From “The Adventures of Working in a Tux” comes a life lesson.

I know what you’re thinking: “…eh?”

Well, I work at a hotel meeting place where people schedule all sorts of kinds of types of different kinds of types of events to take place. The most consistent type of event would have to be wedding receptions, but last night I was in for something quite different and unexpected. You see, in little ol’ Chelsea, Michigan there is some kind of event going on right now called EMF.

Oh right, before I get too far into that— I basically have to wear a tux (with a vest rather than a jacket), hence “The Adventures of Working in a Tux.”

…..

Okay, not very creative or funny in the least bit.

Whatever.

Moving on—

As I was saying, an event called EMF was going on. I don’t have the slightest idea what that stands for, but it has something to do with old fashioned cars. A good amount of fairly old people pulled up to the conference center in their Model-T-ish looking cars and came inside for the event.

I’m not really sure of what went on at the event, for I had the task of setting up tables for the weekend wedding in the room next door. But I could hear a little bit through the wall. I continued to pay no attention to their event when suddenly I had an interesting thought hit me. You see, some older fella had gone up front to sing some hymnish sounding music to a piano that had been recorded on a cassette tape that sounded as though it had been taken from an old school record. In other words, it sounded old.

Really old.

And after about 10 minutes of music, it struck me.

These people were singing a lot of songs of, about, or relating to cars.

These people were having church! They were worshipping the good ol’ automobile.

The only lyrics I can remember is something along the lines of “16 miles an hour.”

A common possession/obsession/love had brought these people together. They gave lessons, sang songs, and who knows, maybe even a testimony or two.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that cars are evil or anything like that, but it was really weird for me to hear people sing about a car for a half an hour or however long they continued. Sometimes just the worship leader would sing, but sometimes all the people were all singing together in beautiful monophony. Oh, and there was much more clapping and cheering after the song than you will find in some churches as well.

These people had found joy in something. So much joy that they found themselves singing about it. 

And that made me wonder…

What are the possessions I own that I love so much I would sing aloud my love with many others?

We’re a worldly people. Needless to say, we like stuff. We put our lives into stuff. We would much rather store up treasures here on earth than in Heaven, because it brings us joy and happiness. And apparently, it can bring us so much joy that we could sing about it with a bunch of other people whom it also brings joy.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about giving stuff up after reading Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love.” Having nothing has never sounded more appealing and even more so—

convicting.

We all have our treasures don’t we?

She loves music

He loves sports

She loves reading

He loves video games

We can make idols out of ANYTHING. We’re experts at it, especially here in America. I’m not much of a model to look at, so I pray that we work on this together. Let’s learn what it’s like to lose those things. My band recently wrote a song called “Custody” which refers to giving God the keys to everything we own. It was a hard song to write, because it’s really hard to say at times. 

And therefore, I leave you with these lyrics:

Verse 1

Being a pack rat is never

What I meant to be

Holding treasures at my side

And I never meant to

Let them get here in the way

Let them take over my life

Chorus

And all

All I have

All I have

Is under your control

Please take it back

And make me me without it

So I

I won’t need

I won’t need

These materials defining me

Your heart is what I long for

Verse 2

All the things I needed most

Were here where nothing is

But Your will to give me aim

I’m proceeding to proceed

Into where love abounds

If I leave my life of shame

Chorus

Listen to Custody here>

www.reverbnation.com/thenewfangledsequence

So I had something kind of cool happen at church today. During worship I played a song by Chris Tomlin called “God of this City,” which God sparked the in me the interest to share a particular dream I had had that week.

In the dream I was driving on the high and all of the sudden the entire sky became pink for as far as I could see. In the distance were two giant hands reaching out of the sky and it was at that very moment that everyone on the entire earth realized that there really was a God and then the rapture began to happen.

I felt some intense emotion as I was being lifted to the skies away from my friends who weren’t able to go because they didn’t know God. It hurt so bad to know that they were going to have to stay on earth for the coming end times and I wished greatly that there was something that I could do.

But it was too late.

One of the guys from my church was not in the worship service during this time to hear my dream, but after service he came up to me to show me something. The man is quite an artist and he had drawn a cross with two fairly large hands on top of it. We were blown away.

The Hands of God

I feel that God gave me that dream for a reason. I also had not really picked out songs for the worship service this week but for some reason “God of this City” came to mind and I threw it in. Last week God had also picked out a number of songs for me to use with connections that had happened that week as well.

Lord, I pray that you work through me in every aspect of leading worship in whatever way you can, will, or want to. I hope you continue to use me in ways I don’t know or expect to reach people and myself.

So in an attempt to be insane, our band (The Newfangled Sequence) has decided to make one song and put it online every day until September 6th. That’s 111 Days! We really hope you guys will check it out. Today’s song is called Forbearance and we are actually quite happy with it.

You can check us out at
www.myspace.com/thenewfangledsequence

OR hear all the new songs at
www.reverbnation.com/thenewfangledsequence

We are currently on Day 2 in Project:111. Our attempt at making 111 songs in 111 days. We really enjoy today’s song and we hope you will too! Check it out and thanks

Day 2: Forbearance

..

