Dead Idolatry

So I just got back from Mexico City with the Summit and all my thoughts recently seem to be regarding my experiences there.  I suppose my next couple of blogs will therefore revolve around that trip.  One thing I keep thinking back to was our experience with the syncretism of religion.  Mexico seemed to be a blend of Catholicism, Spiritism and a form of anti-establishment postmodernism.  Most of the students I talked with were very opposed to organized religion and made comments liking God, if he even existed at all, to an ethereal concept of love.  They had grown up in a dead faith and were weary of any kind of established church.  However, I really wanted to take a look at how many Mexicans worship one as a mediator called Santa Muerte which could be literally translated “death saint”.  I’ll go ahead and post the pictures of the church we visited dedicated to the worship of this saint.

When we walked into the church I watched as a couple of women crossed themselves in front of this “saint” muttering prayers under their breath through tear filled eyes.  I watched another woman with two small children insert quarters into a machine which would then light up a candle signifying that Santa Muerte would hear there prayers.  My heart broke and I longed to just put my arms around them and cry out in fluent Spanish that there was no life to be found there!  That “thing” cannot protect you from death and it surely cannot mediate between you and God.  However, all I can really say in Spanish is hello and my name is… so I just sat there quietly and watched.  Silently as I walked around this place of worship the Holy Spirit put his hand on my spirit and reminded me firmly yet gently that I run to idols just as dead, just as lifeless and just as incapable of taking the place of Jesus my savior and mediator.  Our idols in America are prettier and better packaged but underneath it all they are just as hideous as Santa Muerte.

Death unveiled

I’ve been on a movie kick lately and here is a quote from a movie called “The Savages” that really just made me greatful for the resurrection and the hope of eternity with Jesus.  The backdrop is a middle age brother and sister dealing with the fact that their father is no longer capable of taking care of himself, he has dementia and his life is coming to an end.  During his life he never really took care of them and now they are struggling with what to do with him.  I have edited the original to make it more family friendly but be forewarned that it is still quite graphic.

Jon Savage: Dad’s not the one that has a problem with the Valley View. There’s nothing wrong with Dad’s situation. Dad’s situation is fine. He’s never gonna adjust to it if we keep yanking him outta there. And, actually, this upward mobility fixation of yours, it’s counterproductive and, frankly, pretty selfish. Because it’s not about Dad, it’s about you and your guilt. That’s what these places prey upon.
Wendy Savage: I happen to think it’s nicer here.
Jon Savage: Of course you do, because you are the consumer they want to target. You are the guilty demographic. The landscaping, the neighborhoods of care; they’re not for the residents, they’re for the relatives. People like you and me who don’t want to admit to what’s really going on here.
Wendy Savage: Which is what, Jon?
Jon Savage: People are dying, Wendy! Right inside that beautiful building right now, it’s a %&#ing horror show! And all this wellness propaganda and the landscaping, it’s just there to obscure the miserable fact that people die! And death is gaseous and gruesome and it’s filled with %$#! and piss and rotten stink!

There is nothing beautiful about death.  We can try to romanticize it and ignore it but in the end we have to deal with those statements that call it for what it is — ugly and gruesome.  Thank God we have a Savior who’s alive.  I love the fact that the book of Acts says that Jesus presented himself to the disciples ALIVE!!!  Jesus conquered the grave and extends his very life to us and one day we will walk in incorruption just as he, right this very moment, is incorruptible!

1 Corinthians 15: 16-19  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15: 54-57  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“ O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Taken

If you haven’t seen the movie “Taken” yet you need to make your way down to the theatre and see it today.  This was such an excellent movie.  As my friend Russ said, Liam Neeson is Jason Bourne, just twenty years older.  I would definitely agree.  This dude was bad.  I guess the reason I really enjoyed the movie on a deeper level was because recently I have been challenged to really think well and critically about what I watch.   I love movies for the entertainment value but they also all have something to say and I don’t want to engage more than just a couple of brain cells that were only stimulated because of a cool fight or a big explosion.  For the record, if I wanted to totally rot my brain then I might watch all three of the Blade movies back to back to back…shoot me now.  Anyway, the one thing that really stood out to me as I watched the movie was the faithfulness, love and persistence of the father to rescue his child.  Neeson’s character, Bryan Mills, makes a statement to his ex-wife that lands heavy throughout the rest of the movie.  She says, “You sacrificed our marriage to the service of the country, you’ve made a mess of your life in the service of your country; can’t you sacrifice a little, one time for your own daughter?”  To which he replys, “I would sacrifice anything for her.”  These are not empty words for him.  He ends up hunting down the sex traffickers who have taken his daughter regardless of risk or cost to himself.  For him, no price is to great to pay in order to rescue the one that was lost.  Value is often demonstrated by what one is willing to sacrifice in order to obtain that which is desired.  Bryans love drove him to seek and sacrifice for the greatest value of his daughter.  The parallels aren’t to difficult to make here.  Think parable of the prodigal son, parable of the lost coin and parable of the lost sheep.  This story isn’t new.  I hope that if you see this movie, you will be reminded, like I was, that we have a Father in heaven who has not stopped even at the greatest cost of his Son in seeking us out and rescuing us.

Colossians 1:13-14 – For he has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgivness of sins.

A Blank Slate

This post comes out of a sermon that I heard years ago.  Dave Busby was a man who walked in union with Jesus.  Though I never met him, I knew quite a few people who were close with him.

