Rich Mullins: Hard to Get

You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened by the hurt

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said

Still I'm so scared, I'm holding my breath
While You're up there just playing hard to get

You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then

Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You're up there just playing hard to get?

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know

Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret

I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get

Phil Wickam : Beautiful

A fantastic lyric from one of my new favorites. Bought two of his discs a month or so ago and downloaded a free record from his site and still haven't worn them out.

Very moving, powerful, God centered tunes.

*************************************

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You're beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It's all proclaiming who you are
You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You're beautiful

When we arrive at eternity's shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we'll sing
You're beautiful

I see Your face, I see Your face, I see Your face
You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

Happy Father's Day

This is in honor of my dad on Father's Day.

Thanks for all the laughs growing up, and sorry that you still can't

find some of your Calvin and Hobbes books!

Favorite Calvin & Hobbes Strip Ever

Saw this on Wade Burleson's blog

The title of this image is "Legalism".

The June Fourth Incident

June 4th, 1989 a ten year old boy is sitting in a hospital bed in Biloxi Mississippi reading a Ninja Turtle comic book. Above him, the new was droning on about China, and college students, and democracy. From what I could tell, a bunch of Chinese people were holding banners and flags and a bunch of other people who looked like police were standing nearby. Suddenly, my mother cries out "Oh my God!"

When I looked up I saw something I had never seen before. The police had started roughing up the media crews, then, moments later, opened fire on a bunch of college students. As a BBC reporter stated, soldiers fired into the unarmed crowd as if they were going into battle, and it was a battle, a one sided one as the troops violently suppressed the protests with field grade ammunition, armored personnel carriers, and tanks. They spared no one, old, young, even shooting people in their homes. Refusing ambulances into the square which they had been ordered to "clear by dawn".

As a kid in America, I had no way to process what I had seen.

On June 5th (the day after the protests) I saw something else I had never seen before. As a column of tanks was moving out of the square, a lone man approached the line, stopping them in their tracks. At first, the tank attempted to move around the man, but he moved with the tank. Then, again. We were all sure that he was going to die. To the PLA, human life has no value. Finally, the man actually scaled the tank, as if provoking the soldiers to kill him, and said something to the driver, then got off. Moments later, two men; likely secret police, maybe students took him away, perhaps to his death although some say that he still lives in hiding. Perhaps we will know the truth someday.

Regardless of where he is now, what he did has left an indelible impression on me. Whenever I think of courage, I think of the Tank Man. I also realize that I am blessed as can be to live here in America; flaws and all, where I can speak out against injustice without fear of reprisal. I hope that you and I can stop for a moment and thank God for the right to speak out.

Today NPR reported this morning that Blogs, Twitter, etc in China are being locked down to prevent a repeat of what is referred to in Chinese textbooks as the "June 4th, Incindent"

Well, I hope that there is a June 4th, 2009 Incident. A massive, glorious movement in the name of democracy and freedom.

And I hope that Tank Man shows up, and that the driver of that tank is right there in the front row with him.

*********

By the way, if you want to blow your mind, watch Tank Man, a fantastic documentary on the protest.

Tilling the Soil: Reflections on the Murder of an Abrotionist

Surely by now you have heard of the murder of Wichita, KS abortion provider George Tiller.

Slate.com: http://www.slate.com/id/2219537/
The people who kill abortion providers are the ones who don't flinch. They're like the veterans you sometimes see in war documentaries, quietly recounting what they faced and did. You think you're pro-life. You tell yourself that abortion is murder. Maybe you even say that when a pollster calls. But like most of the other people who say such things in polls, you don't mean it literally. There's you, and then there are the people who lock arms outside the clinics. And then there are the people who bomb them. And at the end of the line, there's the guy who killed George Tiller.

Richard Land: http://erlc.com/article/murder-of-tiller-human-tragedy/
"Murdering someone is a grotesque and bizarre way to emphasize one’s commitment to the sanctity of human life. People who truly believe in the sanctity of human life believe in the sanctity of the lives of abortion providers as well as the unborn babies who are aborted."

Now, these are only soundbytes, but they both present problems. If I read him right, Slate seems to think that people are truly pro-life should not be squeamish about how they put an end to abortion. I appreciate the satire, Tiller was the real deal for being willing to abort practically any unborn child. Tiller's murderer is the real deal for being willing to kill a killer, an eye for an eye...

However, Land's comments are the ones that get my attention.

Southern Baptists are currently walking an ethical tightrope. On one hand, we are stridently pro-life, not only on abortion, but euthanasia (of which I am admittedly less convinced is always wrong but also can see the obvious potential for abuse, it is a real Pandora's Box scenario to be sure...), etc. etc. On the other hand, those who tend to speak on our behalf support the use of torture to extract information from "enemy combatants", and hold to just war theory.

Now hold it right there.

The question of whether one can justifiably take a life to stop the murder of an unborn child begs the ultimate question that no one seems to be asking. "Is there EVER a justification for taking another human life?"

I have struggled deeply with this.

Last summer I spent quite a bit of time on this subject. I read Hayes, Bonhoeffer, Lewis. I had others recommended to me before life took over and the project was shelved for a time. But you have to wonder: "what would I do?"

When we are at our netbooks in the coffee shop its easy to speak in abstractions. "I would NEVER..." "I would kill 'em all..." As it was well said, "everyone always talks about dying for their country, but not about killing for it..." (if you know who said that help me out).

I can say that I would always turn the other cheek, but then, no one has ever broken into my home and threatened my family. I could say that I would never torture a man, but if I knew it would save the lives of a bus full of school children, what would I really do?

I don't know. But what I do know is this, this tills the soil for discussions that we have to have.

Rev.

Free Music Download

One of my favorite bands, Sleeping at Last, has made their latest record available for a free download at the link below. 

https://www.noisetrade.com/sleepingatlast

If you are not familiar with NoiseTrade, basically, you get a free album by telling other friends about the album. This increases the band's exposure. 

This is a great record, I espescially like the song 'Envelopes".

What are you waiting for!? You've nothing to lose! :)