Our God

Our God is greater

Our God is stronger

God you are higher than any other

Our God is Healer

Awesome in power

Our God.

--Chris Tomlin, "Our God"

The latest religious trend in America right now is tolerance. Now I agree with tolerance, because I think a forced faith is a fake faith. I don't think we can terrorize people into believing what we do. But I don't agree with tolerance in the same way that most people do. To me, tolerance is not saying, "well I think I'm right, but then again you may be right." And it is certainly not, "everyone's religion is right" To me, that is a lack of faith.

I've talked to people on the lines of salvation before. They ask me if I believe that if someone doesn't accept Jesus as Lord they are going to Hell. I always say yes and they always become furious. "How arrogant do you have to be to believe that out of all the religions yours is correct?"

This is an arrogance I can be proud of.

As the song goes. Our God is greater. That is my response to every mythology, every false doctrine, every idol, every worldly pleasure. Our God is greater and higher than any other (yes that means yours Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, Pantheists, etc...) He is awesome in power, He is love, He is Healer, He is Saviour, He is Merciful.

I ought never to brag on myself, yet I do. I don't know why. It's God I should be arrogant (though I believe arrogant is the wrong word) about. It's Him that I should brag on. It's a problem I've had for a while. We all want to be the hero of our own story. Jesus Christ was the greatest Hero of all time and if we submit to Him we become part of the body. We become heroes, but we become heroes in HIS story. It's the only story worth being heroic for. Worth risking everything and offering everything for. It requires bravery.

The world will try to tell us that we are adherents to only one possible solution in the great jigsaw puzzle of salvation. But they are wrong. They are wrong and we are right. If you know me, you've heard me say that before, "I'm wrong, you're right." This time, however, I am not trying to confirm my merely human stance on an argument, but I am defending the very sovereignty of God Almighty. The One, the Only.

We can be famous for any number of things, but as that pioneering Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline said, We're "never gonna be as big as Jesus." What are we doing to look out for His reputation? If you are a CHRISTian you are wearing His name. How are we truly proving that our God is greater? Are we proving it by looking like the rest of the world? I don't know about that. We can't really defend God, He needs no defense, but we are in many ways responsible for His reputation here on planet Earth. We are the body.

A Christian author I admire by the name of Philip Yancey wrote a book addressing the question, "Where's God when it hurts?" He summed it up extraordinarily well when he said, "the answer to that is another question, 'Where's the church when it hurts?'"

Our God is truly greater, but we aren't showing it. Other religions are. Mormons and Jehovah's Witness get evangelism, Muslims understand passion and being radically dedicated to their faith to the point of death, Hindus and Buddhists understand self-denial and leaving behind the love of this world. What do we understand?

I think there is much hope. That's understandably odd of me to say after a long string of critical responses to the American church and Christianity. I'm seeing more books and more pastors and more congregations becoming dedicated to the Gospel of the Bible. I'm in that backpedaling area also. Trying to brush off all the dust and debris of last decade's dumbed-down doctrine. I've never been Old Faithful. I'm no geyser I'm afraid. I've always kind of had to sputter and wheeze before I get any significant waterworks.

I just so believe in a body of believers that are not dipping their toes in the pool but diving in. With full-blooded heat or maniacal cold (whichever way you personify a sold-out Christianity just so long as it isn't lukewarm). We have to live like our God is the only God, greater than anything. We have to live courageous stories and know that if our God is for us, then who can be against us? Who can ever stop us?

Citizens, we have got to believe that.

Leaving

To watch this as an audioblog on YouTube instead, click here

We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting, and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change. To shine out. I want to repeat one word for you.

Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word isn't it? So strong, and forceful. The way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry, everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.
--Don Miller, Through Painted Deserts

Leaving.

7/20/11

Or should I say LEEving. There it is citizens, the next stop on the Classical Ride. It's two and a half hours from my world, so you know, weekend visits aren't impossible or even impropable. In fact, they will definitely happen often. But this is still leaving. This is still the abandonment of all the noble organizations that are still in my life due to youth. They won't be here waiting for me when I get back, they will be the ownership of others.

That's the one thing I disagree with in the beautiful Don Miller passage above, "everything will still be here when you get back." Even if it is here, it won't be the same. Everything will be changing while I have adventures in the collegiate camp.

Recently I've arrived at the beauty of not knowing in my own life. I have no idea what the future holds for me. Not a pinch of a notion. I am not my own though. I'm the product of an Author. The Author of such bestselling works as Creation, Salvation of Mankind, and Heaven. Needless to say I'm in good hands. But oh how wretched it can sometimes be to have to change everything for the sake of a greater, future good.

Change seems to make everything familiar sad. Like music and movies and books and people and places. They all become something other than your own. And you feel a little betrayed by them and unable to trust them. When you leave you have to give things away and release holds, because you can't truly say what's to happen to you or them. It would be unfair to try and keep everything safe in an aquarium for you to come back to. But it's what we want to do. It's a natural sort of vanity.

