Uphill Road, Both Ways ...

All too often the concept of following God is accompanied with the idea that once you choose to get to know God, somehow your pathway will be smooth, without trial, without problems, just a cakewalk all the way home.  When a devout follower of God gets hit with disaster, sickness, or death the immediate response can be - how can this happen … to me?

I think the basic reason we ask why is that we know just how BIG our God really is.  Given how incredible He can be; and how much power He really has; we wonder why He would not just immediately over-rule the horror in our lives.  It seems at least reasonable that He would block the pain that can come, or greatly reduce it.  Recently, I went through a very trying 2 week period passing not one, but two kidney stones 3mm each (about the size of a peppercorn or BB-gun ammo).  Those of you who have had one of these know how excruciating the pain can be while this little trinket works its way through corridors in your body where no foreign substance was ever meant to travel.  Women have compared it with the pain of child birth.  I wish I could say this was my first encounter with a kidney stone, but I had one before about 3-4 years ago.

When the first wave of pain hit my left side, I knew immediately what the cause was.  My mind instantly recalled the ordeal I went through the first time getting one of these little devils out of my system.  My second thought was not now, not here, not like this.  Then I’m praying - Lord, you and I both know what this is, and we also both know You could kill it for me, could you please ? … But the next wave of pain came anyway.  After a night in the ER the first stone passed.  A few days later, the pain was back.  Was it just residual from the first one maybe, it couldn’t possibly be another one, could it?  Yup.  A third trip to the ER and a second Cat-Scan and there we go, yet another 3mm stone on its way out of Dodge.  So not only did God not fix my first one, or my second, here came number three.  Does this mean God does not exist?  Far from it, I KNOW He does.  That leaves the question, why does He not overrule nature, pollution, or my defective body and kill this thing for me?

Herein is where those with less faith begin to doubt the existence of God.  How could He be out there and permit all this pain.  If He can fix it, why would He not?  I mean in my case at least, He knows me.  I know Him.  So what’s up with all the pain?  It gets worse.  A few times the mixture of drugs and pain lead me to wonder if it may also be my heart giving out during one of these episodes.  If that happened I could die.  Getting up off the pot to find an entire bowl of butt blood gives you no small pause after this kind of ugliness.  Could it be cancer as well?  Could I be on my way out, and if so, am I on the superhighway, or taking the slow road.  Either way, it looks uphill.  And still God could heal me, no doubts.  The doubts come as to whether He will or not.

So what is the lesson for me in all this pain?  A good question I venture.  I might also ask why my friend Dennis who works tirelessly for our church just passed his 5^th or 6^th stone.  I might also ask why my pastor just passed his 4^th or 5^th stone.  I might wonder why our head elder battles prostate cancer.  Are we doing something wrong?  Are we somehow making bad choices in our diets, or lives that lead to these consequences, or is this all just bad dumb luck?  Looks like most of the other spiritual leaders in my inner circle suffer the same problems.  Is it our collective lack of faith that somehow prevents God from just curing us all outright?

But then I think to myself, this lesson is a lot like learning about the effects of sin.  God could immediately rescue me from all future sin and spare me from it.  But then, how would I truly know how much it hurts.  How would I know how much damage it does unless I am permitted to experience some of its effects.  Were I allowed to experience ALL of sin’s effects, I would die.  Much like my health issues of late, I could have died, but didn’t.  I got to feel the pain, and realize how much we REALLY need God, and how wonderful Heaven will be just to have the absence of pain.  In short, I know what it means to hurt.  There are others who have learned even more than me, there always will be.  But that does not deny my own lesson.  If I live or die from health issues or any other cause, is to a large extent not in my control.  But then, it was out of my control when I felt no pain at all.  Control is something I do NOT get to have.

So how do I live?  If doomed to walk an uphill path, is there any way out?  Do you think the poor guy who just became a quadriplegic has a choice?  Do you think the veteran who lost a limb is happy to live the rest of his life in that condition?  No one gets to choose, or everyone would only take the cakewalk.  Struggle is never the preferred way of living, it is foisted upon us, by an imperfect world.  God allows it.  It is beyond our comprehension why, because we can’t ever imagine choosing to live with pain of any kind.  We want the easy, the painless, the struggle-free existence – but sin completely prevents this from occurring right now.  God does not serve only as a fire-escape from our pain.  He is forced to work with us while we struggle.  He helps us see the effects of the choices we make, on ourselves, on our world, even what it cost Him.

