the blog of Jerry Bolton
Archive for October, 2008
…how offensive? very!
1Current Tunage: JustMe – The Song
My next rap review will be JustMe’s album “One Man’s Trash”. So far, it’s sounding pretty decent – hasn’t stood the test of repeated scrutiny yet, mind.
One of the perks of being married to a schoolteacher is that I’ve been getting sick more. I’m sure anyone that works with kids will verify that working with kids inevitably equals more sickness. I had a friend who used to rent in a house that doubled as a daycare and he was in and out of being sick all the time.
Anyways, all this is to say, I’m not feeling well at all. I’ve started work on the first content post of The Second Reformation series (tenatively titled: “Lost Love?”) which, as a teaser, will be working out of Revelation 2:1-7 in your trusty ESV or translation of choice.
Until then, check out Matt Chandler’s post today on TheResurgence, as I found it a most excellent challenge and observation.
Here’s an excerpt:
Here are a few men who loved our great God and King and were obedient beyond the norm:
- Moses spends his whole life with grumbling whiners and dies without getting to walk into the promised land.
- Samson suicide bombs the Philistines – and when the dust settles, he is dead and the Philistines still rule over Israel.
- David’s son rapes his sister and leads a rebellion against David, dethroning him for a season.
- Jeremiah ends up in exile with the rest of the country after repeatedly getting beaten for preaching what God commanded him to preach.
- John the Baptist is beheaded by a pervert who gives his head to a 15-year-old stripper.
- Peter is killed, reportedly crucified upside down.
- Paul is killed in Rome but only after he spends his life (with thorn intact) being beaten, rejected, lost at sea, and consistently dealing with people coming in behind him and destroying what he built.
-Matt Chandler, Pursuit – posted on theresurgence.com
The questions this prompted in me are:
1. What does it say about us (as Pastors, Teachers, Servants) if our “ministry” makes us superstars and much-loved folks outside the body of Christ?
2. If the cross is an offense (see Gal. 5 and 1 Cor 1), why are so many who claim it so “nice” when they should be decidedly “offensive”? What does their manner and their reception in the world reveal about the gospel they preach or teach?
You can read the full post [here].
…post-postmodernity and fig trees
13 years ago
Current Tunage: Matthew Good – Metal Airplanes
Quiet, reflective, and quite broken… Matthew Good at his finest, I suppose.
Steph was sharing with me this morning about a passage in John she found rather interesting. Specifically, John 1:45-51:
John 1:45-51 ESV
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Specifically, she was wondering about the significance of the fig tree. What was it about being seen under this tree that caused this kind of rapturous and, dare I say, salvific response from Nathaniel?
We received a little help from our good old friend C.H. Spurgeon on this one. You can read his sermon on the passage [here]. Here is the portion relevant to answering Steph’s question (which by this point had become my own as well):
But what was Nathanael doing under the fig tree, according to our best surmise? Well, as devout Easterns are accustomed to have a special place for prayer, this may have been a shadowy fig tree under which Nathanael was accustomed to offer his devotions. And perhaps just before Philip came to him, he may have been engaged in personal and solitary confession of sin. He had looked round the garden and fastened the gate that none might come in—and he had poured into the ear of his God some very tender confession under the fig tree shade. When Christ said to him, “When you were under the fig tree,” it brought to his recollection how he poured out his broken and his contrite spirit, and confessed sins unknown to all but God. That confession, it may be, the very look of Christ brought back to his remembrance and the words and look together seemed to say, “I know your secret burden, and the peace you found in rolling it upon the Lord.” He felt, therefore, that Jesus must be Israel’s God.
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Nathaniel and the Fig Tree (emphasis mine)
With our question essentially resolved, I found it quite remarkable to peruse the remainder of what Spurgeon had to say in the remainder of this exposition. Here’s another meaningful excerpt which struck me as so very true of our present age just as it apparently was in Spurgeon’s over 100 years ago:
Nathanael was just the very opposite of all this. He was no hypocrite and no crafty deceiver. He wore his heart upon his sleeve. If he spoke, you might know that he said what he meant and that he meant what he said. He was a childlike, simple-hearted man, transparent as glass. He was not one of those fools who believe everything. But on the other hand, he was not of that other sort of fools so much admired in these days who will believe nothing, but who find it necessary to doubt the most self-evident Truth in order to maintain their credit for profound philosophy. These “thinkers” of this enlightened age are great at quibbles, mighty in feigning or feeling mistrust concerning matters which common sense has no doubts about.
