jehu_the_barbarian's Xanga

...incoming transmission...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:16:56 GMT

*TV screen flickers to life*

*B&W transmission from a webcam....*

*Michael's face slightly out of focus*

Just so you know....I'm still alive...

*screen flashes*

*goes blank*

Life Words

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:41:36 GMT

In most instances where I sign my name, I also include two scripture references. The first of which is Philippians 1:20-21. I often write them carelessly, almost haphazardly, jotting them down as a casual addendum to the mark of my identity. This week, however, I find these verses will not leave me. They are constantly in the back of my mind, inviting me to step beyond the temporal and engage life as it was meant to be lived.

Philippians 1:21
"For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

This maybe the most powerful statement of personal faith that I could make. It's a simple equation: "Life=Christ, Death=gain". What would it look like, however, if that truly became our ethos, the core of our approach to life? What if we realized that Christianity is not a religious belief system, not church service attendance, but rather a revolutionary way of living - be that as a pastor of a church or a warehouse worker, a full time youth worker or a stay at home Mom. Are we brave enought to make that statement in our current situation? Do we have the chutzpah to take a side in the cosmic battle between darkness and light? Are we willing to fight that battle in our own hearts, homes, and in the familiar grounds of our oh-so-safe and familiar spaces?

The greek literally puts it this way "Living (the act) Christ death (act of) gain (advantage)"
"Living Christ dying advantage." Are you willing to put those for words at the core of your being? To step into a life that declares the totality of existence is for the purpose of knowing and emulating Christ, and that the length and security of our earthly life is insignificant compared to the advantage that we gain by being with Him?

This is what Jesus calls us to when he calls us to be His disciples. This is the answer to the unequivocal "Follow Me" of the gospels. This is truly who we were meant to be. In this verse lies the answer to all our questions about purpose, and the fulfillment of the longings we can never quite stifle.

Life. Christ. Death. Gain.

May it be true in me, may it be true in you.

The suburban vagabond

Phil. 1:20-21, 3:7-10

The Lord roars

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:19:08 GMT

The pastor stared at me across the desk in his luxuriously furnished office. I had spent the last half hour sharing with him the passion that I had for seeing this generation on fire for Christ, and the amazing people working with to spread the gospel of Christ. “God is moving” I said. “We have been praying for revival and I believe we are seeing it among the young people in Christianity. However, it may not look like what we expect.” Without hesitation, he replied - “That's alright – as long as it looks like the church.”

I felt as though someone had slapped me in the face. What he was saying to me, quite deliberately, was that he was OK with God moving in this generation - as long as He used acceptable channels. His idea of “the church” is a little white building with a steeple in the middle of the american countryside, where the people gather to sing “Just As I Am” without any idea of personal sacrifice, or maybe mouth “Send The Light” without a modicum of concern for the oppressed, the downtrodden, or those in spiritual darkness. How do I know this? That's what “the church” he pastors looks like. It is primarily an organization, centered around a building, existing for the purpose of perpetuating itself, and increasing the proficiency of it's members at imitating themselves. It is a monolithic “club” which only adds members from other “clubs” from the same political, social, and economic bent. While existing in an area where over half of the population has no connection to any community of faith whatsoever, it is existent only to perpetuate and affirm the disconnect between the community and “the church.”

So what is my point?

“The Lord roars from Zion, and thunders from Jerusalem...The lion has roared – who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy?”

Those words from the prophet Amos ring as true today as they did the moment they were spoken. God is shouting into our culture, the living God is entering into conversations with humanity, and those who claim the knowledge of Him are piddling with trifles, sleeping in theological enclaves, or drowning their passion in the opiates of politics and power-games in safe arenas. While the world burns, we in the “body of Christ” are no better than Nero with his storied fiddle, playing at being ourselves, obsessed with pointless arguments over “style” and transfixed on things that no one will remember in twenty years. We have beautiful monuments to our excess, we have organizations and doctorates of divinity(gag), economic security and social status, political proficiency and IRA's, yet “the Son of Man has no place to lay his head...”

“You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'
But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich;
and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness;
and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:17-21 (NIV)

Hear me, brothers and sisters – being in relationship with the living God based on the sacrifice of Christ does not mean we have a free ticket to heaven and the license to waste our lives on ourselves and those just like us. If you are not driven to live for others, if you are not impelled by concern for the “outsider”, if you are not overcome by the love of Christ for a lost and broken world, then please do Him a favor and stop using His name in vain by calling yourself “Christian”.

Jesus lived to reach out to the “sinners” and the outsiders. Jesus spent more time with tax-collectors and prostitutes than he did in temples. He came “to search out and rescue that which is lost”, in fact his first public announcement of His ministry was this -

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

~Luke 4:18-19~ (NIV)

His last recorded instruction to his disciples, found in Mark 16 (NIV)-

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”

If we claim to follow Jesus, then it is time we stopped playing games with God and got serious about living like Christ. It is time for those of us in the Christian community to take a serious look inside our church buildings, inside the communities we are building, and most importantly, inside ourselves.

At a critical moment in the history of humanity, we must be prepared as Paul the Apostle to count everything as less than worthless, even repulsive in comparison with the value of knowing and walking with Jesus (Philippians 3). When we know and love Christ above everything and anything else in life, we will care about the outsider more than ourselves, we will be more worried about the lost than the saved, we will care more for the world than “the church”, and we will change the world, because we will be like Jesus. May we hear what God is speaking to us, because we need to hear Him knocking on our doors before we go knocking on our neighbor's.

"Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:45:41 GMT

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?
Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
yeah
yeah
yeah
yeah
Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work
He's buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?
Chorus
Ive Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone

Chorus (x2)

Go ahead, take the easy road...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:07:23 GMT

So you’re not called. I understand - a life of comfort and ease seeking your own ends is way, well, how do I put this? Easier… I’m sure Jesus will understand. I mean, when He said “Go into all the world and tell the good news about me to everyone”, I’m sure that he meant to give you an exception. And when He said “Follow me”, I’m sure it didn’t apply to you. Never mind the starving kids in India, they probably deserve to die without ever hearing about Jesus. Never mind all that “forsake it all and take up your cross” business. That’s probably just for saints, preachers, and super-spiritual people like Levi the tax collector, Peter, James, and John the fishermen, or Simon the insurgent revolutionary.

Yeah, I’m sure that Jesus meant to make an exception for well dressed, spoiled, rich disobedient children. Don’t worry about it, just lay back and go to sleep in your little insulated church-bubble world. Let the nations go to hell instead of coming to Christ. I’m sure God never meant for it to cost us anything to follow Jesus. So go ahead, tune out the cries of the poor and oppressed, the sick and the broken, the lost and the demon-possessed. Crank the “positive, encouraging” music and hide in the ease of the American dream.

Because it would just be too much trouble for you to help them. I’m sure if you wear Christian T-shirt, slap a “K-LOVE: sticker on your car, and make sure you show up at that “christian” country club that calls itself a church and meets every Sunday morning, the “King of Kings and “Lord of Lords” will totally understand. You better hope He does...

God's Spirit is on me;
he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,

To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

- Jesus
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
-John
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”
-Jesus

Honestly...

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:36:14 GMT

This is one of those notes that is borderline journaling-with-an-audience...

One thing that has become very much apparent to me over the last few months is my need to mature. God has opened my eyes to so many things in my life that are opportunities to grow, and I have realized that the next years of my life are going to be times of great growth (or should be). I thought that as time went on I would mellow, return to the more "mainstream" part of christendom, and doubtless find my place in the sytem as such. Not so, not so...

Everything in my life has been pointing me to the heart of God, to a need for revolution and revelation in my life, to my desperate need of desperation for my Savior, but that path is taking me on a perpendicular course to most of the "christianity" that I have personally come in contact with. I find that my core beliefs about life, love, and following Jesus have been radically reshaped, and that I am entering the next phase of my life with a new set of priorities and a new mindset. as Paul said in my favorite book "Forgetting the things behind me, I am always straining for the goal of Jesus, and His calling for me..."

I would like to conclude this by saying that my new goal in life is to be a "community architect." God has shown me His heart for all of humanity, and right now I am in love with people! I love engaging in conversations, helping in struggles, and bringing hope and light and healing to those who need it. My prayer is that God will continue what He has begun to do in my life, and above all that He will cause His work in my life to bring others into the Kingdom. If there is anything I can do to serve any of y'all, feel free to let me know!

"I am sure of this, He who began to tranform your life and make it good is not going to stop until the day you see Jesus and are like Him..."

a bondslave and friend of Christ,
michael
Phil 1:20-21, 3:7-10

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:00:52 GMT

Hosea 3:1

The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."

I was blown away by this verse this morning. God loves us...do we get that? Do we grasp that? Do we even try to understand? "Love your wife...an adulteress...as the LORD loves..." Wow. Our unfaithfulness could not stop His love. We may turn and run, we may reject his love, but we cannot make it as though it had not been. He's always going to love us and be ready to receive us if we return to Him. Love like that leaves me utterly unable to speak, leaves me at loss for anything to even begin to comprehend it...I am loved by Him...

Love...

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:48:21 GMT

Love. So much love. His story, ultimately, is about love. So much love that He chose it to define Himself to us…

Love is my waking dream, my deepest hunger, and my greatest struggle.

Love cannot be a mere word. You have to live love.

And that’s why I lie awake at night…

HOPE

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:57:53 GMT

I cannot tell you it’s going to get easier. I can’t tell you that you’re not going to get your heart broken again. I can’t tell you that you won’t walk the hard road. I can’t tell you that you won’t have sleepless nights, tortured days, or moments when you feel like giving up. I can’t tell you that everyone won’t let you down - because everyone will.

But I swear this to you - there is hope. Not some distant pie-in-the-sky abstract fantasy, not some ethereal potentiality, not the quavering hope of frail humanity, but the rock solid, unshakable, unvanquished hope of heaven. The divine promise of a new dawn - given by the Father, guaranteed by the Son with His blood (O how precious!), sealed by the Spirit of light and life. Listen to me - please listen to these words! You are going to go through this on His strength, not your own. Every promise He ever made to you is true. All that is will crumble and vanish, but His promises will not fade of falter with time. The earth is going to be destroyed, but He is going to hold you. He’s not going to walk away. He has come for you, and He’s got His arms open right now.

There is hope more real than anything in this world, there is hope more sure than the dawn, there is hope higher than the mountains and hope more beautiful than the moonlight on a summer’s night.

I promise you there is hope and I will do whatever it takes to spread this hope. I will scream it, I will write it, I will live it, I will burn it on my forehead if I have to, but I will never relinquish hope.

My Jesus. His Cross. My hope.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thu, 22 May 2008 21:20:36 GMT

And so we speak with many words

In the streets the songs are heard

Are tongues are never held or curbed

As we prattle on about our own