Our front yard, the neighborhood. Our country, the world.
Boundaries abound: legal, physical, mental, and spiritual.
While legal boundaries seem open to interpretation, and physical boundaries are being pushed every day by scientific advancement, I'm going to focus on the last two.
Because the strongest mental and spiritual boundaries we encounter tend to be the ones we have created by our own hand. We lock ourselves into patterns of behavior by the judgments we pass on our actions. We cut ourselves off from spiritual experiences because of what we choose to believe is true.
We draw our map of the world, and sit down in the middle.
Jesus came to draw a new map. To surround us with His promises, and cover us with His presence.
But we have to give up ours. We have to surrender, to be Redeemed.
-----
I think that I can pay my way out of this mess...
...if I just work hard enough
That if I really stop to think, I won't react so quick...
...I can still fix this
I think that I can cause myself enough pain...
...I deserve it all anyway
To outweigh all the suffering that I inflict...
...my past mistakes have become my shadow
I know I should've done things a bit different
Chosen the high narrow path from the start
I know I should've payed closer attention
To the secret desires I've held in my heart
The answer is staring me right in the face
But the last thing I want to consider is grace
Someone should pay and I think its me
Freedom is expensive not given for free
I hold myself hostage with these lies that I yell
Condemning myself to this personal hell
Freedom is clawing at my reinforced walls
As I subject myself to life's bitterest galls
I think I have control of my heart and mind
I won't let anybody in because of what I know they'll find
I'm locked inside myself and I've thrown away the key
I've given up on getting out but I still long to be set free
How can I be forgiven if not by grace alone
No sacrifice of mine can earn the love that you have freely shown
I can't keep holding on I've got to let myself go free
Before the wages of my sin become the death of me
When you value punishment above Christ Jesus' sacrifice
You climb inside the grave from which He rose to give us life
You keep your anger and resentment and your poisonous thoughts
You feed the guilt that ties your soul up in a thousand knots
You cannot save yourself with an intellectual design
There's only ever been one way to turn this water into wine
The shed blood of Christ is the key to your chains
To unlocking your heart and releasing its pains
I'm finally ready to let you take command of my heart and mind
I give you the power to destroy what I know you'll find
Save me from myself Take every part of me
I finally surrender I want to be free
How can we be forgiven if not by grace alone
No sacrifice of ours can earn the love that He has freely shown
We can't keep holding on we've got to let ourselves be saved
Before the wages of our sin drag us to our own grave
-----
Go listen to Redemption - finding the freedom offered through grace
performed by aTemporal Chaos, words and music by Michael Brown
Thursday, August 13, 2009
00:00:00
They say there's no time like the present.
Well, there's no time in the atemporal.
We experience life and the world through the lens of time, but our consciousness and spirit are very much untouched by it. And though we have an organizational system for everything inside our little world, the larger topics of spirituality and existence, are very much out of our control. And our best attempts at orchestrating the universe would result in complete chaos.
In this fallen world, we cannot truly effect lasting change in our own power.
Only God, who exists outside time and is all powerful, could ever master this aTemporal Chaos.
Yet he has given us the ability to choose for ourselves... To try it our way, whatever way seems right.
So that in trying, and seeing the futility of our efforts, we might realize that our creator has a far better idea what is going on. And we really ought to let Him be the controlling factor in our life.
The question, it seems, is how many lessons must we endure before we get it?
Well, there's no time in the atemporal.
We experience life and the world through the lens of time, but our consciousness and spirit are very much untouched by it. And though we have an organizational system for everything inside our little world, the larger topics of spirituality and existence, are very much out of our control. And our best attempts at orchestrating the universe would result in complete chaos.
In this fallen world, we cannot truly effect lasting change in our own power.
Only God, who exists outside time and is all powerful, could ever master this aTemporal Chaos.
Yet he has given us the ability to choose for ourselves... To try it our way, whatever way seems right.
So that in trying, and seeing the futility of our efforts, we might realize that our creator has a far better idea what is going on. And we really ought to let Him be the controlling factor in our life.
