Play by play of the Refinery's 6:00 service here (until my battery died early on).
Resolutions are for Quitters!
It's a new year, and that means there are millions of people joining gyms and by Feburary, those same people are back to eating pizza, chips, and drinking pizza (not that there's anything wrong with that) and then the process repeats in 365 days. I will not be one of those people!
I Always Worry
A part of my youth ministry time really had me questioning if they were getting it. In the end, I was the one who got it.
New Site Look
"my Cove" has updated it's look and I'll do my best to explain why. For the first time, it isn't the "I needed a new look" but a deeper explanation of why I changed. We are all on a road together and I was ignoring all the tell tale signs that I was screwing everything up. Don't worry, I'll continue to post like before but now more frequently.
Your Music Sucks
There's a time and place for worship music, however there isn't any reason why all worship music sounds the same or why church worship leaders are using the same boring songs as every other church. How is that helpful to worship?
Déjà vu
You've been in this same spot before, at the same exact moment in time, the same smell, the same clothes: you've done this same thing before but you haven't done it before.
Sunday, September 26
Wednesday, September 8
your music sucks
9:00 AM
Jesse
I'm normally not one to say something like "this sucks..." or "wow, you do what?" because I believe that everyone has the right to do certain things (to a limit) without being harassed about it.
I do have a certain passion against one thing: Christian Contemporary Music.
Now, let me begin by saying I believe in the concept of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM as it's known to the insiders of said genre).
I understand that some people generally believe that God has given them musical abilities that they use to praise and worship God with. I wholeheartedly believe that we are given talents that are to be used to praise and worship God with.
So let me say again: I believe in the concept of CCM.
I just have a hard time listening to it.
I grew up in the 80's raised on classic rock and some country music. I was a closet fan of Garth Brooks and to this day still listen to his Chris Gaines concept album. I jam out to Free Bird, Stairway to Heaven, and Back in Black. I learned to appreciate the early 90's rap explosion on the east coast, the rise of grunge and was a metal teenager, in my day. Known bands like Metallica and not so known bands like Blind Guardian. The early late 90's and 2000's I got into the dance, techno, industrial stuff and had a bunch of drum and bass albums, DJ's like Plasticman, and Moby before he made it big. Then, when I dedicated my life to Jesus, I was introduced to Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns.
I love Michael W. Smith's music but a man can not live on bread alone, right?
I am a very musically based person. Music talks to me and I talk back then in that moment we're connected and I get the music. I understand Nirvana's 'Smells like Teen Spirit' and I feel every note of Emeinem's 'Cleaning Out My Closet'.
Don't get me wrong, CCM has moved me a lot but I'm missing something.
We are all called to be perfect, to be better, to be the greatest we can be because God created us and we have been called back to His everlasting arms. We are called to be in this world not in it. We're supposed to be outside of the mundaneness of it all but the CCM stations play the same music all week and it sounds like the stuff they aren't playing on secular radios because it's subpar!
Radio stations play what their sponsors tell them to play, what they want to people who are listening should listen to. Sometimes stations take money to play music for their signed bands and there's this huge backlash because it's unfair to smaller labels.
You can switch between five different stations and hear the same song. Train's "If It's Love" I've heard three times today, yesterday Justin Timberlake's "Sexy back" twice in the same 30 minutes on two different stations. Radio stations play what they are told to play.
Guess what CCM stations play? Yeah, you're following along but why are CCM stations playing music only "we" get?
Jesus pulls his disciples to the side and tell him to go and make disciples. He tells his people to stop what we're doing and go convert people into disciples. How are CCM artist changing non-Christian lives with their music? Is this totally counter productive to the Christian movement? Shouldn't they be writing music that run of the mill radio stations can play so when you go to these awesome band concerts you'll be surrounded by other people who have been moved by their music and see that there is a different way to rock than the 'destroy a hotel room, buy a hooker, snort a line' rock star life.
Creed doesn't count.
I have an idea why they won't.
Have you ever heard this great local band who played at a bar, did a few covers, did a few songs on their own, and at the end of the night you buy a $5 CD and fist bump the lead singer?
WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT A BAR YOU HEATHEN!!!
Seriously, though, have you? Have you then wished you could skip over the lousy song on the radio and play that awesome album you bought for $5. The radio won't play that local music during normal running time because they aren't signed and they are a subpar version of whatever band that inspired them.