There was however, one who chose to live suffering.  He chose a life uncertain of his outcome, not sure if the level of sacrifice on the cross would be enough to cover the sins of humanity.  What if the weight of sin was so profoundly offensive to a perfect father God that once having borne our iniquity Christ must remain forever separate from His Father?  The plan of our salvation bore a level of risk.  Along with a life of constant struggle, and self denial (never using his divine nature to escape personal pain, or avoid tribulation) – Christ must face death not knowing if the temporary separation from His Father that broke His heart on Calvary might wind up being a permanent condition.  Yet He persevered.  So great was Christ’s love for His creation, that he took this unprecedented risk, after a life that literally included torture and a most cruel death.  He chose to leave the cakewalk of Heaven and live life on earth, poor, and under constant attack from the evil one.  He chose this.  He had alternatives, but chose to live this way.

Who am I to complain about any meager pain I might endure?  Drugs dull my pain, there was nothing to dull His.  I may die, but because of Him, I have hope to live again in perfection.  My sleep of death will be brief.  My years of suffering here on earth pale in comparison to the permanent reward He offers.  The quadriplegic will walk again, and run, and feel, and do it for an eternity.  The struggles will not endure – but the peace will.  I hope to live long enough to be of service to God, and when my time comes to pass from this world – it is my service I hope to be remembered for.  Basically I am a wimp.  I would choose my whole life to avoid all pain, and live in relative comfort.  I may not get this choice, but I praise God, that He loves me in my suffering.  That He remains right by my side when I hurt.  That He aches to heal me, but must sometimes permit me to see the meaning of pain.  I praise God that He was far from the wimp I am.  I praise God that His choice to suffer this way and worse, buys my freedom and end to all pain.  I praise God …

The Good Old Days ...

Everybody over the age of 25 (and some younger) usually has a time they remember with nostalgia as ‘the good old days’.  It could be a time of material wealth, a by-gone intimate relationship, a time of youth and exhilaration, or an old job where the sky seemed the limit.  What is it about us and how we value our day-to-day existence that leads us to the idea that a time we remember is better than what we go through today, and what we expect tomorrow?  Are our memories making fools of us all, or is something deeper at work here.

Our minds are designed to forget a great deal of what we process (scientifically this is actually our inability to recall more so than actual erasing input stimuli).  This is more of a blessing than it appears at first glance.  Oh I am sure there are those of us who wish we could remember (and perhaps relive) the sight, smell, and taste of our first chocolate birthday cake, the feel of a freshly ironed favorite shirt, or the touch of a long-gone former love.  To be able to recall and reprocess sounds - like the first happy noise a child makes, or the affectionate whimpers of a puppy long since grown and gone would be a wonderful gift.  But the converse of these pleasant memories would then also be as graphically clear in our minds.  Every unkind word spoken to us in anger, particularly by those we love or whose opinions we value – their tone, their malice, their intent to hurt us – all of it crystal clear in our conscience.  The pain we felt from breaking or spraining bones, muscles, or joints.  I can assure you reliving a Kidney stone incident would hardly be a wonderful gift.  To reprocess our inputs would allow us to relive the tender and the good, but it would also force us to relive that which would completely undo us physically or emotionally.

So if by design we seem to let go of most of the inputs of our past, how do we arrive at a sentiment regarding the good-old-days?  To endure, we selectively let go of painful memories, weeding them out, and reducing the impact of them from the day-to-day of our lives in the past.  What remains is an image of a time long ago, but not an actual recollection.  The image, now filled with only the positive influences, is easily remembered fondly.  And we wax sentimental over the idea of our memories, more so than the real ones.  This is a function of human biology, but why?  Why are our minds, which are capable of processing and storing nearly infinite amounts of data in a single brain cell, reduced to functioning at less than 8% of our capacity? 