One month from yesterday. It's gaining on me.

7/25/11

My life has been a lot of loose ends. Life has never felt like a progression. It's always been a book in my hands. It's no wonder my favourite feeling is the sixth sense of nostalgia and my preferred pasttime is playing out the future in my mind. I'm technically not allowed to read ahead. It's kind of a mystery novel. But I can look in the previous pages for clues. I can read on the back flap about the author (incidentally it's an enormous backflap), I can listen to the reviews written by those I know and love all over the cover. I don't mind that the writer's name is the biggest thing on the book, that's the way it should be. I don't mind that my name is really only a subtitle. Merely a "by the way" after the colon. It helps that the preface is made of promises (incidentally it's an enormous preface). Every sixty pages or so a loose end is tethered, but some knots take a lot longer to tie.

College seems like another loose end. Why am I going to this particular place? What am I to do there? Why am I saying goodbye to things I know will never be again.

But then why would I spurn the pages that will never be read if they are not read now.

7/28/11

I am going away for a while,

but I'll be back, don't try and follow me.

Cause I'll return as soon as possible.

See I'm trying to find my place,

but it might not be here where I feel safe

--Paramore, Misguided Ghosts

I feel very safe here. I've spent a long time building a life here. I have perscribed characters and plans for the next scenes. But those plans aren't applicable any longer. I find myself talking with my friends and making plans for this month or that. Then, oh wait, I'll be in college.

I'm leaving with questions and the appropriate punctuation is in my pupils. But I have to wonder, what makes me think I'll come back home with answers. Maybe, I'll come back with more questions.

Calling this a "step" seems like an understatement. A mean a step lifts up a foot and then plops it down. I'm not so Matrix as to put four years of my life in a single step. It's more like a dive or something of that nature. Like something entirely new that will have to shape me for a while. Like little Lucy stepping through a wardrobe. And I know that you can't step into a wardrobe without stepping into a war worth fighting. New Narnias do, after all, await.

8/4/11

Just because everything's changing, doesn't mean it's never been this way before

All you can do is try and know who your friends are, as you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light

You'll come back when it's over

No need to say goodbye

--Regina Spektor, The Call

My story isn't really anything new I don't suppose. They say change is the only constant but I say there is a constant a lot less ironic than that. God the Father is, as Owl City would say, "the only north star I would follow this far."

I do know who my friends are, that's for sure. The truest. They are the strangest group of people, it's enough that they pray for me and it's evident. I don't want to be a cynic anymore. I want to be a hopeless romantic again. Why can't life be a story?

This is the Pilgrim's Progress citizens. It's tearing through every thick slough of despair and every doubting castle towards the celestial city. I'm all about the anthem, it plays in my ear. You know it if you hear it too. It's what we all call, The Call.

Listen.

I can't keep a straight face and say this is not the end

Not if you want it, it's upon us and I wanna say it's sinking in.

So think real slow, don't forget that yes is yes and no is no

Melting prints of grass and snow, means you may forget the way to get back home.

--Relient K, (This is the End)

I've found that things are always dying. I'm not being morbid but beggar this thought: babies die into children, children into young adults which die into adults, which die into the elderly which finally die into spirits. Not always in that order. Habits die into hobbies which die into traditions. Affection dies into love and annoyance dies into hate. Interest dies into passion, theories die into truths. Thoughts die into actions or else they simply die into oblivion. I will die into a lot of new bodies before this dress rehearsal is over with.

So is this the end? I can't look at you with a straight face and say it isn't. Of course it is, but it is also the beginning. Birth rides in on the inhale and death dallies out on the exhale. It's simultaneous.

Tonight I was among friends. Two young people who are like family were outdoors with me under the charcoal skies that were quiet firmamental embers on our scene. I looked at them being silly with their classic faces: one on a bike and one frolicking with a husky pup. I wanted to take a picture, then I wanted to remember, then I wanted to write of it. I just wanted to keep it. I realized things like that can't be pressed in big books like leaves or taped into scrapbooks like photographs. What can we do with such beauties? I don't know the answer to that except that I want to keep them.

8/18/11

Long Live all the mountains we moved

I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you

--Taylor Swift, Long Live

There are so many things we want to live on in our lives. My 18 years in the same place are what I most want to live on. I want every memory and every face and every adventure to live on somehow. I want to reside in the legactic lands of eternity or in the precursors thereof. I still wonder if there isn't a state of mind where Past, Present, and Future aren't sitting around in a pub having a few drinks and sharing a good rapport instead of competing. I love my home and everyone here. My friends and family are what I am most proud of. They are what I most love talking about. It was a gift, being part of their stories. I had the time of my life. We fought dragons, moved mountains, made magic, wrote poems, cheered, fought, explored. We were the kings and queens, we were the heroes and heroines. We crashed through walls. I mean it.

So long live every moment I had with every one of you.

Long live your stories.

Long live your memories.

Long live

Now, I'll say goodbye.

I'll be right back.