There are few CCM groups that I will say are original. More than 90% of CCM musicians don't write their own music, they redo hymns in "new" (not new) and "original" (not original) ways. They sound just like every other CCM group, and at least one of their songs use the narrative of Kirk Cameron being saved during a rain storm. Yes, rain is a great example of God's love but the idea in a song is more than out done, find another great idea from the bible and ground it to death instead.
If we're called to be different, to be outside the fold, why are we listening to music that sound the same as every other boring secular song. Why do we think just because it's CCM it's okay to be mediocre?
Why are the standards of CCM so low? Why is there a surge of CCM music that only appeals to Christians? Shouldn't CCM actually appeal to the lost and seeking? Shouldn't CCM be great enough to be played on secular stations to reach the ears of those who need to hear the uplifting songs? Lifehouse and Relient K had a good stab at it until people found out the song wasn't about loving some girl but loving God so people paniced because CCM doesn't sound that good, ever. Casting Crowns had a great run with 'I Can Only Imagine' until their label allowed radio stations to edit out the parts about God. U2 isn't CCM but should be the level CCM should be inspiring to be. Bono may be a little crazy but their music changed lives and they're not CCM.
Why aren't CCM artists changing secular lives? because they're not good enough to be played on secular radio because we allow CCM to be subpar because it has to do with God and all of it must be good enough to play.
I don't listen to CCM while driving because I can't stay awake. I listen to CCM when I can't sleep, I turn on our local CCM station and the music bores me to sleep. When it's sung in church, I check out. Worship Leaders are using the same boring music on CCM to lead services because that's what their congregation knows. Instead of using their talents to write new music that is outside the norm of CCM, they just do what every other worship band does: plays over played boring subpar music.
If you do this, and you're a worship leader: your music suck.
Instead of just throwing a "Complaint Grenade" into the room and bolting off, I have suggestions to turn this failure that is CCM around.
I propose that artists, musicians, worship leaders and label executives that wish to be called Christian Contemporary Music, follow a set of specified commandments. I'm not putting them in any order as of yet, but they're numbered to keep track of how many I have.
1) Fight proactively for your music to be played on secular stations because God's message is for everyone, not just for us elitist. What's the point of keeping your light under a bucket?
2) Refuse to sign yourself to any list that takes money away from churches just for royalty rights to use your music in worship settings. I have HUGE issues with "christian" companies who charge churches licensing fee to have worship music.
3) As a worship leader, you must use your gift to create new music not heard outside the walls. Worship isn't about knowing every song on the radio just so your congregation can be comfortable in worship. You never know that one new song could touch someone like a million overplayed radio songs could.
4) Allow worship leaders direct access to your music without throwing up VIP access sections of your website. You have the right to own your music, without a doubt, but is your gift, stuck in a box, helpful to anyone but that box.
5) Use your talents outside of the church. Find places in the area that have open mic nights. Play outside of random places until you're asked to leave. Give away your music in the most random places. God has given you a gift to share with others, share it.
6) If you have musical conflicts with anyone... let me reiterate that: ANYONE - that includes pastors, congregational members, trustee members, anyone - find out why. If your music is not for the congregation you're leading, then find a congregation that will follow you to the beat of your drum. You have the responsibility to understand what your congregation needs and if you can't see that over your own ego, then recheck yourself, pray, focus. You'll find the truth in God's word in time.
7) You don't need light shows, ever, even if you've made it big. They are there for God's gift, not for a show.
8) Only God knows what the true path really looks like. Listen to every word he tells you, even the ones you don't want to hear.
9) Never hold back - No mater what. Ever. For any reason.
10) God speaks to people through your gift and because of that you have a responsibility. You can not sell out, you can not loose focus on your gift, you can not be mundane, average, so-so, you must give your 100% and then some because anything less than that is wasted. God did not create you or your gift to be wasted so stop trying to be like something else and be yourself. Stop trying to sound like someone else because they already sound like that and you're better than a cheap imitation. Stop trying to create this spectacle of your gift and just give it.
Personally, I think that worship leaders need yearly reviews of their vision of their congregation. There is more to worship than just music and singing and I think that's where a lot of smaller church congregation leaders fall flat. They get stuck in the rut of writing set lists they forget they're there for God's work not their own purposes.