The answer quite simply is mercy.  Our world is so full of pain and misery from the cancer of sin, that were we to process it fully and realize it in total, we would be unable to endure it.  The weight of guilt that comes from the full realization of an act of evil by choice is more than the human psyche is able to bear.  The inability to forget, or the clear and vivid distinctions of a full sensory reliving of a horrific event would scar our fragile mental state beyond what we can learn to cope with.  Our inability to recall, is a defense mechanism against the weight of evil that inhabits this world, and infects our choices.  It is our God’s mercy to reduce our ability to recall, and help us weed out the pain in our lives.  There is no evolutionary reason for this phenomenon only a spiritual one.  Evolution would imply that our brains would only continue to improve functionality not lose it over time.  Our ability to process and recall sensory information would be constantly improving were evolution and the absence of God a reality.  But while our species was created with the ability to adapt to its environment, it did not evolve into this, it was created into it.  And the reason our minds seem to be functioning at further reduced rates over time, is in part due to our creator knowing how much we can stand.

Another reason we appear to be functioning at less than our capacity, is from our propensity to do evil.  The logic here is tricky, so stay with me for a bit.  If by increasing our minds to a higher functioning percentage could we not see art more beautiful than Leonardo or Michael Angelo; or be exposed to music more beautiful than Beethoven; or innovate more than Henry Ford or Bill Gates; would this not be to the benefit of all mankind?  Yes.  But then apply the same logic to the far more populous segment of man who would choose to do evil with this increased mental capacity.  Ted Bundy, Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler to name a few; these men who chose to do great evil to others during their lifetimes might have magnified the impact of their deeds tenfold by increasing their mental capacity to invent new ways to do their chosen evil.  So then does God choose to keep us cognitively stupid?  No.  We are able to process more than enough information to choose to do good or evil.  And we are able to understand in very clear terms what the results of our choices do.  We are accountable, but not genius, at least not in absolute terms.

There was however a time on this earth when the Good Old Days was a real phenomenon, not just a clouded view of imagery from the past.  It was a time none of us now living can remember when God Himself walked the earth in the evenings and communed with man face to face.  This social intimacy in the garden of Eden between God and man will resume again in a new world He creates for us.  At that time, the need to restrict our ability to process and recall will disappear.  We will be able to recall in full, relive in full, as well as acquire new memories in clear vivid distinction.  Our ability to create and imagine will be unrestricted because we will have already decided how to apply what we have been given.  No more will there be the imaginings of serial killers, and sadists.  Then only the gifts of those who wish to serve others and enrich all.  A heaven full of Beethoven’s, Michael Angelo’s, and hopefully Switchfoot’s (sorry, I think these guys are as good as Beethoven was in the Christian rock world). 

When our new lives are a reality, and evil no longer exists anywhere in the Universe, forever abandoned by the collective choice of all, our Good Old Days will have returned.  Each new day will be filled with wonder, excitement, joy, and unbridled passion for life.  We are not destined to experience these things with a reduced capacity to enjoy them, rather we are destined to appreciate each new experience in a way we cannot even imagine right now.  Our senses so keenly aware of each nuance, our minds eager to absorb new information with unlimited ability to process information – imagine the calculating power of a supercomputer combined with the emotional capacity of matching prowess, added to a sensory system with hearing better than dogs, eyesight better than eagles, sensitivity to touch, etc. – all of this is HOW we experience the wonders of the Universe God has prepared for us.  And we will retain all of this information forever without dimming, distortion, or the need to weed out the evil as evil will no longer be a part of the equation.

Rather than believe that some point of my past in this world of pain, was somehow better than my present, I choose to look forward to a time when Good Days will have a new definition.  I choose now to forsake evil and follow God, allowing Him to change the core of who I am, so that one day in a new world I will be able to say and know I too, have collectively chosen to forsake all evil forever.  I look forward to absence of the influence of evil in our lives, and to a time when our brains can finally perform at the level they were intended …

Monkee See ...

And you know what he does next … There has been a great debate in this country over the years about the effect of watching violence on TV and in theatres on the human psyche.  Are we doomed to mimic what we see without rationalizing our behavior or is this simply paranoia of an ultraconservative wing of the republican party?  Maybe this is the wrong question for a premise.  Maybe the question should be how impressionable are we in general, and what else seeps into our behavior while we are not paying too close attention?

We have talked before regarding the reluctance to take personal responsibility for one’s actions in this country.  Everyone looks for a scapegoat for their misdeeds, and at the very least attempts to share blame with others when caught in a no-no.  But the problem with witnessing violence must be further defined before we can begin to examine it, in the context of shared blame.  First of all in this day in age, video games far outstrip both TV (which has adopted a ratings scheme to keep parents mildly aware of content and a V-Chip to draconically limit the viewing of their children), and movies (which have had a ratings scheme in place for years) for displaying violent acts.  Technology adds surround sound, virtual reality (on the high-end), and most recently motion integration (i.e. similar to the Wii box from Nintendo) and you get full throttle action.  Every synapse of the brain fires and the stimulation is hard to match.

