The following was quoted at church tonight by Dr. Leron Heath, whose teaching was amazing. (I highly recommend giving it a listen.) This is how the church needs to be everywhere, now. Standing up for what's true and right... Hitler may be dead and gone, but people are being murdered, sold, silenced, maimed, and God knows what else all over the world right this very minute with no one to stand up for them. Let's do something about this. Let's do something about it NOW.



"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks….

.

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."

.

- Albert Einstein, Time magazine, 23rd December, 1940 p. 38

A Great "Amen"

*mobile post

everything is illuminated (part one)

The most beautiful view is the one I share with you.

"It is... through being broken to pieces, and those pieces being torn to shreds that we become people of strength. And it is the endurance of one believer that produces a multitude."

from Streams in the Desert

On a totally unrelated note, the teaching (on Acts 12) at church this morning was amazing. I highly recommend giving it a listen. (Go to cornerstoneweb.org to download the podcast or watch the video... It should be up by Tuesday.)

Swept Away: The Avett Brothers

This might be my new favorite song. It's been stuck in my head for a week
and I just can't get enough of it!!

Also, one of my bff's just got engaged yesterday(ish) and I am
soooo excited for them. Yay love.


Well you set my life a whirling
Darlin when you're twirling, on the floor
And who cares about tomorrow
What more is tomorrow, but another day

Well you swept me away
Yeah you swept me away

I see the end of the rainbow
But what more is a rainbow than colors out of reach
If you come down to my window
And I climb out my window then we'll get out of reach

And you swept me away
Yeah you swept me away

You said with such honest feelings
But what'd you really mean when you said that I'm your man
And how my darling can it be
That you have never seen me, and you never will again

Chorus

Life is ever changing
But I will always have a constant and comfort in your love
With your heart my soul is found
And as we dance I know that heaven can be found

Well you set my life a whirling
Darlin when you're twirling on the floor
And who cares about tomorrow
What more is tomorrow than another day

And you swept me away
Yeah you swept me away

Here's a crappy video of them performing the song:

"I have friends who are openly suspicious/distrustful/derisive of Obama. As Christians we pray for him not only because God calls us to but because the appropriate response to whatever fears we may have about the future of our nation is trust in God and responsible, well-planned, just civic action -- not fear, mocking, shouting, disrespect, rumor-mongering, and visceral reactivity. This has to go out of vogue among God's people. It is simply not appropriate." Andrew Wolfe

Community

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:3-10 (NIV)

On Love and Unicorns

I don't know what I am doing, and I am not the only one.

Maybe it's generational, maybe it's something in the water, but so many of us are floundering. Not sure what to do with ourselves, but sure that this isn't it. (Well, ok. By 'sure' I mean we really, really hope there is more than this.)

What I mean is, where is the greatness? The adventure? The... career? Something. I'm 26, single, work at a coffee shop, have no degree, live with my parents... this is not to say that I don't have ever so much to praise God for. His blessings are new every day!! Therein lies the rub. When I have so much I don't rely on God for my daily living.

That was the sweetness in the road trip. Sweetness in brokenness. In the state I was in this Spring I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't function at all without leaning totally on God. I praise Him for my healing and needed a new heart... but that sweetness is gone. I can get through the day without Him (at least, it feels like it), and I'm not sure I like it.

I need direction. Contentment. A degree. (A plane ticket?)

My night time devotional spurred this blog post. I was just going to post another quote, but I got to thinking about it. Thinking about how this applies to my life. Thinking about how this applies to the lives of my friends and decided that if I didn't pull out my computer and just write it down that I would lie awake thinking about what I would write and then forget everything by morning.

"Life with all its experiences is just our chance of learning love. The lesson is set for us—“thou shalt love”; “As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Our one thing is to master this lesson. We are not in this world to get rich, to gain power, to become learned in the arts and sciences, to build up a great business, or to do large things in any line. We are not here to get along in our daily work, in our shops, or schools, or homes, or on our farms. We are not here to preach the gospel, to comfort sorrow, to visit the sick and perform deeds of charity. All of these, or any of these, may be among our duties, and they may fill our hands; but in all our occupations the real business of life, that which we are always to strive to do , the work which must go in all our experiences, if we grasp life’s true meaning at all, is to learn to love and to grow loving in disposition and character." J.R. Miller from Streams in the Desert Volume 2

And I think he is right. Love. Paul tells us in Corinthians that we can do all these great things, but without love we are just a clanging gong. We're useless and annoying.