They will profess to doubt whether there is a God, though that is as plain as the sun at noonday. No, Nathanael was neither credulous nor mistrustful. He was honestly ready to yield to the force of Truth. He was willing to receive testimony and to be swayed by evidence. He was not suspicious, because he was not a man who, himself, would be suspected. He was true-hearted and straightforward—a plain dealer and plain speaker. Cana had not within her gates a more thoroughly honest man. Philip seems to have known this, for he went to him directly, as to a man who was likely to be convinced and worth winning to the good cause.
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Nathaniel and the Fig Tree (emphasis mine)
I can’t count the times, as I’ve sat in my post-postmodern university classes where, having dismissed both God and Relativism, my peers and profs are left grasping for the proverbial straws to try and come up with some meaningful basis for ethics and metaphysics and life and existence and all of the deeper questions and things about which human inquiry has always revolved; they are too numerous to… number. I’m always amazed at the lengths to which men and women will go in their attempts to absolve themselves of their culpability before Christ who is both merciful and just.
May we be much more like Nathaniel, believing Christ for who He truly is… than like the fools who really believe in nothing – and where I say nothing we might insert alternately “themselves” or “science” or any other human construct or concept that is not the one true God of the Bible.
After all, all other explanations will always leave us cold and empty in the end.
…and with the Apostle to cry out:
1 Peter 1:3-9 ESV (emphasis mine)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
…second reformation part one
13 years ago
THE SECOND REFORMATION
[part one: introduction]
[part one: introduction]
Welcome to my first proper blog series, entitled “The Second Reformation”. A heavy title, if ever there was one. I don’t claim to be the new Martin Luther… far from it! There are much better contenders to take up that mantle. Some of them were instrumental in shaping and influencing my thoughts of late as I have struggled with some questions; some troubling, “preoccupying questions”. These questions have formed the basic root of what I hope to address in this series. I will share them with you shortly.
In his 2007 book Everything Must Change, author Brian McLaren began with his own set of troubling, “preoccupying questions”. I won’t go into much detail about McLaren or his book here, as that’s not my aim. I probably won’t surprise anyone reading this by saying that I’m really not much of a fan of his work. As best as I can discern, the book is an attempt to re-cast and re-new his reader’s understanding of what it is and what it looks like when we follow Jesus Christ. No small or insignificant task.
McLaren approached this task by setting a foundation of two “preoccupying questions” which have formed the basis from which the book issued forth. Respectfully, they are:
01. What Are the Biggest Problems in the World?
02. What Does Jesus Have to Say About These Global Problems?
Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change pp. 11-12)
I can agree with McLaren’s title with one addition: A subtitle. It should read “Everything Must Change (But God)”. Brian McLaren attempts to deal with real, difficult issues, but he starts in the wrong place – both of his questions are human-centric. From the language of his second question (labelling the problems as “Global”), it doesn’t take an expert in modern textual criticism to gather that he feels the biggest problems in the world are the ones that affect “everything” – or, perhaps, everybody? At first, this seems sensible… after all, aren’t the most important problems the big ones that affect everybody?
I’m inclined, after getting past “at first”, to disagree.
After all, who is Brian McLaren? Who gave him the knowledge, understanding, and authority to decide what the “Biggest Problems in the World” are? To the best of my knowledge, the answer to both is “nobody”. The same is true of me.
Before I get into the difficult bits of unravelling my grey-matter about subjects to which I’m probably not qualified to wax prosaic, I have something very deep and important to admit: I’m nobody. Consequently, what I think the big problems of the world are is rather irrelevant.
Therefore, here are my troubling, preoccupying questions, which form the basis of everything I hope to touch on from this point:
00. Who is God?
01. What Does He Say the Biggest Problems Are?
02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?
I feel it’s important to set the stage in this way because otherwise it’s too easy for me to give commentary and amusing detours without really accomplishing much. Nothing I can say about my topics will really mean much unless I’m building on a firm foundation of who God is and what He has revealed to us in His Word(s).