But purely audio stimulation is also enough to affect taste, attitude and behavior.  White suburban teenage boys seem to statistically be inclined to listen to the most violent and degrading rap music on the market.  This niche keeps record companies in business, and perpetuates stereo-typical views of life in the ghetto regardless of reality for the artist.  Idolizing violent rap music that degrades women, rejects authority (big with the teenage crowd), and promotes feeling good (getting high, drinking, sex, you name it) has made a profound inroad in our society.

What is the net effect of all this exposure to violence.  Actually it is fairly easy to define in terms everyone understands on a personal basis.  Think for a minute about the first scary or violent movie you ever saw let’s say 20 years ago.  If your younger than 20, then picture an old rerun of something you saw on TV late at night.  Take any movie of a violent nature that you remember making an impression on you (but it must be an old one).  Now compare the level of violence in this older film with what you witness today.  Count the bodies, examine the graphic detail you are exposed to today, versus the illusionary violence of yesteryear.  Gun shots used to knock a person down.  Now they produce fountains of blood, squirting out in rhythm with the heart beat of the victim.  Then there is the close-up shot of the wound itself.  The detail you see now far outstrips what was done in the past.  Why?  Not merely because the film industry has matured and is now capable of producing far more realistic looking imagery; no the primary reason why violence now is graphic is for the shock value.  And let’s face it, what used to shock you years ago, hardly raises an eyebrow now.  Again, Why?  Because repeated exposure to escalating levels of imaginary violence has desensitized you and now in order to be truly shocked – the stakes must be raised each time.

The military is keenly aware of these effects and uses simulation models for training in every branch of the service.  Pilots can be recruited based on how well their hand-eye coordination functions in a video gaming environment.  So yes, there is a desensitizing effect this repeated exposure to escalating levels of violence is having on society at large.  It used to be that a TV gun-shot was nothing like how it was in the ‘real’ world.  Is this still true?  It does not mean that because I am familiar with violence I will act it out.  But it does mean the resistance to performing a violent act is wearing down, and perhaps in a weaker moment, what might a person do?

Here is where we usually go down the wrong rat-hole.  Understanding the effect of what we focus on does not mean we should immediately join a boycott to protest violent content in rap albums, TV, cinema, or even video games.  That kind of response is exactly what evil would have us do, should we reach this realization somehow despite all of its best efforts to shield us from it.  Go off, half-cocked, on some tangent to ban violence (which evil knows we cannot win), and ignore the deeper meaning.  What we should be doing is asking ourselves – what else?  What other kinds of ideas and desensitizing actions are occurring within our brains based on repeated exposure to other stimuli in our daily lives?  Instead of trying simply to ban violence, look left and right, and see what else is at work here.

When Christ walked this earth He uttered some of the most profound truths we have yet to fully understand.  One such gem of wisdom was when He said, “by beholding we become changed.”  Now think this one through boys and girls – what we focus on – changes who we are.  The implications are FAR greater than just what we see, it encompasses what we focus on, what we pay attention to.  This means that the career conscience over achiever out there is changing the core of who he/she is by focusing on career.  It means the guy who watches every skirt that walks by, and attempts to peer into every cleavage he can see, is becoming changed at his core from what he is focusing on.  And yes that future serial killer you are raising who dresses in black, wears a trenchcoat in the summer, and listens to music that makes you want to bang your head on the floor (largely to escape the horrible sound from what I can gather), is being changed at his/her core by what they focus on. 

It is all too easy to point the finger at others and attempt to pursue a course of action that will help protect ‘them’ from their obviously bad choices.  It is much harder to look within and realize that the trenchcoat kid may be in trouble, but so am I.  He may realize the silliness of trying to protest conformity by conforming to a non-traditional image of himself (just like a whole group of people exactly like him).  But will I realize the effect of focusing so hard on paying-the-bills that I forego the priorities all around me that are much more meaningful and important?  It is easier for the trenchcoat kid to get hot in the summer and decide maybe to be surfer-dude instead – than it is for me the mature intellectual who relishes his IQ score to come to know all his own wisdom is dust and make a conscience choice to embrace humility.

