I Won't Rest Until My Lips Touch the Shore.

Today my heart breaks for the city of Paris.

As I followed the crowd of hundreds of people through the doors of Notre Dame, I found myself feeling rather unsettled. I stepped inside and all I could see were flashing cameras and stands selling souvenirs. I soon realized something that I found devastating: this place is no longer a place of worship for God, but a nice place of architecture and history. I saw people paying for access to the bell tower, people buying candles (which originally represented the power of God), and tourists walking through the incredible cathedral without any sense of what this place was built for. We all remember how much Jesus loved people selling things in the temple. My whole time there, I saw one person praying. There was one person on their knees praying for redemption of this place. 

As I thought about what I had just experienced, I realized this cathedral perfectly represents the depravity of Paris itself. This was once a place that recognized God as their God and Jesus as their savior. They built huge cathedrals to represent God’s power and put Jesus’ face in public places for all to see. All that is left today is nothing but a trace. A trace with a defeated sense of purpose. The buildings are beautiful. This city looks alive. The truth is, I’ve never experienced a greater sense of spiritual depravity and deadness.

God is not wanted here. As I sat and had a conversation with a student named Sarbone, I realized that for many people here, the church has been what has turned them away from faith. 

What have we done? 2,000 years after the life of Christ, we’ve simply forgotten how to love people. We’ve made the church and the presence of God nothing but history in this amazing place.

Pray for Paris. Pray that God’s presence and truth will become irresistible. Pray that the Spirit will overflow for those who do trust in the Lord. Pray that the hearts of France will be softened. Pray for healing of the broken relationship between the church and the people. These people are amazing, and it seems what is keeping them from God is not science, reason, logic or tradition, but the body itself. Let us love each other intentionally in order to change that. 

Jesus, the victory is already won. Let us share the news.

Beware of worshipping music

Dear Music - Showbread

If I could turn my back on anything
I’d choose it to be you
I’ve lost all interest in almost everything that you do
You’ve more to do with complacency
And the whims and trims of children
Than any sort of worthwhile thing
Or the few folks left to feel them

Who am I but another fool who’s flirting with divorce
Like every other thing
You keep my foolishness on course

Maybe there is someone else less like an awful void
Who might beckon me with open arms
And offer new employ
I’ve got to say I’m looking for it
But if it never comes
I’ll think of when I love you
Before you were what you’ve become

Who am I but another fool who’s flirting with divorce
Like every other thing
You keep my foolishness on course

Still we have our common ground
Which can never be annulled
To sing of the one who made us both
For he is wonderful

_______________________________________________________________________________

Powerful words. Worship God, not music. Worship the creator, not the creation.

Jesus’ Separation from God

In Matthew 27:46, we hear the famous words of Jesus: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This passage used to frighten me. If Jesus, the only truly worthy person in history, can be separated from God, why wouldn’t we be?

I want to rehash a principle I heard at church yesterday. This separation is not to scare us, it is rather a miracle. 

When Jesus said this on the cross, he was preaching. The way a rabbi would teach his students during that time was very specific. He would teach and explain the first line of a passage and leave the students to finish studying themselves. This is what Jesus was doing. He is quoting the first line from Psalm 22.

Jesus wanted us to know he felt abandoned. But why?

I believe when Jesus was sweating blood in the garden the night before his crucifixion, he was not thinking about the physical pain he would have to endure. He was thinking of something far worse. Complete separation from God.

In that split second on the cross, Jesus experienced separation from God. Jesus experienced the truest meaning of hell. To have a soul separated from God is the ultimate form of devastation.

But why did this happen? So we would never have to be separated from God. So that we may have victory over separation. 

“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” Matthew 27:51

If the curtain which held the presence of God was torn it means one thing: The presence of God is forever with us. 

Because Jesus was separated from God, those who believe in him and follow him with their lives will never be separated from God. I see the miracle now. And I think its pretty sweet. These aren’t my thoughts, just wanted to share them because they helped me.

If you're interested helping me out with my very expensive mission trip to France

Oh great God give us rest.

Pride (A personal reflection on the Kony tension)

I am not a social activist. I’m incredibly ignorant when it comes to most politics. I understand I am not a genius.

But today I want to talk about pride. While watching the Kony video for the first time, I already found myself annoyed. I was not annoyed by the video, I was annoyed by what I knew was going to happen after the video. A big facebook brawl. As I braced myself, it happened within minutes. Friends changed their profile pictures to Kony 2012, while other friends immediately spoke out against Invisible Children. Both sides (at that point) without much research.

What then, is at the core of this? Could it be pride? Do some of us have a natural inclination to automatically disagree with something that gains popularity? I even saw friends post sarcastic remarks about the video before they even watched it. As I watch people virtually debating the topic, I find that much of it has simply become “I’m right and you’re wrong”. Every time something of this sort comes up (ie. Sexual Healing, Not-So-Gay Valley Christian), people choose sides and spend the next 3 days trying to prove their intelligence. 

The truth is all of us want to be smarter than we are. Why? Because we are prideful creatures. Pride is why Cain killed able. Pride is why the Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, and frankly all of us put Jesus on the cross. We are insecure beings who constantly seek approval and constantly have to be right. What better way to be right than to go against the grain and have a “more enlightened” alternate view? 

When I say all this, I am not talking about those who have actually researched both sides before deciding whether to support it or not. Those people I applaud, despite the side they took. I am talking about those who automatically decided to speak out against it with false facts and exaggerated rhetoric. 

This is what CS Lewis had to say about pride:

“I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” -Lewis, Mere Christianity

The problem is that we don’t see it. For the very few people reading this, I posted this to simply bring it to light. How much of our arguing stems from actual concern; and how much of it stems from being smarter, more intelligent, and right?

Either way, IC is trying to do something. Whether it’s is doing harm or good is for the smart people to decide. Their efforts will not be perfect. Neither would ours be if we were in their shoes. Even if only 30% of the money is going to Africa, that’s still a lot of money. That’s still millions of dollars more than we’ve given. We sit on our couches and complain about IC, but they’re trying and we’re not. And I think that makes us uncomfortable.

Beware of pride. Pride was the great sin that cast Satan out of the presence of God (Isaiah 14:12-15). Pride eats you up from the inside out. Fight it with true humility, which to me, is nothing more than seeing yourself for what you actually are. Never forget that God’s ways are always above ours. If God had foolishness, it would still be miles higher than our greatest wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:25).

These are just thoughts and observations from a 19 year old college kid who is studying music. Please refer back to the first couple lines after reading this.