War--and Rumors of War--(Part II)

What's going on?
Where have all our voices gone?

And why are we afraid of words like war?

Need I remind you, that we are an army and armies engage

Yes! armies engage when the threat is too much to ignore

Sounds like we should sound the alarm

I could answer a few of the questions put forth by rock band Jonah 33 in their song "Scream." Like the matter of our voices. Once beacons, once seasoning, now silent. They are vibrate off a forked tongue and crawl up from a throttled throat on a leash. We wouldn't dare speak up. We wouldn't dare scream at the top of our lungs. We're soft. The word war? It isn't a pretty word. Three jagged, half-hearted letters mixed up and limp. But was it always that way? Or were there once warriors? Did a time exist where the rumor of war was a predestined scent of victory and a call to action rather than a commercialized step in the direction of a larger church and the almanacs claim that Christianity is the largest religion in the western world (excluding the asterisk indicating a lukewarm footnote). Someone needs to remind us that we are an army and that we should engage instead of knitting sweaters to send to the boys already in the battlefield because they are out there.

Sounds like we should sound the alarm.

To sound said alarm, (and to calm my doubts and catalyze my deeds) I asked fellow blogger Kevin Jacobs of For This Cause Ministries to write in the way of war. But what he normally gets in the way of is the Enemy. I've seen his blog attack Satan with all the stealth and strategy that God would demand of us. Through knowledge and the love of Christ he's jumped in trenches not often touched by the average scribes of our Lord. Underlying all of these posts, I always sense a warrior spirit. The twiddle-your-fingers vibe is nonexistent. So I asked his thoughts and this is what happened:

War is not pretty.

Brave men and women lose their lives fighting for what they believe in and often innocent lives are lost and countless lives are changed forever by war. War, as ugly and brutal as it is, is necessary. Necessary because there are people in this world who are controlled by evil and that evil is their own lusts and desires for domination and power. As long as there are those who seek to destroy and dominate others, there will be need for war.

Since Lucifer was found with iniquity in his heart and deceived a third of the angelic host into rebelling against God, war has been unleashed in the spirit world and upon mankind. Since being cast out of heaven, Lucifer has waged eternal war against God. His desire for dominance and hatred of God and man consume him.

The question was asked, do I think Christianity is a war? My answer is both yes and no. Yes because as we become Christ followers we have become willing targets of the enemy by standing on the side of God. My answer is no, because as humans as God’s creation we were already targets of the enemy whether we believe in God, the enemy, or this spiritual war or not. So, this spiritual war we are in not for being a Christian, but for being man, God’s creation.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Ephesians 6:12

It is hard to imagine that there are unseen forces that are at war with us. The most fearsome enemy to face is the one that we cannot see. Think about it. Some of the best and most frightening movies are the ones where the enemy is not seen until it’s too late. Satan and his army are spiritual beings. They are like the wind. We can’t physically see it, but we can see its effects. The effects of Satan’s army are the ravages of this sin cursed world and the effects sin and death have upon us.

Another question asked is the possibility that Christianity being a war is just a gimmick. Let me say it this way. Could the possibility of Christianity being a war be over spiritualized? My answer is that I don’t think it is spiritualized enough. There are books upon books and teachings upon teachings about spiritual warfare, but I don’t think it is taught enough and I don’t think is taught serious enough and taken serious enough. I believe that if we truly realized and took serious what is being put against us spiritually, we would act different and be different concerning the world and concerning Satan and his attacks against us.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Eph 6:11

The bible has many scriptures that pertain to war and spiritual warfare. Take this verse for instance. It tells us to put on the armor of God. Armor is used for battle, for war. If it is not a war then why put on the armor? It says that we may be able to stand against the wiles or tactics of the devil. If the devil is not coming against us with tactics or attack plans then why should we stand against him? So, in one verse God is telling us we are in a war and it is against the devil who is attacking us and we need to put on battle armor for it.

There are wars of many different types. Nations war against nations, people war against people, culture against culture, ideology against ideology. Let’s not forget the wars we fight within ourselves. The war between our spirit and flesh, our evil nature against our reborn spirit. None of these wars are as crucial as that great unseen war in the spirit. We are in the middle and yet a part of it. We fight on our knees with the armor and weapons God has provided us.

Until this war is finished and we are finally called home, there will always be Wars And Rumors Of Wars.

And so what will we do with the rumours? Write them off as gimmicks? Dismiss Lucifer as mythology as he whittles away the totem pole of saved souls? Shall we wear our armour like a statement of fashion or enter in the demonic stomping grounds with the preparation of the Gospel? There is something going on behind the scenes that is translating to the visible stage.

Jonah 33 continues:

Don't look now

But somehow our worst enemies

Have found their way inside the walls we've made

These are the moments

That define us as cowards or men full of valor

So shutup and fight and don't let them know you're afraid!

I'm not one to lay down and die

I'm not one to lay down and die either.

Rumor has it there's a war going on. And I want in on it.