This is the entire problem with the discussion we have in this country about the effects of violence in our media, is that we do not broaden the conversation to include every other logical conclusion of influence in our lives.  “By beholding we become changed.”  Changed, not temporarily insane or on some sort of rant, fundamentally changed at our core.  Our discussion is really about what we prioritize with our time.  How do we spend what we have of it.  Do we spend endless hours staring blankly at a TV or movie screen jostled by ideas in conflict with what is best for us?  Or do we ever come away from this routine and seek out the really meaningful in our lives?  Are we so content in complacency that we lack the adventure to pursue what is in our own best interest?  I wonder.  But what I do not question is that while I seek, I am still exposed to many things, that are changing me – whether I like it or not. 

For me, the only practical solution is to schedule time away with God, and renew my interest in a world outside my immediate sight.  Setting aside a time with Him, is a way to recognize the reality of competing demands, and the choice to make at least one good one.  “By beholding we become changed.”  I want that change to be towards the character of the citizens of Heaven.  I want that change not to desensitize me from exposure to violence but rather to be revolted by it.  I do not want to be weakened through constant compromise with my core values, but hardened in my resolve to follow God’s precepts, and to love those who choose not to.  I wish to be broken on the rock of Christ, and rebuilt from the ground up by the Master builder.  Since I am to be changed, let my focus be singular on the source of what is good.  Let my distractions be brief, and few in number.  And let me not be swept away in an endless list of concerns that vie for my attention, some needed, some not.  If I am to be changed, let me changed into His image and not away from it.

Monkey’s and small children imitate what they see.  They do not even realize the nature of the behavior they are imitating, yet the behavior itself becomes learned within them.  We fight a perpetual battle for our time and attention in this world.  Once again, Why?  Because Satan knows if we spend our time and our attention focused on our God, we will become like Him.  He knows his only chance to capture us is to distract us, occupy our time, and divert our focus – keep it off God at all costs, and if he can, put it on something destructive.  He brings this fight to us, we don’t have to go looking for it.  So my fellow monkeys, let’s put down our banana’s, our remote controls, and our other distractions and just spend a few minutes in communion with the source of all light and love.  The more we do this, the better the change in our lives …

The Music of Heaven ...

Nothing reflects more of our preferences and our personality than the styles of music and humor that we enjoy.  Leaving off the topic of humor for another blog, we will explore how our taste in music so radically influences our daily lives.  There are those that believe heaven is devoid of musical praise, still others believe only hymns are acceptable to God, and finally there are those who believe that any music which speaks of noble concepts is enough to be pleasing to our Lord.  What then is the music of heaven?

To answer this we need to define music a bit more in terms of genre.  This term is used to categorize similar sounding music and words by both tone and lyrical commonality.  For instance the ‘Classical’ genre refers largely to orchestral sounding music, with many complex arpeggios, multiple melody lines playing at once, and a broad use of multiple acoustic instruments.  A ‘Rock’ genre would refer to music based largely on electric and distorted guitars with heavy drum beat rhythm, and a pounding bass line.  The vocal accompaniment to classical is generally choral or operatic in nature.  The vocal accompaniment to rock tends to be coarse, and involve very loud vocal projections boarding on screaming but with tonality in most cases. 

Why the brief lesson in music appreciation?  To being to discuss music in generalized terms that reflect certain styles.  After all, music can be defined in multiple genre’s from BlueGrass to Country Western, from Acid Rock to Punk Rock, from Latin to Salsa, from Jazz to the Blues, from Big Band to Crooners, from Classical to Operatic.  The most common genre today is considered Pop or Popular music – so called as it seems to appeal to the widest possible audience of listeners.  But music, much like art, is a reflection of style, taste, and preference.  If you believe Barry Manilow then Satan wrote the very first song, and continues to write the hits of today.  I tend to doubt that.  Evil often mimics the good in creation with counterfeits designed for our destruction.  But a mimic is not an original.  A counterfeit never quite as good as an authentic creation.