In the end, it's not up to me to determine how worship leaders lead or how christian artists preform or how authors write but I really think there has to be some self checks and balances to keep away from being mediocre.
Contemporary Christian Whatevers have gone the way of the Dodo. The world has moved on and we're stuck doing things they same as everyone else. We're called to be better than that, for God's glory not anything else.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse
I do have a certain passion against one thing: Christian Contemporary Music.
Now, let me begin by saying I believe in the concept of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM as it's known to the insiders of said genre).
I understand that some people generally believe that God has given them musical abilities that they use to praise and worship God with. I wholeheartedly believe that we are given talents that are to be used to praise and worship God with.
So let me say again: I believe in the concept of CCM.
I just have a hard time listening to it.
I grew up in the 80's raised on classic rock and some country music. I was a closet fan of Garth Brooks and to this day still listen to his Chris Gaines concept album. I jam out to Free Bird, Stairway to Heaven, and Back in Black. I learned to appreciate the early 90's rap explosion on the east coast, the rise of grunge and was a metal teenager, in my day. Known bands like Metallica and not so known bands like Blind Guardian. The early late 90's and 2000's I got into the dance, techno, industrial stuff and had a bunch of drum and bass albums, DJ's like Plasticman, and Moby before he made it big. Then, when I dedicated my life to Jesus, I was introduced to Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns.
I love Michael W. Smith's music but a man can not live on bread alone, right?
I am a very musically based person. Music talks to me and I talk back then in that moment we're connected and I get the music. I understand Nirvana's 'Smells like Teen Spirit' and I feel every note of Emeinem's 'Cleaning Out My Closet'.
Don't get me wrong, CCM has moved me a lot but I'm missing something.
We are all called to be perfect, to be better, to be the greatest we can be because God created us and we have been called back to His everlasting arms. We are called to be in this world not in it. We're supposed to be outside of the mundaneness of it all but the CCM stations play the same music all week and it sounds like the stuff they aren't playing on secular radios because it's subpar!
Radio stations play what their sponsors tell them to play, what they want to people who are listening should listen to. Sometimes stations take money to play music for their signed bands and there's this huge backlash because it's unfair to smaller labels.
You can switch between five different stations and hear the same song. Train's "If It's Love" I've heard three times today, yesterday Justin Timberlake's "Sexy back" twice in the same 30 minutes on two different stations. Radio stations play what they are told to play.
Guess what CCM stations play? Yeah, you're following along but why are CCM stations playing music only "we" get?
Jesus pulls his disciples to the side and tell him to go and make disciples. He tells his people to stop what we're doing and go convert people into disciples. How are CCM artist changing non-Christian lives with their music? Is this totally counter productive to the Christian movement? Shouldn't they be writing music that run of the mill radio stations can play so when you go to these awesome band concerts you'll be surrounded by other people who have been moved by their music and see that there is a different way to rock than the 'destroy a hotel room, buy a hooker, snort a line' rock star life.
Creed doesn't count.
I have an idea why they won't.
Have you ever heard this great local band who played at a bar, did a few covers, did a few songs on their own, and at the end of the night you buy a $5 CD and fist bump the lead singer?
WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT A BAR YOU HEATHEN!!!
Seriously, though, have you? Have you then wished you could skip over the lousy song on the radio and play that awesome album you bought for $5. The radio won't play that local music during normal running time because they aren't signed and they are a subpar version of whatever band that inspired them.
There are few CCM groups that I will say are original. More than 90% of CCM musicians don't write their own music, they redo hymns in "new" (not new) and "original" (not original) ways. They sound just like every other CCM group, and at least one of their songs use the narrative of Kirk Cameron being saved during a rain storm. Yes, rain is a great example of God's love but the idea in a song is more than out done, find another great idea from the bible and ground it to death instead.
If we're called to be different, to be outside the fold, why are we listening to music that sound the same as every other boring secular song. Why do we think just because it's CCM it's okay to be mediocre?
Why are the standards of CCM so low? Why is there a surge of CCM music that only appeals to Christians? Shouldn't CCM actually appeal to the lost and seeking? Shouldn't CCM be great enough to be played on secular stations to reach the ears of those who need to hear the uplifting songs? Lifehouse and Relient K had a good stab at it until people found out the song wasn't about loving some girl but loving God so people paniced because CCM doesn't sound that good, ever. Casting Crowns had a great run with 'I Can Only Imagine' until their label allowed radio stations to edit out the parts about God. U2 isn't CCM but should be the level CCM should be inspiring to be. Bono may be a little crazy but their music changed lives and they're not CCM.