He suffered from polio and cystic fibrosis which eventually took his life in 1997.  He was a great example of one who experienced the manifest presence of God through his weakness and suffering.   He did a series on the Character of God and I had the priviledge of listening to it.  In the first sermon he spoke on worship, and while there are many things that impacted me one of the greatest was his picture of our lives as worshipping Christ supremely.  Let me explain.  Imagine your life as a blank sheet of paper.  You have the opportunity to fill it in any way you would like.  Go ahead and be creative.   Job, wife, salary, kids, activities, friends, lifestyle — pick your pleasure.  As T.I. so eloquently puts it, “you can have whatever you like.”  Now sign it at the bottom and hand it back to God.  OR…what if, just what if, for sake of the illustration, we handed the paper back to God blank except for our names signed at the bottom of it and told him to fill it in.  That kind of life screams worship.  It says that Jesus Christ is more valuable than anything this world has to offer.  Does your heart burn for this kind of life?  Mine does, but it doesn’t mean I’m there,  it just means I’m on the journey.  I long to live that kind of life where I lay down my idols and worship Jesus supremely.  Dave said that only through the life of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit will we take steps toward that kind of life.  He is my only hope and through him I will worship a little more supremely, my Dad who saved me, today than I did yesterday~

Snow Day!!

Schools out!!  So I’m technically not a student but who can resist playing in the snow….so I cancelled work.  A group of us played snow football, competed in sled-less downhill racing (pete rose style), and 4wheelin in my old k5 blazer.  Hot chocolate and chicken soup topped off the day.  Snow is a funny thing to me and a friend said something to me while we were testing out my 4wd that I’ve thought about for the rest of the day.  As we were driving throughout Wake Forest he commented that snow can turn things that are ugly into something beautiful.  We past run down neighborhoods and old beat up houses that took on a new essence in the light of the snow.  Cars on blocks, fake deer, and little yard gnomes even have glamour when surrounded and covered with snow.   I think that’s what Jesus has done with me.  I’m kinda like a tacky little yard gnome thats awkward and out of place–even ugly.  Like a redneck car on blocks–I’m broken.  Only when I’m covered in the blood and life of the Jesus will I ever be beautiful again.  Trevor and I were talking over some fajitas one night and he commented that Jesus is always taking things that are grotesque and repulsive and turning them into something ravishing and lovely.  As the snow continues to fall I hope that we turn to Jesus in our weakness and ugliness to find that He alone–through his life, death, burial and resurrection–will make us beautiful.

Here are some pics of my snow day–

Entrusted (A Prayer)

Everything I am and everything I possess is not my own.
I cannot claim personal rights on the estate of another.
Am I faithful with my Dad’s treasure?
My body is His and it’s comings and goings,
My time is His in the moments I wake and the moments I sleep,
My money is His from the penny to the dollar,
Am I faithful with my Dad’s treasure?
Given reflection on my life what would I see?
This salvation drives me to love, to give, to die.
That is the only life worth living
Am I faithful with my Dad’s treasure?
Let my time be spent in the pursuit of eternal value,
Let my money be used to sow a seed of righteousness,
Let my life be one that worships you supremely,
Entrusted by you and by faith alone will I be faithful.

HOPE

I was driving through downtown Raleigh a couple of weeks ago and an image was projected like the bat signal onto the side of one of the buildings for all to see.  Here it is-

I just might step on some political toes here but oh well. Just to be clear this is not a post decrying the supposed evils of the democratic party or to blast the character of Obama. My only point is that this picture is one of worship. I was watching T.V. when Obama won the Presidency and I saw a little bit of his election night party in Chicago. People were going nuts, women were crying, men were jumping up and down and Oprah said “This has been the greatest experience of my lifetime, I haven’t seen a sense of unity like this since 9/11. Now, we’re all brought together in the name of hope.” Sounds like heaven, right? Looks like we are on the right road and we’ve found the man who’s going to take us the rest of the way. Men love to follow men. Why is it so easy for us to place our faith in a man? For those that aren’t Christian I can understand the need to find hope in the temporal sphere. From a humanist perspective we should attempt to make this world as good as we can and therefore many times salvation is sought in the political arena. Imagine a world where no one was poor. Imagine a world where no one went hungry. Imagine a world where there was no racial inequality. Just imagine. Now let me clarify. I do believe we should work towards racial equality. I do believe the poor should be taken care of and the hungry fed. However, for the Christian our hope is not in a man or a political agenda. Men cannot give life and men cannot reconcile other men to God. We have a savior. God in human flesh and his name is Jesus. We want peace but we turn to broken men and broken systems to find it. In the end Barack Obama will fail and to be fair John McCain would have also. Mankind is dead in sin and wicked to the end. Only the life giving sin bearing savior in the person of Jesus Christ can bring hope. Only he is worthy to have that word next to his picture and to elevate any one else to that position is to worship someone else as God and Savior.

Central NC Bouldering

Last weekend two of my friends and I discovered some real rock only 20 minutes from Raleigh!  It took us most of the afternoon to find it but once we got there it was well worth it.  We bouldered for about 3 hours on some really cool routes.  Most of the problems had these really cool slopey top-outs and there was one really cool crack that will definitely take some endurance and strength training before I could even consider getting on it.  Anyway, once again I made use of my new digital camera.  Enjoy!

Pictures

I was recently told by a friend that blogs with pictures are more fun.   Looking back over my blog I can only ashamedly say that I have been severely lacking in this area.  I think the closest I have is a web-link to an article that might have pictures in it.  Well, I got a digital camera for Christmas so all I can say is bring on the fun!  Maybe Ill start with some family pictures from the Christmas holiday.  Here goes…

my brother and sister Christmas morning, they are awesome

me and my little bro pullin on plastic over the Christmas break

Dad had off all week so needless to say we ate like kings as he made much use of his new dutch oven

Poetry

I never really liked poetry.  Always had a really hard time understanding it.  Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to a writer named John Donne.  He composed a piece that really has changed my perception on the genre and made a meaningful impact on me.  Hope you enjoy it!

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to’another due,
Labor to’admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly’I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me,’untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you’enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.