There are numerous texts in the Bible which refer to praising God with stringed instruments, with the harp, and the tambourine, with cymbals, and with our voices.  These references alone would seem to encompass percussion, plucked and bowed instruments, and singing.  Add to these trumpets & brass, and you get a pretty decent orchestra.  Keeping in mind the limitations of musical gear of the age of the Bible, and you find believers using every device they knew of to worship God.  In today’s day in age our range of available instruments and sounds has increased.  We have amplified musical devices, and digitally engineered devices that can mimic their acoustic counterparts fairly closely.  Should not music that honors God include ALL the diversity of the instrumentation we have to apply to the task?  This is what was done in older days, why not now.

As for the religious purists who believe hymns are the only effective music acceptable in heaven – what a load of moo-moo kaa-kaa.  Many hymns originated from tunes sung in the bars of the 1800’s, with religious words applied.  This was the only way to get Christians from many locations singing the same things the same ways back in the early days of protestant churches in this country.  In those times, hymns would have been considered “popular” music, and would have been condemned by purists for not following the much older Gregorian chants of the monasteries.  Perhaps only Bach, Handel, Mozart or Beethoven had it right?  I doubt it, although I love their material.

What about “popular” music that talks about noble concepts like “love”, “giving to your neighbor”, “being happy”.  Nothing wrong with these ideas at all.  But I wonder if God is given the credit behind these ideas, or if sometimes they are presented subtly as morals without the need for a God.  If so, they promote good humanistic ideas, but deny the source of those ‘good’ concepts.  A basic question asked when evaluating music for spiritual benefit is … what feeling does it inspire within you, and does it bring you closer to God?  If the music makes you want to go out and pick a fight with someone, it’s probably not a good selection for you.  If the music makes you want to do something nice for someone else, it’s probably a great selection for you.  Just keep in mind the source of all good things when you choose what to listen to.

One music style I find a bit on the dangerous side, is music with a heavy level of immediate repetition.  Some purportedly ‘worship’ music falls into this category.  Lyrics are repeated over and over, or a particular set of tonal phrases sung over and over until its effects become mind numbing.  It is possible for auditory repetitive sounds to induce a trance like state; a form of hypnosis, where conscience control of the mind is surrendered.   This is NOT good for the listener, and does nothing to honor God.  God does not want robots under His control, He wants free thinking people who ask questions, and obey by choice, not by control.  Control over his subjects, is something the evil one desires.  If Satan can use any form of music to induce a mind-numbing trance, he will.  Music need not be this level of repetitive in order to be enjoyed.

Some Christians debate whether hard-rock style music should be “permitted” in the church.  These souls equate music style to levels of Christianity, and determine that allowing such a worldly influence inside the sanctuary of God would be a bad thing.  Of course these misguided brethren open the hymnals right up and sing 100 year old bar tunes without the slightest hesitation.  But the question remains, is there a particular style or genre of music that cannot honor God?  Head-banging music or acid-rock as it used to be known comes to my mind, but this could be because it is literally the only genre of music I do not enjoy personally.  So is the volume the thermometer?  If we screamed our hymns would they then become sacrilegious?  If we added substantial percussion to a classical piece of music do we ruin it for God?  Is the electric guitar a sin to use in church?  I think not. 

I believe the motive is more important than the words or the tune.  I know many Christian hard-rock bands who take an active personal interest in reaching the third world with much needed food and medical supplies.  They use their fame, and their wealth, and their own hands to reach the needy.  Do we?  I know many hymn singing Christians who barely ever donate a penny to mission fields, or who ever regularly support the ministries of their local church, or who would use their own time and resources to reach the less fortunate even in their own neighborhoods.  I wonder what honors God more, the hard-rocking Christian band who plays with the entire soul.  Or the lukewarm Christian across the street who sings hymns every week in church and does not even know my name.  If it’s about the music, then do I deny that hard-rocking Christian band who fills a stadium full of youth and gives them an inspiring message of the Gospel, and an equally joyful musical experience serving God?  Should I instead embrace the dull lifeless sounds of the dwindling congregation who exhibits no joy in the words they sing?  Which truly honors God; our conformity or our passion?

If sound is employed to reach the un-churched and show them a new vision of the character of God, it should not be condemned but supported by ALL who claim a common Lord and a common goal.  Whether this be a new religious rap tune with percussion to make your feet move on their own, or a hard-rocking ballad whose lyrics could move you to change – ALL should be supported.  These are matters of style, not matters of conscience.  I am so happy that in today’s world, the explosion of Christian artists in every sub-genre known, have offered me the ability to listen to any kind of music while honoring God. 

