Music

Well, I was recently tagged by my friend Kevin to post my 3 favorite albums of all time. If you haven't listened to these albums yet, then you must do so before you die. If you are dead already and haven't yet listened to these albums, there's not much I can do about it. However, for the rest of you, get on it.

1. Lifehouse-No Name Face
Many people hail this album for its hit singles such as Hanging by a Moment and Breathing. While these are good songs, they are no where near the best on the album. To me, a great CD is one in which you can get completely caught up in worship. The song Everything does this to me. Jesus is all I want, all I need, and He is my everything. Jason Wade clearly marked himself as a great song writer both before and after this CD.

2. Blyss-Diff's Lucky day
My love of Lifehouse and of Jason Wade as a songwriter inspired to track down some earlier work. This CD was a limited release, with only 1000 albums sold. It was made before the debut album of No Name Face and even before Lifehouse became Lifehouse. Some of the songs on Diff's made it to No Name Face, but the songs which remained behind are some powerful testaments to the song-writing capabilities of Wade. The basis of my blog is found in Ecclesiastes in which Solomon talks about the meaningless of worldly pursuits. Jason Wade echoes this in Mudpie, comparing worldy pursuits to the following of rainbows when he will follow the Sun (Son). Storm, recently redone in the latests Lifehouse album, Who We Are, is a great and powerful worship song testifying to our dependence on Christ: "And I will walk on water, and you will catch me if I fall."

3. 38th Parallel-Turn the Tides
While my first two albums are dead-set in my head, choosing a third was a much trickier task as my tastes do change over time and albums come and albums go. However, this one was always one of my favorites. 38th Parallel is a
local Ames band that made it big and has a unique sound to them. Horizon is still one of my favorite songs of all time. Check them out!

Rewriting Redbook

Another poem by my girlfriend...

Rewriting Redbook

I once lifted salon shine tendrils from
Egyptian Cotton sheets,
Wrapping my perfumed body in a Chenille robe.
Long showers left a layer of moisture on the mirror.
Lather of Lavender.
Curled eyelashes,
frost eyeshadow and wild berry lipgloss.
Sunshine lyrics blared through molded earbuds.
Biting dark beans and creamy liquid caramel
performed a vibrant tango on my pink tongue.
My shallow routines mimicked Redbook taglines.
Goodbye sweet ignorance and carefree materialism
Your seduction and acceptance
no longer control my pocketbook.
A monastic life I choose.
Content in simple frocks, void of superficial entertainment.
Goodbye trendy aviators and saltwater pearls.
So long frothy Macchiato with your canned whipping cream.
Farwell overpriced stripmalls of
gone tomorrow trends.
I bid thee farewell waving
unmanicured hand.
Sip of reused teabag.
Hand-me-down sandals and hippie skirt.
Refreshed by the simplicity of reinvention.

Rest

Psalm 95: 6-11 "Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasutre, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways." Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest.""

Picture this: You are a people group who is the apple of God's eye. Though you have been through hardship and slavery, God delivers from your captors. He parted the Red Sea for you, gave you water from a rock, manna from heaven, and is leading and guiding you to the promised land, and more importantly, His rest. For a people who had suffered hundreds of years under the Egyptians, the promise of rest, not only physical, but spiritual, would supposedly drive them though the desert. But what did they do? At every turn they tested God (Massah) and quarrelled (Meribah) with each other. They basically angered God, who swore that they would not be allowed to enter His rest.

But hold on Ryan, remember that Israel did make it into the Promised Land under Joshua? You speak sooth, the next generation of Israel was able to enter the Promised Land, a place of physical rest, but God's spiritual rest had been removed from them. In Psalm 95, God tells us that Today we should listen to his voice and not harden our hearts. He is telling David that the promise of entering His rest still stands, Israel blew it. Joshua had led them to physical rest, but God's rest, spiritually being able to rest with God, as He rested on the seventh day, is available to all of us. Hebrew 4: 8 says "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on (to David)." Today, not thousands of years ago. The promise is to us today. So we should "take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'Today' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (Hebrews 3: 12-13)

As we go through the wilderness of Sin much like Israel (see Exodus 17:1), we should believe in the living God and His word, which is "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of sould and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4: 12)

In John 1:1 the Word becomes flesh a.k.a. Jesus. Interesting to note is that Jesus and Joshua's name stem from Yeshua, or "God is Savior." As Joshua led Israel into physical rest, so can Jesus lead us into His rest, Today.

The One

A poem my girlfriend wrote....

The One
by Mallory Herrstrom

One
One touch.
One brush across the tips of your Holy tassels
One quick, unnoticed swipe
One stroke to break this agonizing bondage.

Pushing my way through a crushing crowd.
Unclean, unwanted, a disgrace.
To be seen would surely be my death.
I’m unhuman in their eyes
The patient of many doctors
Cursed and abandoned
Left to die.