The question, it seems, is how many lessons must we endure before we get it?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A state of continual choice - (Choose You This Day)
A generation is hungry for a relationship with God but has instead been fed a mixture of apathy, addiction, and isolation - and they've been told that this is the life in store for them. And the church has been silent on this matter.
The voice of the church has stopped at the walls of its buildings, leaving those outside to fend for themselves. Ministering to the well, and leaving the sick to die. A generation has been abandoned because we don't understand the language they speak, and don't like their clothes and their hairstyle.
Yes, they're rebelling against authority. They've been raised to question everything. What did we expect? Our society is reaping the consequences of its choices. And who will bring change?
We rally behind the banner of change. But you cannot simply "choose change" and let that be the end. Change is not one choice, it is a lifetime of choices.
Choose You This Day, and set the course for your life; but choose every day thereafter to continue in it.
-----
The time has come, to raise your voice.
The time has come, to make your choice.
Our enemy has found the weakness of the human heart
He knows to keep us in distraction is the surest way
To keep us all imprisoned in this bondage that we've
Really been set free from if we'd only lift our chains
We'd see the cost of sin was paid on Calvary.
The time has come, to make your choice.
The time has come, to raise your voice.
Choose you this day, whom you will serve.
Choose you this day, whom you will serve.
You're not a slave to sin unless you choose to serve
The master of this world and just believe that's all
There is to life. But hear me when I tell you
That your Father is still calling to His children
And His arms are open wide.
You live upon this earth but it is not your home,
Your Father has prepared a place for you, in paradise.
He's placed a purpose and a plan inside you
Hidden in your dreams and deep desires
but the world would like to sell you something else.
Don't be deceived,
This world will drag you down
See the power working from within
and see its tragic end.
"How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the LORD is God, follow him..." - 1 Kings 18:21
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods that your fathers [have passed down through generations,
or the gods of your culture that hold sway over popular opinion,]
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
- Joshua 24:15 (KJV) [lyrical adaptation]
-----
Go listen to Choose You This Day - the dissolution of indecision
performed by aTemporal Chaos, words and music by Michael Brown
The voice of the church has stopped at the walls of its buildings, leaving those outside to fend for themselves. Ministering to the well, and leaving the sick to die. A generation has been abandoned because we don't understand the language they speak, and don't like their clothes and their hairstyle.
Yes, they're rebelling against authority. They've been raised to question everything. What did we expect? Our society is reaping the consequences of its choices. And who will bring change?
We rally behind the banner of change. But you cannot simply "choose change" and let that be the end. Change is not one choice, it is a lifetime of choices.
Choose You This Day, and set the course for your life; but choose every day thereafter to continue in it.
-----
The time has come, to raise your voice.
The time has come, to make your choice.
Our enemy has found the weakness of the human heart
He knows to keep us in distraction is the surest way
To keep us all imprisoned in this bondage that we've
Really been set free from if we'd only lift our chains
We'd see the cost of sin was paid on Calvary.
The time has come, to make your choice.
The time has come, to raise your voice.
Choose you this day, whom you will serve.
Choose you this day, whom you will serve.
You're not a slave to sin unless you choose to serve
The master of this world and just believe that's all
There is to life. But hear me when I tell you
That your Father is still calling to His children
And His arms are open wide.
You live upon this earth but it is not your home,
Your Father has prepared a place for you, in paradise.
He's placed a purpose and a plan inside you
Hidden in your dreams and deep desires
but the world would like to sell you something else.
Don't be deceived,
This world will drag you down
See the power working from within
and see its tragic end.
"How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the LORD is God, follow him..." - 1 Kings 18:21
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods that your fathers [have passed down through generations,
or the gods of your culture that hold sway over popular opinion,]
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
- Joshua 24:15 (KJV) [lyrical adaptation]
-----
Go listen to Choose You This Day - the dissolution of indecision
performed by aTemporal Chaos, words and music by Michael Brown
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