If I want to hear a hard-rock ditty, I listen to Kutless, Switchfoot, Jeremy Camp, or Krystal Myers.  If I am looking to hear a religious classical piece I listen to Andrea Bocelli, Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, or Sarah Brightman.  If I want to hear some thought provoking music that reaches to my core, I listen to Sara Groves, Ginny Owens, Nichole Nordeman, Sarah McLachlan, or Hilary Weeks.  If it’s good old ‘pop’ I’m in the mood for, I reach for Mark Schultz, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Rice, or Amy Grant.  If I yearn for some good-ole-boy sounding music its time for Mountain Heart, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis, the Gaithers, the Isaacs, the Easters, Russ Taff or Rhonda Vincent.  And when I need to feel the Spirit move, I tune in to Andrae Crouch, Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Take 6, Yolanda Adams, or my old favorites Shirley Caesar, Helen Baylor and Tramaine Hawkins.  What an absolute WEALTH, or treasure of precious songs!!  So many dedicating their lives and their talents to bear witness to the love of God.  I am moved, and touched by them all.  They reach me in a way only music can.  I long to share every artist with everyone I meet.  As a result, I have a massive CD collection and a fairly impressive DVD collection to match.  But it pleases me to no end to come home on a Friday evening, put on the candles, put away the world, and listen to an eclectic collection of works designed to praise and honor my God.  I wish for nothing more than to add my own two-cents worth into the mix.

Praise God for ALL the music, I know will grace the corridors of heaven …

Define Love ...

 “Do you love me?” she asks.  He replies “Define Love.”  She starts crying.  So often we take for granted what it means to love someone.  We equate love to feeling of chemical attraction between two people and if that hormonally based feeling is present we call it love.  But love itself is so much more than that.  There was a time in our world’s history when people had forgotten what it means to love others.  Evil had done such a good job at creating conditions for selfishness, that even basic principles of love were forgotten.  God had to remind his people again what it means to love.  He did so, in what we call, “The Ten Commandments.”

No, I am not referring to the epic movie starring Charlton Hesston.  I am referring to the list of 10 principles outlined in the book of Exodus 20, then again in Deuteronomy 5, and referenced again by Christ when He says “if you love me, keep my commandments”, and again by John when he foresaw the last servants of Christ who lived in the end of days who had “the testimony of Jesus and kept his Commandments”.  You see these ‘laws’ if you want to call them that are more of a definition of what it means to love, than absolute legal declarations.  Christ Himself referred to this when He said “you keep the letter of the law, but not its spirit”.  The law states “thou shalt not kill”, but to Christ “hate” of another person in your mind and thoughts, was equally guilty of “killing”.  The same was true of “Lust” and “Adultery”.  The thought, even without the consummated action, was enough to break down the laws of love.

So why is this even important?  There is a school of thought among Christians that everything in the Old Testament of the Bible outlines God as a more or less cruel dictator, and was therefore revised by Christ.  That Christ somehow did away with all the Mosaic laws which include the 10 we are discussing today.  But this thinking in only another attempt at undermining the character of God.  After all, if God is some sort of raging dictator in the Old Testament, why is his human personification so gentle and loving in the form of Christ.  We have already discussed the fact that God has nothing at all to do with evil.  So defining God in the Old Testament in a different way than the New Testament is a logical inconsistency that cannot be reconciled with what we know to be true.  God must be the same always.  He does not change.  So if He is love in the New Testament, He must have been love in the Old.

The original 10 Commandments were broken down into the first 4 which gave us a basic definition of how to love God, and the last 6 which gave us the fundamentals for how to love each other.  The first 4 commandments call for us to … 1.) Recognize there is a God, and who He is 2.) Serve only the real God 3.) Do not worship idols or things made with your hands 4.) Remember to rest on Sabbath and think of God.  These basic commandments are the fundamentals for having a relationship with God.  We recognize He exists.  We choose to serve Him alone.  We do not follow after the things we make, or own, but after God.  And finally we recognize that we need time with God to build a relationship with God.  We need to break away from our daily routines of work and self, and focus our attention back on God.  That is why He created the Sabbath in the first place.  In our discussions we have already covered all 4 of these ideas without ever thinking of them as ‘commandments’.  In fact they seem rather self-evident, and relatively ‘easy’ to understand.  The reason these concepts were outlined was for a generation of people who had become so enslaved by evil thinking, they had forgotten them altogether.  The same could be said for folks all throughout history, even in our own day, but ideally not for readers of this blog. J

