ballroom for about an hour before coming back up to crash myself.

The Road Rally is basically a conference with all these seminars with things about the music business.  Everything from songwriting to marketing to publishing and recording.  I mainly focused on the songwriting part of it.

Friday morning started with a great intro by Jeffrey Steele, a highly successful songwriter in Nashville.  He has written songs like “What Hurts the Most”, “These Days”, “International Harvester”, and “Brand New Girlfriend.”  All great songs, and he had a lot of great advice and a great story and even had an amazing performance at the end of his session.  He was definitely a highlight.

Some overall thoughts on the weekend.  If you’ve never been around a host of people who make music and wanna be creative, it is a very cool vibe.  The energy was amazing.  Just being around a lot of people who are passionate about the things you’re passionate about was very encouraging.  There was a lot of meeting new people and networking, and even late night jam sessions … that I didn’t participate as much in, but Josh did!

You also have to be very patient to do what I’m trying to do, and be very good not only at writing but REwriting.  One presenter, very successful in the songwriting business, had his first song on an album after rewriting it SEVEN times.  What if he had given up?  Even then, it took years to see the money from that song.

Jeffery Steele talked about when he was hired to write a song for a boy band in the 90’s.  The band was Westlife, and the song he wrote for them was “What Hurts the Most”, which is, in my opinion, an amazing song.  But Westlife passed.  Seven years later, a country/rock band, Rascal Flatts, recorded it and had a huge hit.  SEVEN YEARS later.

Most songwriters don’t “make it” as songwriters because they’re just not patient enough.  They give up.  One songwriter on a panel talked about moving to Nashville in 1980 and not getting his first song on an album until 1995.  That’s fifteen years.

So while I’m hopefully closer than fifteen years away since I’ve been writing songs for a long time already, what if it takes years to be that good, that connected, and get that one opportunity?  Years of rejection is daunting for any artist, but will the ultimate goal be worth it?  To me, yes.  Others will make excuses.

I am a good songwriter.  Maybe a great one.  But I am not yet a consistently astounding songwriter.  That takes more learning and growing as a musician and writer and just writing lots of songs and continually getting better.

Did I learn a lot last weekend?  I did learn some, but most of it was either learning things I already know to a deeper level or just new bits and pieces here and there.  The biggest impact for me was realizing, especially after hearing professional songwriters talk and share, that I am on the right track to being that good.  And if I’m patient, I’ll get there.

Getting to see my family was also very cool.  I had never just gone to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Sonnie, and getting to see my cousins Rick and Tracy was great.  Tracy is also a musician and songwriter and she’s been getting into trying to write professionally as well.

On Sunday night, while Josh crashed again, I went with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Sonnie to this great pasta place in Santa Monica.  I got the garlic chicken thing, but there was this atomic pasta on the menu that looked interesting.  Aunt Sonnie got it, and when I tried it, I was completely amazed at how good it was.  I should have gone for it!

So in conclusion, I have things to work on with my songwriting, skills to practice, more things to expose myself to.  In the meantime, I need to find a job that can help me support my family, as any aspiring musician or songwriter has done.

For those of you who have been so supportive and encouraging, thank you so much.

Peace.

Posted in personal stuff | 1 Comment »

Some related thoughts on the health care debate

October 23rd, 2009

Been a while since I’ve weighed in, for various reasons, but it seems like Pelosi and the Democrat leaders won’t have the votes to get a public option.

As I’ve said before, I don’t mind a public option in the health care bill.  If all there was to worry about was a public option, I wouldn’t be so worried.  In fact, I would fully support a bill that ONLY had a public “option.”  The conservatives are making way too big a deal about the public option.

But the part that concerns me is the part that remains in the bill.  Penalizing people for NOT having health insurance?  It is in the bill even though a few months ago, Obama said he was against it.  Of course there are several other measures that limits the freedom of the public to make choices (or penalizes or taxes them for them), and puts the power in the hands of the government to choose those limits.  In other words, if it were just about more or better choices for the citizens, then fine.  But there is too much associated with this bill that goes beyond that to control over others, and I just can’t agree with that.