Allow me to expand on my first question:
00. Who is God?
Without intending to avoid the most important question of all, I feel this one is best answered elsewhere. Most of my readership knows what I believe and (hopefully) why I believe it, but for the sake of reference, I generally align myself with the Reformed Theological tradition and the Doctrines of Grace. I believe that God is real and that He has revealed as much of Himself as we can handle in His Word, the Bible. Inclusive in that, I believe that He has also revealed Himself most completely when He came in the person of Jesus Christ and that the Bible gives us the fullness of what we need as to His story. Specifically, I believe that all of History hangs on the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ – all of these capture the heart of Scripture, which is that God’s primary aim is always to bring glory to Himself. I believe that there is far more to God than is in the Scriptures, but that they give us everything we need – thus anything beyond that is mystery and intended as such.
In short, and very generally, I believe in the evangelical distinctives and orthodox tenets of the Christian faith inasmuch as they belie a careful and Spirit-led understanding of the Scriptures. There is no one writer or person who has it all correct, and anyone who claims to is probably very far off the mark. That being said, my influences have included such men (past and present) as John Piper, Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney, CH Spurgeon, JI Packer, Francis Schaeffer, Timothy Keller, DA Carson, and many others. I don’t agree with any one of them in all areas, but I agree with all of them in some areas.
I think that’s healthy, and I could be wrong. For the most part, my theology isn’t up for grabs and is the result of years of studying, hearing, and seeing God’s word interact with myself and many others. It will always be evolving in some aspects as I learn and grow and study and see more of life and Scripture. Essentially, though, this is where I’m at, and will be at.
If you aren’t familiar with this understanding of God, either from a Christian perspective or from that of someone who is “outside” and has no idea what half/all of what I just said means, I would point you in a few directions (which tend to have the same endgame):
First, a presentation of The Gospel by Mark Driscoll.
Second, a general plug for the views shared on these fine websites: Desiring God and Mars Hill. There are loads of other good resources, but those are a good starting place if you have no idea where I’m coming from.
That about wraps up the most basic foundation of all that is to come – after all, what we think about God is our most defining characteristic as human beings. If you (for the most part) share in my beliefs about who God is (or even if you don’t really agree about the whole Reformed theology bit, but are on board with “The One True God is the God of the Bible and He revealed Himself as Jesus”), then I invite you to join me for what is to come.
And here is what is to come, what I’ve promised to write about, and what I’ve been delving through these past few months (years?):
01. What Does He Say the Biggest Problems Are?
There are many things God lays out in His Word, the Bible, as being “Big Problems”. Things such as my Sin and all the myriad branches and effects thereof, the World I inhabit, and many other things. Most likely, all of them will touch and affect the one I’ve chosen to discuss (revealed in a few lines!).
02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?
This is kind of what we’re all getting at: What do we do when we know things are broken and messed up and definitely “not what they ought to be”? What am I supposed to do/think/pray/feel/be about this? And so on.
I believe, along with many of you, and maybe even Brian McLaren (ha!), that right now – perhaps even all the time, one of God’s biggest “problems” is the Church, both local and universal. It is my intent to explore this topic of Ecclesiology (the study of the Church) through the utilization of these two questions applied to it:
01. What Does God Say the Biggest Problems with the Church are?
02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?
It is my intent over the coming weeks and months to delve into these questions. For my sake and yours, and most of all for the Glory of God.
The title of this series is going to be “The Second Reformation”. I’ve named it that because, as we’re about to explore together, I believe that a second reformation of the Church is coming, probably within my lifetime (assuming that, Lord willing, I live for a normal lifetime). The first Protestant Reformation saw a reformation of theology, doctrine, and organization revolving around the five “Sola’s”: Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria. The coming Second Reformation, I believe, will build on that foundation – once again reforming the church, this time reforming Protestantism itself, which in the West and elsewhere has become just as faulty, unbiblical, and often counter-productive for Christ as the “Catholic” church of Europe was in its time. Its emphases will be the same, but with additions. Once again, theology, doctrine, and organization will play a primary role. This time, however, there will be a variety of new elements of church which receive the reformation treatment: methodology, missiology, worship-ology (is that a word?), and various other smaller aspects. It will serve as a reaction in some ways to both the “emergent church” conversation/movement, as well as the “house church” movement, though (despite the role those two movements will play as touchpoints) hopefully not a complete pendulum swing to either. There’s a lot of things it might be, and some of it may not happen yet. I’m no prophet, just a nobody… and “The Second Reformation” is, I think, a fitting and perhaps subtly self-deprecating title. In truth, I might as well entitle it “The Second Trillionth Reformation” since, through sanctification, we are reformed daily and even “second-ly”. I’ll never live up to the heights of its demands, but hopefully this title will spur both you and I on to following and serving Christ as a part of His church more effectively, efficiently, faithfully, actively, and sacrificially for His glory. May the Reformation begin in my heart and yours.