The second 6 Commandments outline the basics of how to love each other.  5.) Respect your parents 6.) Do not kill / murder 7.) Do not commit adultery 8.) Do not steal 9.) Do not lie and 10.) Do not covet.  These basic tenants have become actual laws in most modern societies as they outline a boundary of respect between peoples.  But the intentions here were for far more than simple boundary definitions, this was intended to begin to show us how to love.  You cannot claim to love someone, yet continue to treat them with disrespect, violence, lust, theft, lies, and jealousy.  It does not work.  More the definition of dysfunction than of love.  But unfortunately in our world today, we think it is OK to show one or more of these traits when involved in a loving relationship with another.  The idea that any of these, are at any time acceptable, is a product of evil design and intent.  To love each other, we must learn to treat each without any of these evil thoughts, intentions, or worse actions.  For more on the topic of how to love each other, there is a wonderful addendum to these principles in 1 Corinthians 13.

So why refer to a definition of how to love as “Commandments?”  Turns out the entire government of Heaven and the Universe is based on the simple principle of loving each other.  More to the point, loving others more than loving yourself.  This is exemplified in the very character and person of Jesus Christ in his life on our earth.  It is also seen in God the Father as He was willing to give up His only Son for us.  God Himself demonstrated the very principles He asks us to discover and embrace.  When Christ was here, He summarized the 10 Commandments into 2 that would also highlight our thoughts and motives – Love God with all your HEART, mind, and soul; and Love man more than you love Yourself.  Note Christ did not say, “forget about Moses, the law, and the prophets”.  He said He was here to “fulfill” the law – NOT – do away with the law. 

When a law is broken, there is a penalty assigned.  When man broke the laws of God by embracing evil we incurred the penalty of the law which like all evil is death.  Christ came to “fulfill” the penalty of the law on our behalf.  We could not be saved if He had not come.  Note that the laws of love existed before the 10 commandments gave them an outline, and will exist long after all have chosen to forsake evil eternally.  The laws, like the love they define, do not ever go away nor does the penalty for breaking them.  What changes is our desire to keep them.  What changes is us.  We learn not to embrace evil ever again.  We learn to trust God and not ever break trust with Him again.  We come into conformity with the law, based on our own decisions to follow a God of love.  We are ever learning what it means to love.  This is the nature of the gift that has been given to us.  God is writing his “laws” in our hearts and our minds through the process of following Him.

So was there anything that passed-away with Christ on the cross?  Yes.  An entire method of worship and sacrifice ended at the cross.  The curtain that divided the Holy place from the Most Holy place in the Jewish temple was torn in half without seen hands when Christ died.  No more were we to bring spotless sheep to kill as a symbol of the coming Messiah.  The symbols had been fulfilled in the actual body of Christ.  No more would there be a symbolic day of atonement.  The real day was here.  No more would we sprinkle blood on the altar.  The most precious of all Blood had been shed.  An entire system of worship designed to look forward to the coming Messiah was ended at the cross.  This entire system went away.  But NOT the definitions of marriage, or justice, or love, or of how to eat healthfully, or of how to avoid evil.  These tenants survived the cross as they are eternal in nature.  We need no symbols in our worship of today (post Messiah).  But we do need more than ever to learn how to love each other.

After all the last command Christ gave us was “to Love each other”.  In doing this the world would know we belong to Him.  Think of it.  The simple act of men and women who love each other would be enough to distinguish us from the rest of the world.  We were not to judge each other.  We were not to condemn each other.  We were simply to love each other.  Loving each other would turn out to be more than enough ‘work’ for most of us.  You mean I gotta love ‘that guy’?  He smells.  He’s dirty.  Worse yet He is Republican, you know how hard it is to love THOSE people …  Yup, we are told to love them all.  More so, we are told to love those who hate us.  Love Osama.  Love those who would kill us.  Love them all, just like God loves them all.  This turns out to be very hard sometimes.  But it is the basis of Heaven’s government.  It is the founding characteristic of God Himself.  And it is an eternal learning lesson we will never tire of learning from.  Love is power.  God is Love.  Defining love is defining God…