Why aren't CCM artists changing secular lives? because they're not good enough to be played on secular radio because we allow CCM to be subpar because it has to do with God and all of it must be good enough to play.
I don't listen to CCM while driving because I can't stay awake. I listen to CCM when I can't sleep, I turn on our local CCM station and the music bores me to sleep. When it's sung in church, I check out. Worship Leaders are using the same boring music on CCM to lead services because that's what their congregation knows. Instead of using their talents to write new music that is outside the norm of CCM, they just do what every other worship band does: plays over played boring subpar music.
If you do this, and you're a worship leader: your music suck.
Instead of just throwing a "Complaint Grenade" into the room and bolting off, I have suggestions to turn this failure that is CCM around.
I propose that artists, musicians, worship leaders and label executives that wish to be called Christian Contemporary Music, follow a set of specified commandments. I'm not putting them in any order as of yet, but they're numbered to keep track of how many I have.
1) Fight proactively for your music to be played on secular stations because God's message is for everyone, not just for us elitist. What's the point of keeping your light under a bucket?
2) Refuse to sign yourself to any list that takes money away from churches just for royalty rights to use your music in worship settings. I have HUGE issues with "christian" companies who charge churches licensing fee to have worship music.
3) As a worship leader, you must use your gift to create new music not heard outside the walls. Worship isn't about knowing every song on the radio just so your congregation can be comfortable in worship. You never know that one new song could touch someone like a million overplayed radio songs could.
4) Allow worship leaders direct access to your music without throwing up VIP access sections of your website. You have the right to own your music, without a doubt, but is your gift, stuck in a box, helpful to anyone but that box.
5) Use your talents outside of the church. Find places in the area that have open mic nights. Play outside of random places until you're asked to leave. Give away your music in the most random places. God has given you a gift to share with others, share it.
6) If you have musical conflicts with anyone... let me reiterate that: ANYONE - that includes pastors, congregational members, trustee members, anyone - find out why. If your music is not for the congregation you're leading, then find a congregation that will follow you to the beat of your drum. You have the responsibility to understand what your congregation needs and if you can't see that over your own ego, then recheck yourself, pray, focus. You'll find the truth in God's word in time.
7) You don't need light shows, ever, even if you've made it big. They are there for God's gift, not for a show.
8) Only God knows what the true path really looks like. Listen to every word he tells you, even the ones you don't want to hear.
9) Never hold back - No mater what. Ever. For any reason.
10) God speaks to people through your gift and because of that you have a responsibility. You can not sell out, you can not loose focus on your gift, you can not be mundane, average, so-so, you must give your 100% and then some because anything less than that is wasted. God did not create you or your gift to be wasted so stop trying to be like something else and be yourself. Stop trying to sound like someone else because they already sound like that and you're better than a cheap imitation. Stop trying to create this spectacle of your gift and just give it.
Personally, I think that worship leaders need yearly reviews of their vision of their congregation. There is more to worship than just music and singing and I think that's where a lot of smaller church congregation leaders fall flat. They get stuck in the rut of writing set lists they forget they're there for God's work not their own purposes.
In the end, it's not up to me to determine how worship leaders lead or how christian artists preform or how authors write but I really think there has to be some self checks and balances to keep away from being mediocre.
Contemporary Christian Whatevers have gone the way of the Dodo. The world has moved on and we're stuck doing things they same as everyone else. We're called to be better than that, for God's glory not anything else.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse
Friday, September 3
call me crazy after this one...
12:01 PM
Jesse
Jesse, humble, devoted, joyous, servant of my sovereign Lord and Savior (Christ Jesus) to all the people in Christ Jesus at The Cove: Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ. I present to you, a revelation of Jesus Christ (a few, actually), which God gave me (me, which is Greek for 'me'), to show his servants (you)(and me).
Revelations:
We bring ourselves into this realm of knowledge where God's hand is obvious at work. However, we still rely on our own self knowledge to put these things we know into practice. These kinds of things are books, tomes, about prophecy, the end times, tribulation, and the second, and final, coming of Christ.