…faith: you make me believe
1Current Tunage: Sintax the Terrific – Make Believe
Its on repeat… in my head… in my… nucleus.
Work has begun on my first “Second Reformation” series post. It will will be an introduction, setting the foundations by which I intend to explore and share my thoughts and decisions about where I firmly believe the Western church will head in my lifetime – particularly in the next 10-20 years. I will lay out not only the general and overarching directions, but also my (and, as you read it, your) practical responsibility as a part of the church to see these attitudinal, spiritual, and philosophical changes take place.
In other words, the groundwork.
I know some of you are very baited right now, and await with breath that is right along the same lines. Thus, I must apologize – I’m not ready to post. The farther I’ve gotten into this, the more it’s expanded. I hope to post tomorrow, but if not know that it’s being worked on and will be shared as soon as I’m certain it accurately reflects everything it needs to.
Also, I had a review to finish up (I’m waaaay past my deadline). You can read it below:
…appealing to the curb and the noggin’
03 years ago
Title: Curb Appeal
Artist: Sintax.the.Terrific
Label: Illect Recordings
Length: 18 Tracks / 69:37
You choose to use the broken and abused soft-spoken misfit to open your good news.
(from “Broke Toys (An Anti-Intro)”)
Curb Appeal is the sophomore outing by founding Deepspace5 member Sintax the Terrific, who when not rapping is known as Ryan Seacrest. Prior to this recording he could be found spittin’ rhymes on Deepspace5′s The Night We Called It A Day (2001, Uprok Records) and Unique, Just Like Everyone Else (2005, Gotee Records) as well as his debut record Simple Moves (2004, Illect Recordings) and a bevy of guest spots on conscious hip-hop records. Before all of that, he got his start in the late 90′s with underground crew The Pride. My first encounter with Sintax was on Mars Ill’s 2001 epic Raw Material where he had a couple guest spots.
With few if any exceptions, his stuff is always well-received for its honesty, wit, and unashamed proclamation of spiritual truth – be it troubling and convicting or just lighthearted and touching. Sintax has a way with words, and a noticeable love for life, hip-hop culture, and most of all Christ. All of these things come through loud and clear on Curb Appeal – there’s just so many incredible and well-worded thoughts permeating this disc that it’s all but impossible to do it justice unless I quote from it pretty extensively:
I’m the Ryan Seacrest of this rap game, no shame
In my dep gel, making pop idols look lame
Bring revival, not fame – I’m Billy Graham plus Busta
Rhymes, spit theology in double time structure
Sike! I hate double time, I only spit traditional
Boom bap, KRS-One type material
(from “Moonlighting)
Sintax has a way of weaving insight and challenge throughout his lyrics that I find particularly impactful. One of the closing tracks on Curb Appeal is called “Make Believe” and the first time I listened through it closely, I was in tears. Here’s the chorus as a sample:
You make me believe it’s not make believe
Fill in all the gaps that I can’t conceive
Break a skeptic down to his basic need
To put a finger in the wrist where salvation bleeds
You make me believe it’s not make believe
I’m breath taken by your sacred mysteries
Take me to the root of that ancient tree
Where knowledge is the fruit that only faith can see
(from “Make Believe”)
All throughout the song, the interplay between the idiom “make believe” and the injunctive idea of being made to believe goes back and forth, to the point where Sintax has encapsulated an often complicated spiritual concept – the idea of faith – in an easy to remember and repeat statement. Namely, the re-casting of the idiom “make believe”. It’s brilliant, and I hope it serves as a clue as to what kind of calibre of rapper we’re dealing with on Curb Appeal.
