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.

Lukewarm Christianity

In Revelation 3:16, there is given a caution to those who are "neither hot nor cold" and it involves being spit out like unsavory broth. The mindset of following God but not wanting to "get too radical" is dangerously close to qualifying. The mission statement of this Lukewarm Christianity could read as follows:

"To successfully avoid both blessing and cursing."

The world is passionately devoted to their sin. We will never be able to offer them freedom if we are only casually associated with Jesus. We should be far more tenacious in our grip of the life that comes from God than the world is holding on to the wages of their sin.

They're willing to go to hell for their lifestyle... are we as passionate about our eternal destiny? enough to share it with the world?

Too much traffic on the roads...

You can keep your indecision,
and your callous disregard.
Your expectation for the world
to play along and punch your card.

Fancy loosened feet are free,
to wander and get lost at will.
They always find a deathly trap,
intending to pursue a thrill.

Another pawn to march in line,
whenever needed heed their call.
The ones who do just what they're told,
will always take the hardest fall.

I am not one among your ranks,
in me you'll find no sympathy.
I walk this careful chosen path,
a way you've chosen not to see.

"it's that time of year"

I am reminded of a commercial (circa 1990something) that was singing: "Happy Chris-ma-Ha-na-Qwan-za-ka!" which was simply a conglomeration of multicultural celebrations with calendrical and symbolic similarities to Christmas. For the purpose of my rant however, I am considering all of the relevant Christmas-related holidays to fall under the umbrellic term 'Christmas' and combining the three major winter holidays (which grow in span with every passing year) in chronological order into the Super Season I hereby refer to as: 'hallogivemas.'

Picture a large turkey... dressed as Santa Clause, with a jack-o-lantern for a head. He's making his list and checking it twice, throwing bricks made of fruitcake at those who aren't nice. the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, and the turkey's got plenty of pumpkins to spare. oh, the madness! It all starts with autumn.

Changing leaves and the resultant splashes of natural color are drowned beneath a sea of orange and black. Sugar is sold in every form: shaped as skulls, pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and goblins. Spider webs appear in otherwise meticulously cleaned homes, and deliberately frightening images are plastered on walls, across lawns, and donned in the form of costumery deception. I shall not here delve into the history of the holiday, for that is another essay entirely; already written by a number of more scholarly folk...

But with halloween out of the way as we enter November, now begins the next stage in this consumerist monstrosity. The creepy death/horror/necromancy-themed decorations and the unhealthy deluge of candy gives way to turkeys and cranberries... We can now buy new living room furniture at outrageously prices! Along with fresh new fall fashions. Everything is on sale! But a sale is not really the low prices they advertise, it is merely the suspension of the intentionally elevated prices. Because at the appearance of such good deals, all the obedient shoppers follow the shepherd around the pen.

Instead of allowing each to grow individually, we should combine the three (they are already beginning to overlap) and thereby save us all some money! Celebrate the beginning of fall, the gathering of the harvest, remember the dead, give thanks for the living; but most importantly, remember the birth of the one without whom no holiday would have any meaning or purpose.

If we marginalize Christmas to the same socioeconomic status as these other holidays, we disrespect the very one who gave His life to secure our freedom: Jesus the Christ.

Whatever else we may do this 'holiday season' I would recommend a little less spending and a little more searching. Find your reasons, instead of blindly following habit, or cultural trends. Find out for yourself why you do what you do. And if you don't like what you find, you have the power to change it. Its your life, He gave it to you. What are you going to do with it?

What will you give to those you love? Are you willing to give yourself? Or does a gift card adequately convey the emotion. I for one am glad that God didn't send us clothes or a plasma screen television. God didn't send us a certificate to His favorite restaurant. He gave us His son, to pay the price for our sins. To wash away the eternal consequences of our past, so that every step forward could bring us closer to Him.

Relationship. That is the purpose, that is the goal. That is the "meaning of Christmas." Whether we give gifts to friends and family or refrain from any cultural celebration whatsoever, where are our hearts? Do we really ask ourselves why we do what we do? I'm asking myself... and you have the mixed-fortune of listening to me try to figure it out. I am praying for us all.

Just outside the fence - (Redemption)

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.

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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

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Go listen to Redemption - finding the freedom offered through grace
performed by aTemporal Chaos, words and music by Michael Brown

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?

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.

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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]

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Go listen to Choose You This Day - the dissolution of indecision
performed by aTemporal Chaos, words and music by Michael Brown