The book of Revelation, written by John, while in prison, is filled with all kinds of visuals, codes, and details that people have been trying to crack since day one. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians tells us two things: 1) God is going to return in a very covert way. Paul puts it simple: like a thief in the night.
2) God's people know when this is going to go down.
The two conflicting concepts here aren't in these passages but when we're told to live in this world, but not of it, because we can not serve two masters. We are told be different, to not appear to be the same as everyone else, we're to go against the crowd, because Jesus did the same.
I won't point fingers, because I'm not a huge fan of the guy, but a well known pastor at a well known mega church said Jesus would be flying around in jet planes and riding in limos if he was here today. I, and many of Christ's follows beg to differ. He wouldn't be riding in planes or limos or metro, because that's what everyone else is doing. He would be walking, riding a donkey, because His ministry was to be different than the world.
Then, why do we get so worked up trying to decode God's supposed secrets in Revelations? Why do we get worked up in the Left Behind series? We are curious people, but in the end, we are selfish people and we need to know when God's coming back so we can get everything we want to get done, done.
We read these books about the secret bible code, watch the TV shows about the impending end of the world. We need to know and because of that God's real plan goes undone.
We're told it won't surprise us, and a lot of people believe that it's because God gave us all these things in the bible, that point to his second coming. A list of things that have to happen for us to go "oh, yeah, He's over that hill" but I say we're missing something.
When has Christ ever given us specific directions? We could argue that the Old Testament is filled with lists, and dimensions, and step by step diagrams. Noah, the Commandments, the Ark of the Covenant, thrones, buildings, a good chunk of the Old Testament are directions, straight to the point.
The New Testament, though, is a bit different. We see Jesus giving people choices. Yes, there are times when He straight out says "drop your lives and follow me" but that isn't a "go home, get your clothes, some food for the road" and actually, maybe when he said "drop it all, now" Jesus may have meant now.
We're selfish, Jesse, tell us something we don't know.
If you really want me to, lets do it.
You, who spend your time wasting away at the pointless number crunching of the bible go against the Great Commission: go and make disciples. We're called to help people find God's holy light and you sit on your asses looking for a loop hole in an breakable contract, written by God. God has no loopholes. None. Finding the time when Jesus returns is pointless because Jesus is already here, in the form of those doing something to better the world God left in our hands. You are not prophets you are profiteers and the God you seek sits in your wallet, in your bank accounts, underneath that double line on your account sheets, that is the God you worship and I pray you will find your way out of that pit of despair and join us in the everlasting light of a God who is unbreakable.
On Vain False Prophets:
This under lying issue of all of this vanity. It isn't about bringing people into the loving fold of God's arms, it's about being vain, money and making a name for oneself.
There are people who claim to be God's people, Westborro Baptist for instance, who are going totally ape shit against everything God tell us. They are firm believers in turn or burn. That being saved is actually being saved. They believe that we are all sinners who are on a one way ticket to hell unless we repent of our heathen ways a give our lives over to God! They're right. We are all heathens, sinners, and we are all going to hell in a pretty floral hand basket, and without the ever redeeming forgiving love of God, we're all fraked.
The difference is, these people are proclaiming to ask for forgiveness is to be forgiven and nothing else. Be saved or die! There is nothing about love. There is nothing about us being very good in God's eyes. There is nothing about being fishers of men, about going and making disciples, nothing about our true mission here on earth: to serve one another.
We get wrapped up in what we should or shouldn't be doing, instead of doing. Churches get wrapped up in their own damn dogma they forget why they're even a church. Leaders use their power to push people to do things their way instead of building those people up. We get wrapped up in how to do stuff, we start to become afraid to do anything and in turn, we loose ourselves to that fear.
Other people use God's name to make themselves look important. I seen it all the time, just look at music award shows when Rapper X whose hit single "Smack Your Ma'ma" gets best album and he thanks God in his speech. You my friend, are using the gifts God, who you just thanked, gave you for your own personal gain and by throwing God's name into the mix, you have now taken His name in vain.
Personally speaking, if I wrote a song about smacking my mother, and it won best album, I'd be more worried about how bad the rest of the albums where but I digress.