Sintax is a father, a husband, and an all-around normal guy who loves Jesus Christ. He’s also a bona-fide premium rap-artist wordsmith who can tangle flows with the best of them. He keeps the heavy and yet very accessable content of the album from becoming dark or overbearing by putting his eldest son Jackson (who’s about 2.5 years old) to extremely touching use. Jackson appears a few times on the album, in one place he’s recording himself trying to sound cool like his dad (“Yo”) and thus delightfully trying to rap and beatbox. In another spot, he introduces the Christmas-tinged song “Immanuel” by attempting to sing the old classic carol “Hark The Harold Angels Sing”. It’s a poignant moment designed to ease the listener into the right frame of mind before the song beats them over the head with the wonder and glory of the thought that the Creator God would humble Himself to come as an infant and ultimately as the Savior. Here’s one particularly brilliant moment in the song:
Oh! Bethlehem, your sky was so thin
Didn’t even try to hide the Hope within
Heavens open wide to let the oceans swim
“Peace on Earth” spoke the Golden Rim
of angels found a few of life’s broken men
To show the rest of us how to behold a gem
Go and tell the Word that’s now life and limb
That Immanuel will grow to throw the yoke of sin
Hope can’t choke the well of grace we’re soaking in
Nor provoke the Son of Man to turn stone bread-thin
(from “Immanuel”)
Musically, the album is what I like to call a “slow burner”. It grows on you. Some beats will grab you right away, while others will take repeated listens and maybe even a month or two. Trust me though, they’re all keepers. The sound runs a gamut from laid-back (“Hurricane Crush”, “Soul Weep”) to the very intentionally boom-bap (“Falcon Plume”, “Showstopper”) and most places in-between. There’s a lot of horns, guitars, and minimalist synths. It’s not a very complex sound, but the choice to take that direction seems intentional, and it serves to accentuate the lyrical content quite well. A couple of the beats made me drop my jaw a bit (“Soul Weep”, and “Moonlighting”), but for the most part they take a pleasant backseat and avoid getting in the way (something that both incredible and awful beats can do). All in all, the record has a cohesive sound despite a handful of producers, likely due to the pedigree involved; Production was handled primarily by DJ Ryval and Sivion, with Fred B, Playdough, JustMe, Beat Rabbi, and Kurfu contributing as well.
I write the raps that make kids dream in colors
Where whites and blacks are brothers from different baby mothers
I write the raps that make people better lovers
Not between the sheets, but with the God that they discover
I write raps cuz a Terminator X scratch
Made my heart skip a beat my breath couldn’t catch
I write raps cuz I love to hear the snare snap
To let the bass drum know exactly where the fun’s at
Plus writing raps is safer than gun clap
I’d rather talk smack than trade shots you can’t retract
And that’s a fact, rap is better than flowers
To shower you with sun spun from the night the light devours
I write for hours so that you can really know me
Every word I write is like a long lost friend who left me lonely
Christ the only path to righteousness before me
I write raps to tell His story
(from “Showstopper)
If I had to level criticisms against Curb Appeal, the first and most natural thing to say is that it’s way too short. Unfortunately for me, it’s 18 tracks long, only two of which are “filler”. In other words, it’s already plenty long, and clocks in over an hour. I just want more Sintax – so I ordered his first record. It hasn’t arrived yet.
If it wasn’t clear by now, I love Curb Appeal. It’s full of groove and poignance, full of heart and meditation, and best of all… full of challenges. It’s full of Sintax taking every ounce of himself and recording it in the hope that those who listen would come to know Christ or to follow Him more closely.
Curb Appeal is something I worship to, something I think to, something I live to.
Curb Appeal deserves your attention. A very worthwhile (terrific?) sophomore effort from Deepspace5′s Sintax The Terrific.
As a way of closing, I’ll share the album’s inscription, taken from the Biblical book of Amos:
Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
But let justice run down like water,
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
(Amos 5:23-24)
Curb Appeal reveals that Sintax has his priorities straight, and the music to back it up.
Five Deep-spaces out of Five. (YES!)
Standout Tracks: Hurricane Crush, Immanuel, Moonlighting, Soul Weep, Make Believe.
Jerry Bolton – for The Phantom Tollbooth.
October 22, 2008
…make believe
0Current Tunage: Sintax.the.Terrific – Make Believe
Very worth sharing. Read ahead…
My first series post will come later this evening. Until then, here’s the song that has been resonating in my mind and heart a lot over the past couple months (when Underoath isn’t playing). I trust you’ll enjoy reading it, just imagine a brass-driven beat filling the air and impassioned vocals, and you’ll get the idea.
