On Mornings

Here is the day that has come and we who have been moved do now so move as to affect that which was decreed long before the foundation of the world. May we give thanks for this blessing and give praise to the Lord.

Chemical Explanation

"We're about ready to...
Rock steady."
This is how it went
And down we go
And down we come
From up on high
But we were not on high
We were wrong
And we told everyone
What was wrong
And they believed us
Because they trusted us.
And maybe now
We're about ready
And maybe now
We can rock steady.

On Consistency and Its Death

What does the Lord require of me? Is this not the question? Why ask, how then shall I be saved? Should I not concern myself with what is required of me? Is there something required of me? Why should my salvation be the end all of life? Why should my verbal confession be the goal of any preacher or friend or missionary? Is life about me? No no no no no! Life is not about me. If I keep thinking that it is, then I will keep thinking about myself. If I keep the focus on myself- I will see all that is not right with myself.
Does anyone think that God is trying to trick them? Does anyone believe that the God of the Bible is reluctant to save people and upset that some make it? Is faith in God equal to excepting some propositions? Did Jesus or did Jesus not reduce the whole of the law to two statements? Is this the sort of thing that is hard to understand? Am I supposed to continually doubt myself and my faith and everything else? Two statements. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. This is the love of God. This is the Law of God. This is not some trick that requires a theologian to interpret for anyone. This is not works. The Gospel and the Law are not at odds. Salvation by grace through faith is not an idea new to the "New Testement". What is new is that the Gentiles are now brought in to God's covenant with Jacob. The whole world will be blessed through you, the Lord said. Abraham was not saved by works. Jacob was not saved by works. Moses was not saved by works. God has always and only saved men through grace and faith by Jesus Christ. There is unity in the Bible because there is unity in God.
Who has believed a lie? I have believed a lie. Who has made decisions based upon a lie? I have made decisions based upon a lie. Who needs God to guide and direct him for His name's sake? I do. May my Lord and savior Jesus Christ the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has adopted me as His own lead and guide me, His child, in the way that I should walk. Amen and amen.

God Bless the Wind

sorrow and weeping
but part of my fabric
and in this being
do I move and breathe

And in this slime
always fighting
against myself and time
never righting

But who would deny?
Who they were inside
And who would change?
Who they were inside

Here I break your legs
And here I spit in your face
Now get up
You've only twenty-six point two miles to go.

Run you bastard
All I want to hear is your broken bones crunch
Let the blood spit
And slick the path behind you

You are illegitimate
There is no sympathy
And if you have it for yourself
You are a coward.

And so when the alarm sounds
Early in the morning
I rise to be beaten
I rise in the hopes that today will be my last.

In the hopes that this burden will be lifted
That this great weight
This impossible load
I will no longer carry

I cannot put it down myself
I cannot move up with it on my back
I can only stare towards the summit
And feel the wind on my face.

On Friends

People wonder what I do up north in Alaska. I hang out with friends just like everyone of them.

On the Truth and Lies and Living

Gary Cox said the degree to which you believe the truth is directly related to the degree to which you are free (from bitterness, rage, slander, lust, pick a slave master). I am reasonably sure that most people want to be free in this way- even those who do not believe in God at all. Maybe especially those who do not believe in God- for if you wanted to be the master of your own destiny, you certainly wouldn't want to be enslaved to your passions or addictions or any such thing. But that aside, it is true that the lies we believe (about ourselves and about the world) certainly do have an impact on us. May God give us grace to consider these things.