One touch.
One brush at the base of your Holy cloak
I’d risk it all.
My life is a meager price
To know the healing of the Anointed One.
Some say I’m a fool
Yet with every ounce of my hemorrhaging body
I believe.

One touch.
One quick, unnoticed swipe
I would no longer cower in shame.
For He turns mourning to dancing
He revives the lowly in spirit.

I fight the overwhelming urge to flee
Lowering my afflicted body to a humble bow.
Reaching-
One shaking hand
Fearful and desperate
Slowly, faithfully
Towards the
One.

Death of Deus ex Machina...

In Greek tragedies, as the play went on toward the end and the characters lives were getting more and more helplessly destroyed and no other ending could be seen appropriate, they would wheel in a god on a machine who would float above them and fix all their problems or kill someone, or do whatever it is that gods on machines did back in that day. God of the machince, Deus ex Machina. And that was their view of the gods.

That view still persists in many world religions. A type of Zeus figure waiting with thunderbolts on hand waiting for you to mess up so he can smite you, or just waiting to smite you for the Hades of it.

But not Jesus.

Here comes a someone who is different from all other gods in the fact that he is not different from us. He is not floating along in the clouds humming a catchy jingle and frying us with a magnifying glass. He became us. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He suffered, starved, was tempted, mocked, ridiculed. Remember, if the world hates you, it hated me first. He can relate to us. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

When the Israelites were stricken by the plague of snakes in the desert, what did God fashion for them to look at to be saved? A mongoose, slayer of all snakes evil? No, an image of snake, raised on a tree, the very thing that was haunting them, could save them.

In similar fashion, to whom can man look to save us from ourselves? How about Jesus, the perfect image of mankind, raised on a tree. He called us brothers and calls us to himself. We can share in sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus is not some other Deus ex Machina, he is the Son of Man.

Christian vs. Christian

What do you do for a living? Are you a doctor? A lawyer? A pharmicist? A musician?

Are you a Christian?

Are you a Christian doctor?

Do you play in a Christian band?

Why does one of these seem more common to be asked than the other? Is it because that the word Christian is meant to be one referring to a person following after the teachings of Christ? i.e. a noun? How is it that society has started adjectifying this word? (Yes, I realize that I just verbalized that noun).

I guess that since our music and entertainment is a great source of praise for many Christians, they seek to know what they can or cannot use in their praise. The fact is, the label "Christian" as an adjective destroys the beauty of alot of art and tools than can be used in this manner. It seems to force Christians to embrace and enjoy something that they may not like, that may not be beautiful, may not be art.

Take, for example, low budget Christian movies. Should I like and claim these as a part of my worldview? Many I have seen have been terrible. Unfortunately, the label implies that I, being a Christian, must support and enjoy this. Conversely, if something is deemed as "nonChristian" I should not listen/watch/enjoy/whatever these things. If they are not "Christian" what good could there be in them right?

The fact is that God is our source of truth and beauty. What can be true and beautiful apart from him. If something is true and beautiful, claim it as your own, it is from God. Be wary of labels and people telling you, "This is a Christian band, you'll enjoy them."

Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

The truth is, I listen to alot of music that people would deem "Christian." However, Jesus calls all of his followers to pursue Him with all their heart in whatever it is they do. A lot of bands do this and do it well. They sing to God with all their hearts. A lot of movie directors do this. A lot of doctors do this. A lot of garbage men do this. If we focus on the heart of the follower and not the labels of society, we will be a lot freer to worship God.

The Title

תלהק
א
ב
לבה לכה םילבה לבה תלהק רמא םילבה לבה

Ecclesiastes
1
2
"Meaningless Meaningless" says the Teacher "Utterly Meaningless, everything is Meaningless!"

The Teacher in this case, is the King Solomon, son of David. In the book of Ecclesiastes he is reflecting back on his life and contemplating its meaning, his purpose, and finds none. With all of his wisdom, greatness, riches, women, he still sees emptiness, Meaningless, vanity.
Eat, drink, be merry. Tommorow, you die. Death is the destiny of every man. Life is but a vapor, a mist. Naked you came into this world, naked you will leave it. What can you do, what will you do, with this short amount of time that hasn't been done before, that is new, that will never be forgotten? Nothing, the same destiny overtakes all. Enjoy life, all the days of your Meaningless life, that God has given you-all your Meaningless days under the Sun. wisdomFOLLY, lifeDEATH, timeVAPOR, everythingMEANINGLESS.

ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ
10
10
ΕΓΩ ΗΛΘΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΖΩΗΝ ΕΧΩΣΙΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΣΣΟΝ ΕΧΩΣΙΝ

John
10
10
"I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full."

The Teacher, in this case, in Jesus, son of David. theWAY, theTRUTH, theLIFE. What else is there? What is there on this earth that we can do to gain favor in his eyes but follow after HIM? He came to bring hope to a world without. LIGHT into darkness, LIFE to the dead. MEANING to meaninglessness.

Conclusion of the Matter: fearGODloveJESUS.