“Make Believe” by Sintax.the.Terrific off of his album Curb Appeal
Chorus
You make me believe it’s not make believe
Fill in all the gaps that I can’t conceive
Break a skeptic down to his basic need
To put a finger in the wrist where salvation bleeds
You make me believe it’s not make believe
I’m breath taken by your sacred mysteries
Take me to the root of that ancient tree
Where knowledge is the fruit that only faith can see
Verse 1
Make me believe this that you can match wits
With the mind who in six days mapped the atlas
And strapped the mattress of the mountains across the matchless
Skeleton of dirt to work a backbone axis
Tell me can you understand the plans of perfect genius
That span outer space but placed his lifeblood intravenous?
And sets the sun seamless in the west every evening
Just to resurrect her hydrogen flesh to rest our dreaming?
And the best reason you can give for non believing
Is the fact your mortal eyes haven’t seen him?
Come on dog, that sort of lies got me grieving inside
And bleeding from the same heart that pumps to survive
The assumption of pride is we can understand our Maker
Like paper trying to understand the tree from which we shave her
Like vapor off the kettle can’t know a clouds behavior
Or a sediment of stone pontificate on Himalaya
He’s the flavor of a delicacy, delicately savored
Savior set Himself at a distance to tease our nature
Not to overcome our will or frustrate our labor
But instead to set us free to chase His heart or flee His favor
So make me believe that we walked on all fours
And that a billion years of accidents could give us something more
I’m beggin’ you explore the facts plus faith between
Exacting what is actual from what is make believe
Verse 2
Make me believe that rappers aren’t in danger
That kids will continue to capture human nature
To the four-four time swagger of youthful anger
Take a portrait of disaster and repaint her into hope, now
That’s what I call dope, believing that individuals
Can re-scape the city out of vision based on principal
Most are too cynical, forgotten the hope in prayer
Believing that life is rotten and broken beyond repair
I’ve spoken this song in rare angel tones to fill the air
At an octave where only lonely souls can hear the way I care
God, make us believe in modern miracles and healing
I want to lower my crippled faith through the ceiling, so you can touch me
I’m feeling pretty lucky, so pull the finger on that shotgun
And resurrect my faith even before it hits the bottom
And tell me it’s not a problem to accelerate the process
So that water into wine isn’t nonsense; it’s logic
I’m only being honest, ‘cuz it’s hard to imagine
How a seed of make believe could shake a mountain – could it happen?
Could people ever fathom the mystery of first Adam
Made complete in the death and ascension of God-man
Bridge
You’ve been breaking me down from A to Z
Making what’s mysterious so plain to see
Lord forgive me of my mind and its disbelief
Holdin’ on with my faith until my soul release
Verse 3
Make me believe that Your love is everlasting
That the bread of life sustains when we’re fasting
That casting the first stone is reserved for Christ alone
That the poor in spirit will inherit a king’s throne
I’m prone to cast judgement over things unknown
Asking the shadow thrown how does the day’s sun shown?
Disbelief collapsing these grey lungs blown
Breath-taken by the way You lay the moon hung low
Strum a lullaby of language hum the tune sung slow
Crumb-speak the truth to let the fool dumb know
That belief is the sum of science and reason folded
Into faith to knit the fabric of our spool spun soul
Gotta let it go – like new son grow
To a man, in a world where cruel runs show
Christ rule come so, let your jewel sun glow
To illuminate the darkest place deep-space hole
…the coming ecclesiological reformation
3Current Tunage: Skillet – Rest
“Invincible”-era Skillet. Good for the soul and stuff.
My apologies for the delay (Aunt Deb!). Life has a way of throwing me curveballs – the current state of my thoughts concerning the Western church should arrive in fuller form tomorrow but until then here’s a few of my point-form bits to whet the old “eye-petite” (kinda like apetite, only for reading):
Rough Form TOPICS for “THE SECOND REFORMATION”
(or, “How The West Was Won”)
(or, “Some Silly Sinner Seems So Serious”)
1. Positive Accountability: Guilt is a Lousy Motivator
2. Elder-Lead: Voting was never in the Bible, and neither was the Papacy
3. Small Groups: “Of”, not “With”
4. Transparency Without Distraction: Fiscally, Disciplinarily, Doctrinally, etc.
5. “Don’t Expand – Plant!”: Growth by Multiplication, not Migration
6. The Only Way to be Jesus-centric is to be Bible-centric: The Word
7. Worship in Song: Meaningful and Solemn, Energetic and Impassioned
…and that’s all that comes to mind off the top of my head. There might even be more once I get started.