So, friends, that is our job. Our calling. Just love.

(I assume when we get this down the rest will follow... though if it doesn't, what does it matter? This is not our life to live anyway.)

"come, gentle night, --come, loving black brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with the night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun."

From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet


*mobile post

Jim Cork Burning

Dreamers of the golden dream

Sailing on forbidden seas

Words are so uninteresting

Don’t kiss me; it will trigger things

The conversations we replay

To catch the hints in what we say

The houses we find ourselves in

The games that end when we begin to live

I swear I’m getting out of here

Oh someone drag me out of here

Servant to the matriarch

Sleeping in a burning car

Lovers of the lovable

Respond to the incredible

Blood is thick with medicine

And I am chasing smoke again

Humming some new mystery

Alive inside the history of us

I swear I’m getting out of here

Oh someone drag me out of here

Create in me a grateful heart

Forge it out of twine and tar

Take the dark unusable

And make it something beautiful

And make me something beautiful

And make me something beautiful

And make me something beautiful

And make me something beautiful

A song by Derek Walker. Listen to it on Sky Fidelity.

"...that in me ye might have peace." John 16:33

I have been through the valley of weeping,
the valley of sorrow and pain;
but the God of all comfort was with me,
at hand to uphold and sustain.

As the earth needs the clouds and the sunshine,
our souls need both sorrow and joy;
so He places us oft in the furnace,
the dross from the gold to destroy.

So we'll follow wherever He leadeth,
let the path be dreary or bright;
for we've proved that our God can give comfort,
our God can give songs in the night.

The Vision

Summer 2001, Ensenada, Mexico with the church youth group- it was our first night there. A guy came on stage and shared 'The Vision'. He said it came out of YWAM London, but no one really knew much about it. (Several years later I learned it was written by Pete Grieg from 24/7 Prayer International.) I think it is safe to say that moment changed my life. The words on that crumpled up piece of paper with the MSN logo at the top seared my brain and my heart. It made my palms sweat and my eyes water. At that moment I wanted to leap from my chair and sing, and shout... and yell... and get a tattoo. From that moment on I was different.

But then I stopped being different. I'm not sure when. Maybe around the time I turned 20 or 21. But I am ready to be different again. It's time.

So here it is. Soak it in. Print it out. Read it again. The Vision.

So this guy comes up to me and says, “What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?”

I open my mouth and words come out like this:

The vision? The vision is Jesus – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army.

And they are free from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn’t even notice.

They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision ?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose, that they might one day win the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!”

And this is the sound of the underground, the whisper of history in the making. Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing…

This is the sound of the underground.

And the army is disciplined. Young people who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays

like a dying man

with groans beyond talking,

with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and

with great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting. Watching. 24/7/365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive. Inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)

Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.

Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

It is Well

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Horatio G. Spafford, 1873

Perspective (Title Page) Part 2

Excerpt from The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, Chapter 16,"Farewell to Shadowlands"

"And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

Helen Keller 

All I need is You

Left my fear by the side of the road

Hear You speak

Won't let go

Fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray

Got every reason to be here again

Father's love that draws me in

And all my eyes wanna see is a glimpse of You

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is you Lord

One more day and it's not the same

Your spirit calls my heart to sing

Drawn to the voice of my Saviour once again

Where would my soul be without Your Son

Gave His life to save the earth

Rest in the thought that You're watching over me

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is You Lord

You hold the universe

You hold everyone on earth

You hold the universe

You hold

You hold

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is You Lord 

© 2005 Cbs/Epic/Wtg Records

let's do what joseph and mary did

without the kid

...forgets nothing.

And what did contemporaries think of the tragic hero? That he was great, they looked up to him… But he who loves God has no need of tears, needs no admiration, and forgets his suffering in love, indeed forgets so completely that afterwards not the least hint of his pain would remain were God himself not to remember it; for God sees in secret and knows the distress and counts the tears and forgets nothing. 

From Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard