A Grand Display

Last night, in a spectacular display of suspended legality, Pueblo very closely resembled a city under siege. Vividly embodying the lyrics about "the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air" as all manner of incendiary ordinance filled the sky. The ground was obscured by remnants and refuse, what remains after the fires have shone bright for their short life. The stars were blotted out by the thick haze of sulfurous dioxides. The shriek and whistle of these pyrotechnic creations is blended with the wail of emergency sirens, dispatched to aid persons in need of assistance and to arrest persons in transgression of the law.

On a night so full of noise and clamor, it is easy to forget that somehow in the midst of it all hides a holiday. A day of remembrance, for the men and women who have fought and sacrificed their very lives to establish and protect this country. From the first weapon drawn against the oppressive government across the ocean (parchment and pen) to the thousands of weapons then called upon to put action to the words of that bold Declaration, on down to the battles in which we are now involved against those who seek to destroy our way of life...

Perhaps in the end, the greatest threat to this great nation may well be its own citizens. Whose selfish and egocentric behavior wants everything catered to their whims, with no thought of the consequences on future generations. Who want the government to do for them what they ought be doing for themselves, to absolve them of personal responsibility and let them live their life without a care in the world. You cannot legislate morality, intelligence, responsibility, or honor. These things used to be taught by parents, who actually raised their children to continue a kind of heritage. A system of belief in something greater than yourself.

A generation has been brainwashed into buying everything that they want now, and paying later or perhaps never. As though ordering a magazine with the free postcard found inside, we have for many years been checking "bill me later", and putting off the cost for our children to pay. And pay they will, for our carelessness and our shortsightedness. To think that everything should just be free, and that money will rain from the skies over Washington, without having to come from somewhere. This philosophy of postponed responsibility: "we'll fix it later, I just don't want to deal with it right now" will soon be our undoing, if indeed it is not already too late.

If as a nation, we no longer consider anything greater than ourselves, we will not continue to be a nation much longer. There will be nothing holding us together, and nothing to defend us from anything.

Outcast

Through seeking to walk his own path,

the independent mind is deemed irregular.

A problem all too solvable with rehabilitation;

Just a spoonful of drugs makes the hateful lies go down.

A psychiatric nation seeks to fix the yet unbroken,

and weaken the strong, in the name of conformity.

None too different, none too special, lest some might take offense.

At the sight of what they could have been.

At the parts of themselves they've left behind, believed to be forgotten.

Believe the lies, and make them true. At least inside your mind.

You are yourself, made by your hand; It's no one else's choice.

And that's the part they fear the most, they've none but them to blame.

The Judgement of God

In the wake of every natural disaster, there seems to be scores of "Christians" who proclaim to the world that this pain and suffering is the judgment of God. That we, or whoever the victims may be, are being punished for our sin.

My personal opinion on the matter is as follows:

God's Judgment has already been poured out. All of it. Nothing was leftover, none of it was saved for a rainy day. (more on rainy days in a minute)

All judgment for sin, and all wrath toward sinners, was poured into Jesus at the cross.

To say that God is still judging us, or judging the world, is to spit in the face of Jesus and tell him that his sacrifice was insufficient.

How arrogant! Especially from people who call themselves Christians. They are claiming to be good with God, that Jesus washed away their sins, but then God's mercy ran out. They got in, but then the door closed. If you truly believe in the goodness of God, you realize that God still hates sin because of the destructive effects it still has in our lives if we continue to live in it. But all His wrath, and all His judgment, HAS BEEN POURED OUT. "It is finished" are the final words spoken on the matter.

The other time that God's judgment was poured out, was in the flood. This display of God's wrath was so destructive, that we are still experiencing the echoes of it. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and the like are the ongoing effects of the destruction of paradise. The perversion of what the earth was originally created to be.

There is no present judgment. What we see today, and may inappropriately label "acts of God" are the results of living in a fallen world where the caretakers have abandoned their responsibility to take dominion. That's us. The church. God's children are called to step into the authority that God gave to Adam before the fall. We are to take dominion of the Earth, and bring the Kingdom of Heaven into full reality.

I believe that God is looking on the people in Haiti with compassion, not slinging lightning bolts and tidal waves like the "Apocalypse Now / Judgment Day" God of Wrath portrayed by Hollywood and the Media. Which makes me wonder how he feels toward the people who callously brush off this tragedy (and others) as His judgment. Those are His kids you're trash-talking. How we get from "For God so loved the world that He gave" to this kind of religiously-justified hatred and apathetic disregard for human suffering is downright disgusting.

Whatever sinful practices may have been occurring in Haiti, or in the United States, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, are covered under the sacrifice of Jesus. To believe otherwise is to directly contradict the finished work of the cross.