So, even as I’m looking over that, this will probably be less a One Post Wonder™ and more likely a Multi Post Series™. I’m really looking forward to it, hang on tight.
…so i’ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned
13 years ago
Current Tunage: Hillsong United – The Stand
Wow. Just wow. How did I never give Hillsong a chance? I’ve heard this song a couple times in the last few weeks at Harvest and couldn’t wring it out of my head. It’s not often that a “worship” worship song really really connects with me but my goodness this one does. Apparently it’s a few years old, but yeah… I’m digging. Big time.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to continue my segue through all of my thoughts about church and what we can do better in the West. A lot of it will be observation (both positive and negative), and a lot of it will be personal. So, in advance, I say… take it for what it’s worth. It’s been a long struggle to figure out what we were looking for, hoping for, and needing to really tear into our souls and rejuvenate what’s often been cold and stony. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.
That said, I wanted to share some things I’ve shared with some important friends today. One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much since our wedding is that I spend so much of my very little typing-time either working on stuff for school or staying in touch with friends that I can no longer spend facetime with. Tonight I’m going to start attempting to rectify my glaring lack of typing-time by sharing what I think is public-able… publicly. They’re slightly edited for this format. Enjoy:
MESSAGE ONE:
[Friend],
Glad you’ve been enjoying them. We’ve been following [Peasant Princess] too (as time allows, which it often… doesn’t). I’m glad the messages are burning into your heart. If it’s anything like mine it can be really cold and stone-like most of the time. It’s so refreshing to hear God’s Word proclaimed boldly and without apology… refreshing and heart-rending.
We’ve had a very busy week this past week, but much more importantly, a very spiritually important week. Much time in prayer, much time seeking God’s face and his hand in guidance and blessing. It’s been very difficult and also very excellent and full of paradigm shifts of the heart-changing sort.
Married life is excellent, praiseworthy, and most highly recommended. I often randomly say to Steph “Being single SUCKED!” and it’s not because it really did, but more because the contrast is SO massive. Marriage is so wonderful I really haven’t yet found my voice to describe the constant blessing that it is to me as God uses it to wring out my selfishness and unmask my sin and tear into my self-righteousness in His love. He is truly a great Father and takes wonderful, wise care of us, and his gift of marriage is definitely a massive boost to the old Sanctification.
Nothing in life has my higher recommendation – Find a godly woman and cut a covenant, you’ll never be the same again.
Much love,
Jer
MESSAGE 2:
Although I loved [Francis Collins' The Language of God], I did take issue with his limited understanding of recent applications of the literal reading of Genesis that do much to account for the apparent inconsistencies between “science” and the story of creation.
Without going into too much detail, I’ll just say that it has a lot to do with the way that the things by which we measure time (the Sun and Moon and Stars) aren’t created until day 4. An oversimplification of the more recent literal explanations involves taking what some will perceive as liberty with the supposed “stability” of time. Time is anything but stable, and many have recently speculated that it’s “slowing down”. Regardless, if God is who he claims to be in Scripture (in this case, the most relevant aspect being his omnipotence), then it’s entirely feasable to assert that in the pre-sun/moon/stars days, time operated differently, perhaps (for example) in the form of a rapidly decaying speed of time’s passage. From human perspective, it amounted to 3 24-hour days, but since the point of measurement did not yet exist – time itself possessed a different set of effects – I suggest a extremely rapid (yet extremely declining) rate of aging and cosmic decay until a point of stability was reached – this is the point when God introduced the elements by which we now measure time – time which we now may have reason to believe is also gradually passing with less expedience as our orbit slows both around the sun, as well as our solar system’s orbit through the galaxy.
I loved Collins’ book, hold him in utmost respect for speaking up, and enjoyed his thoughts… but I found his treatment of decent theological consideration to be rather lacking. He’s a scientist, not a theologian, and some of his views simply do not synthesize with a reasonable and consistent hermeneutic. There’s so much to be said for giving God’s word superiority over everything – after all, all things are subject to it ultimately regardless.
…found in the sound of separation
1Current Tunage: Underoath – We Are The Involuntary
Hands in the air and love at our sides.