I finally can take a firm stand on a problem I've been having. I use to listen to a certain band whose music I'd never want my parents to listen to. Songs about killing cops, rednecks, and having sex with fat chicks in the rear. Said band released a bunch of albums, claiming the end would be coming when their seventh and final full length album released. That all answers to who they were would be clear and when it happened there would be nothing left.
Well, the album was released and the final track stated that if you paid very close attention to what was being said, you read between the lines filled with vulgar toxic words, that you would have seen that they had always followed God, and they hope everyone finds God.
Yeah, I was as shocked as the next guy. At the time I was all "yeah! you go!" but now I'm more like, "Yeah, you go somewhere else..."
These are prophets preaching a fake God. Their god believes it's okay to kill without hesitation for no other reason but anger. Their god believes it's okay to have sex for the fun of it. Their god believes it's okay to spray your crowds with cheap soda and praise drug users.
All in all, these false prophets know who the are and if you read between the lines you know who I'm talking about.
It's not just their music which calls me to arms but the way they present themselves to the run of the mill fan. I've seen interviews and specials all devoted to them (I was a fan, remember) and now I watch the same stuff, in a new light, and see they're just playing people along to make a buck. They don't care about their fans, they don't care about their music, they don't follow God, they care about the dollar, making a buck, and getting whats theirs.
We are always worried about the people doing things in God's name. The murders, the drug heads, the crooked priest, but we ignore the false prophets who hide in a different light, who hide in a light which is meant for God, not use.
In Closing:
We are here to love our God, love our neighbors and make disciples. When we try and put God into our own frame of mind, turn His word into something other than His, or claim our own selfish motives are actually God's motives, we've stepped into it, badly. People are so put off by all these rules Christians have to follow, but it's not like that. God didn't give us ten commandments to follow, He gave use those as guidelines: if this is how we're living our lives, that's when we know we're the closest to him. It's not about rules or fear, it's about a relationship with God, and relationships with one another.
Love God, Love Neighbors, Make Disciples - and everything that will come from those three things, intertwined together, will be blessed, holy and filled with God's joy, not our own vanity.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse
coming soon: your music sucks
Revelations:
We bring ourselves into this realm of knowledge where God's hand is obvious at work. However, we still rely on our own self knowledge to put these things we know into practice. These kinds of things are books, tomes, about prophecy, the end times, tribulation, and the second, and final, coming of Christ.
The book of Revelation, written by John, while in prison, is filled with all kinds of visuals, codes, and details that people have been trying to crack since day one. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians tells us two things: 1) God is going to return in a very covert way. Paul puts it simple: like a thief in the night.
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. -1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 (NIV)
2) God's people know when this is going to go down.
But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. Thessalonians 5:4 (NIV)
The two conflicting concepts here aren't in these passages but when we're told to live in this world, but not of it, because we can not serve two masters. We are told be different, to not appear to be the same as everyone else, we're to go against the crowd, because Jesus did the same.
I won't point fingers, because I'm not a huge fan of the guy, but a well known pastor at a well known mega church said Jesus would be flying around in jet planes and riding in limos if he was here today. I, and many of Christ's follows beg to differ. He wouldn't be riding in planes or limos or metro, because that's what everyone else is doing. He would be walking, riding a donkey, because His ministry was to be different than the world.
Then, why do we get so worked up trying to decode God's supposed secrets in Revelations? Why do we get worked up in the Left Behind series? We are curious people, but in the end, we are selfish people and we need to know when God's coming back so we can get everything we want to get done, done.
We read these books about the secret bible code, watch the TV shows about the impending end of the world. We need to know and because of that God's real plan goes undone.
We're told it won't surprise us, and a lot of people believe that it's because God gave us all these things in the bible, that point to his second coming. A list of things that have to happen for us to go "oh, yeah, He's over that hill" but I say we're missing something.
When has Christ ever given us specific directions? We could argue that the Old Testament is filled with lists, and dimensions, and step by step diagrams. Noah, the Commandments, the Ark of the Covenant, thrones, buildings, a good chunk of the Old Testament are directions, straight to the point.
The New Testament, though, is a bit different. We see Jesus giving people choices. Yes, there are times when He straight out says "drop your lives and follow me" but that isn't a "go home, get your clothes, some food for the road" and actually, maybe when he said "drop it all, now" Jesus may have meant now.
We're selfish, Jesse, tell us something we don't know.
If you really want me to, lets do it.