I’ve lived in a country with socialized health care.  And the Korean system was great.  But it didn’t seek control over people as it provided health care.  I’ve seen a system where you can have socialized health care without the communist control, and it was fine.

Peace.

Posted in sounding off | 1 Comment »

Defining Neo-Communism

October 23rd, 2009

Obama isn’t a socialist or a communist.  He’s a neo-communist.

Now, before you think I’m calling him names, I am using these terms in their true sense.  I’m not trying to put Obama down as if he’s a “commie”, or even criticize him, but the correct terminology of his political philosophy and practice is neo-communism.

Socialism and communism are close enough that people get them confused.  They do overlap to a degree, but there is a significant difference between them.

Socialism is, simply, a political belief that it is the job and responsibility of the government, the state, to provide basic amenities for its citizens, especially for those that have not.  Things like housing, food, clothing, education, and now health care are all in this mix.  As many conservative Christians might find it hard to believe, many Christians were involved in the early stages of what socialism looked like in the West, i.e., the Social Gospel.

Communism differs on a couple key points.  While communism also sees the role of the state to provide, it goes even further to guarantee complete equality of station.  One person possessing more than another is inherently wrong, in their view.  In order to insure this, the state must have an inordinate amount of power to enact these changes and force compliance with their view, including the suspension of many of what are human rights, or the rights inherent in any free society: free speech, free press, freedom of religion, etc.  Communism is completely atheistic.  Communism believes it takes a revolution, usually violent, to achieve at least begin down the path towards utopia.

After WWII and through the Cold War, the initial manifestation of communism has utterly failed.  it’s been a failure everywhere it has been attempted.  Some of the most dismal places on earth are communist countries.

What about China and Vietnam? you might ask.  Good question.  Those two countries were extremely depressed economically until they began to embrace capitalistic ideas and morph them into their own.  In an ironic turn of events, China recently encouraged our current president to enact some free market solutions.  Hopefully he listens.

So as traditional communism failed worldwide, communists in democratic nations adjusted their methods, but not some of the basic belief system.  Gone are the notions of violent revolutions and atheism.  Communists realized they could slowly, step by step and without making a big deal about religion, achieve their goals by working within the system to overthrow it from within.  And as long as religion can be manipulated to move them down that path, all the better.

This is not, then, traditional communism.  So calling Obama a communist is not accurate.  But neither is he simply a socialist.  He is of this newer philosophy that I call neo-communism.  Others might use the term, but I haven’t heard it used before.

While the focus on a violent revolution, a revolution is still the goal, however evolutionary the revolution might be.  Behind this evolution are still very strong communist beliefs: the increased power of the state over individual freedoms that will insure equality of station.

The first liberal/leftist response is to call such a notion paranoid or some sort of conspiracy theory nonsense, but it doesn’t take much digging to see that the extreme left, while offended to the public eye, admits such things openly among themselves.  In an unprecedented time in history when everything is recorded and put on youtube, you can hear much of it from their own lips, or read it from their own books.

Obama and the extreme left believes, wholeheartedly, that it is in the best interest of the nation to have more control over the banks, private corporations, and the health care sector.  If there is a problem, or more specifically, if they feel there is a problem, the solution is always more regulation and government control and spending.  In spite of evidence of the failings of such things, things like public education and health care are sacred.  All dissenting opinion is dangerous and must be marginalized as much as possible.

This belief does not make Obama and other neo-communists evil or bad people, necessarily.  They act according to a strong conviction and their own perspective.

But if it looks, talks, and acts like a Marxist, it’s a Marxist.  And no amount of outrage at the term, which is Cold War loaded, i agree, changes the facts.  Obama and the extreme left are neo-communists.

And while the notions themselves are held by more of a minority in our country, because the bulk of the media and the entertainment industry is on board with these principles and the direction, it seems more prevalent than it is … and cooler than it is.

But despite the propaganda to the contrary, many still oppose these principles, both citizens and elected officials.  Even people within Obama’s own party oppose the most extreme of them.

Which is the beauty of a republic.  Differing opinions can exist freely.  And dissent keeps a republic healthy.  The pendulum will swing again and dissent will be healthy then, too.

Peace.

Posted in sounding off | 1 Comment »

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