There’s gotta be something bigger here -
With the beating in our throats,
And the tremble in our grip,
This can’t be it.
I’ll come up, I’ll come up for peace,
I’ll come down, I’ll come down for truth,
I’ll give in, I’ll give up for you.
The floors are shaking
And we’ve lost our step.
Oh Lord, have mercy on us all.
Married life is incredible. It’s been a touch chaotic – we haven’t had time to breathe slow in about two weeks now (though the promise of my soon-coming reading week offers some relief). Amidst that chaos, however, it’s been refreshing and ultimately revitalizing to both our lives. Not just for the obvious reasons, but also the less-obvious, less-overt, less-easy-to-detect. I think we’ve both been feeling somewhat spiritually complacent for some time, and though I can’t speak directly for my dear wife, I can speak from our discussion. All this is to say: we’ve both been so overwhelmed by (first) wedding planning and (second) adjusting to marriage and each other’s constant presence that it’s been very difficult to “find” (read: make) time with God. We’ve been working on solutions together, the two of us, and I’m really enjoying the direction we’re heading now, though it’s still early in the process of implementation.
Marriage is a blessing in so many ways, and I think I (for one) am finding that the chiefest is that it presents an ideal, piercing, persistent opportunity for accountability – particularly in the form of discovering that, when married, sin is rather almost impossible to hide. When you live in such close quarters and intimacy with someone else, you can’t escape from those things you’ve so often overlooked in the name of self-charity or self-preservation over the years. It’s a beautiful thing, and further concretes my earlier suspicion that one of God’s big ideas with marriage was that it be a primary component of many believer’s sanctification.
Along those lines – those newlywed, newly-relocated, new life lines – we’ve found and begun “plugging into” a local church. I suppose the biggest news (or at least, the most newsworthy portion of this news) is that it’s not a Brethren Assembly. Steph and I have both grown up and continued to be members of Bible Chapels that are associated with the open Plymouth Brethren here in Ontario. It’s kind of what we’ve always known, and we both treasure and love many things about it. So, why haven’t we just settled simply into one here in Pickering? I’ll attempt to answer.
The night Steph and I met, we were in the company of many dear mutual friends, and following the prayer meeting (which was our reason for being there), about half stayed around for the “afterparty” – during which we, who were all in some way or another associated with the Brethren, talked about the Brethren – what’s worked, what hasn’t, what’s wrong, what isn’t, and so on. We shared stories and observations and experience and we were there until 2:30am. Steph and I love the Brethren, but both of us (even then) were asking ourselves “Why do I?”.
I’m about to paint in some broad strokes, so bear with me. This isn’t an attempt to typecast or stereotype, and certainly I’m aware of many exceptions. Regardless, to keep this from becoming a sort of mind-dump, I’ll attempt to keep it brief:
We love a lot of the Brethren’s “big ideas” – autonomous local churches that are elder-lead, interdependence between local churches, being Bible-centric (which necessarily results in being much-more-importantly Jesus-centric), the importance of Worship being both solemn and energetic, loads of friends and friendly folks who love Jesus, etc. There is a lot to love.
We definitely do not love a lot of other things we’ve seen over the years. This really isn’t the place to name them all, and I’m not going to. No system is perfect, and no system of ecclesiology (church) gets it “right”. It’s not really my intention to criticise the Brethren, because really, that’s where my roots are – that’s what I was “raised on”.
So, you’re wondering: If I’m not going to criticise, what am I going to do?
And who the heck am I? What makes me think that I have anything to offer?
Stay tuned.
…all heaven cries
0Current Tunage: David Crowder Band – Wholly Yours
So here I am, all of me, finally everything: wholly. I am wholly, only, wholly yours. You are holy, holy, holy.
It’s a quiet morning on the Bolton front. We’re up, with strong brewed coffee about to course through our veins at a quick rate (“rappers bored with hip-hop? just wrap your face with grip-tape”) and we’re listening to worship tunes (good ones), and praying that God would shake us up, shake you up, shake everyone up today. In a good, good way.
We love and miss you guys. Peterborough, TCF, family, friends, children of the above – have a great Sunday and join us worshipping the one true God of the universe who loves you and died, was buried, and rose again conquering sin and death and reigns forever and is forever praised and glorious.
Amen. Rock it.