You, who spend your time wasting away at the pointless number crunching of the bible go against the Great Commission: go and make disciples. We're called to help people find God's holy light and you sit on your asses looking for a loop hole in an breakable contract, written by God. God has no loopholes. None. Finding the time when Jesus returns is pointless because Jesus is already here, in the form of those doing something to better the world God left in our hands. You are not prophets you are profiteers and the God you seek sits in your wallet, in your bank accounts, underneath that double line on your account sheets, that is the God you worship and I pray you will find your way out of that pit of despair and join us in the everlasting light of a God who is unbreakable.
On Vain False Prophets:
This under lying issue of all of this vanity. It isn't about bringing people into the loving fold of God's arms, it's about being vain, money and making a name for oneself.
There are people who claim to be God's people, Westborro Baptist for instance, who are going totally ape shit against everything God tell us. They are firm believers in turn or burn. That being saved is actually being saved. They believe that we are all sinners who are on a one way ticket to hell unless we repent of our heathen ways a give our lives over to God! They're right. We are all heathens, sinners, and we are all going to hell in a pretty floral hand basket, and without the ever redeeming forgiving love of God, we're all fraked.
The difference is, these people are proclaiming to ask for forgiveness is to be forgiven and nothing else. Be saved or die! There is nothing about love. There is nothing about us being very good in God's eyes. There is nothing about being fishers of men, about going and making disciples, nothing about our true mission here on earth: to serve one another.
We get wrapped up in what we should or shouldn't be doing, instead of doing. Churches get wrapped up in their own damn dogma they forget why they're even a church. Leaders use their power to push people to do things their way instead of building those people up. We get wrapped up in how to do stuff, we start to become afraid to do anything and in turn, we loose ourselves to that fear.
Other people use God's name to make themselves look important. I seen it all the time, just look at music award shows when Rapper X whose hit single "Smack Your Ma'ma" gets best album and he thanks God in his speech. You my friend, are using the gifts God, who you just thanked, gave you for your own personal gain and by throwing God's name into the mix, you have now taken His name in vain.
Personally speaking, if I wrote a song about smacking my mother, and it won best album, I'd be more worried about how bad the rest of the albums where but I digress.
I finally can take a firm stand on a problem I've been having. I use to listen to a certain band whose music I'd never want my parents to listen to. Songs about killing cops, rednecks, and having sex with fat chicks in the rear. Said band released a bunch of albums, claiming the end would be coming when their seventh and final full length album released. That all answers to who they were would be clear and when it happened there would be nothing left.
Well, the album was released and the final track stated that if you paid very close attention to what was being said, you read between the lines filled with vulgar toxic words, that you would have seen that they had always followed God, and they hope everyone finds God.
Yeah, I was as shocked as the next guy. At the time I was all "yeah! you go!" but now I'm more like, "Yeah, you go somewhere else..."
These are prophets preaching a fake God. Their god believes it's okay to kill without hesitation for no other reason but anger. Their god believes it's okay to have sex for the fun of it. Their god believes it's okay to spray your crowds with cheap soda and praise drug users.
All in all, these false prophets know who the are and if you read between the lines you know who I'm talking about.
It's not just their music which calls me to arms but the way they present themselves to the run of the mill fan. I've seen interviews and specials all devoted to them (I was a fan, remember) and now I watch the same stuff, in a new light, and see they're just playing people along to make a buck. They don't care about their fans, they don't care about their music, they don't follow God, they care about the dollar, making a buck, and getting whats theirs.
We are always worried about the people doing things in God's name. The murders, the drug heads, the crooked priest, but we ignore the false prophets who hide in a different light, who hide in a light which is meant for God, not use.
In Closing:
We are here to love our God, love our neighbors and make disciples. When we try and put God into our own frame of mind, turn His word into something other than His, or claim our own selfish motives are actually God's motives, we've stepped into it, badly. People are so put off by all these rules Christians have to follow, but it's not like that. God didn't give us ten commandments to follow, He gave use those as guidelines: if this is how we're living our lives, that's when we know we're the closest to him. It's not about rules or fear, it's about a relationship with God, and relationships with one another.
Love God, Love Neighbors, Make Disciples - and everything that will come from those three things, intertwined together, will be blessed, holy and filled with God's joy, not our own vanity.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse
coming soon: your music sucks