Abram’s old. Ninety-nine years old to be more specific.

As you might recall, God had promised Abram that He would make a great nation out of him. However, that still has yet to happen and time is running a bit thin. You might want to note that Abram’s wife, Sarai has aged pretty well herself—well past the age of having babies.

They’re old and they still have yet to see God’s promise. Sarai wasn’t able to have babies in the time she should have been able to, why would she start having them now? This doubt that God would hold to His word grew so strong that Sarai gave Abram her maid as a wife and sure enough, the maid had a baby and named him Ishmael. So Abram does have a son after all. But this son wasn’t part of the plan. He was meant to have a baby with Sarai all along.

 Well now that they’re old doubters God decides to make His glory known. He APPEARS once again to Abram, making Himself known as “El-Shaddai (meaning God Almighty).” “Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life,” He tells Abram. “I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

Abram’s only reaction is to fall face down on the ground. Notice that even though he’s old, even though he hasn’t seen anything, even though God has told him about this covenant twice already, Abram does not answer God with the question “WHEN!?”

No, he simply falls to the ground.

God went on. “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.* I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!”

Now before we go on, perhaps you’re wondering what the significance of changing his name was all about? Well, back in the day name were given with reference to once character. Now a’ days we tend to receive our parents favorite names and then our names don’t mean as much to our personality.

For example, my name, Jamin, supposedly means “south wind” or “teacher” or something like that. My last name means “the broad meadow.”

………….

Abraham’s original name meant “exalted father,” and this new name “Abraham” sounds a lot like the Hebrew term that meant “father of many.” Can you imagine how cool that would be? The One and Only God gives you a new name—a new purpose or meaning. Man, I would wear that thing around with pride.

Moving on…

“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation,” God continues. “This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever and I will be their God.”

Don’t understand the importance of this covenant? Okay, imagine having made a deal with someone under these circumstances:

Your Part: Serve your dealing partner faithfully and live outside of sin.

In Return: You will receive the greatest power in the entire galaxy.

Oh yeah, but there’s one more thing to this deal. “The Mark of the Covenant.”

But what is this mark you ask? Well men, brace yourselves and thank God that He sent Jesus to save you from having to do this if you didn’t receive the mark at birth.

Circumcision.

Yeah, that’s the mark and all the men must follow it.

Now for those of you who don’t know, circumcision is cutting off the foreskin of a penis. The foreskin is a roll of skin that covers the end of the penis that can be pulled back in order to urinate. Women can be circumcised too by cutting off the clitoris, but don’t worry ladies, that wasn’t part of the deal. Just the men are in on this one.

Didn’t expect a sex lesson today did you?

Moving on once again…

God has quite a bit to say about this mark. “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.”

Did you catch that? CONTINUAL responsibility. In other words, every time someone has a baby, it must be circumcised for that baby is under the covenant as well. They are to wear the mark as well. Now we’ll see much later in Joshua how the people under covenant forgot about the mark over time and had to be circumcised as grown men.

“This is the covenant that you must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised. You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you. From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to the members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased. All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant. Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.”

To summarize:

Babies are to be circumcised on the eighth day.

Servants are to be circumcised.

Do it or be cut off from the covenant.

Now you might be wondering what “servants whom you have purchased” means. Wouldn’t that be slavery?

Not entirely. Servants were not to be handled the same way that we Americans did. They had rights and it was actually good for them because they would get a good place to stay, food, and all that jazz. It was like a job.

While we’re at it, God decides to change Sarai’s name as well. He gives her a name oh-so-popular in today’s society: Sarah. But what was the point behind this? Both her original name and new name mean “princess.”

It doesn’t matter! I imagine that if God gave you a new name, you would feel honored, privileged, and renewed! You are no longer the same person because in God you have become new. Although I must say, I would rather not have my own name changed to Sarah. I’m not really pretty enough to be a princess. I’m not really of royalty either.

In fact, just to make sure we’re on the same page: I am a man.

God tells Abram of Sarah’s role in this covenant: “I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”

When Abraham heard this he bowed down to the ground. A good cover-up to his actual thoughts.

He laughed thinking “How could I become a father at the age of 100? And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” Apparently Abraham must have taken God’s covenant the wrong way. There’s no way that would ever happen. So in his disbelief he comes to a rather stupid conclusion. He figures God must have been talking about the son he had with Hagar. After all, if a man’s wife gives him her maid as a wife because she can’t have babies, the baby that comes from that maid is supposed to be considered the original wife’s baby.

So yeah! That’s what God meant when He said “I will bless her [Sarah] and give you a son from her!”

Talk about doubt. I wish I knew such specifics on my life.

“May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” Abraham said.

But God corrected him. “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.”

I like to imagine the look on Abraham’s face right here.

So that still does leave the question of what happens to Ishmael? After all he is out of Abraham’s blood. Well God fills him in on that:

“As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.” With that, God left Abraham.

On the day that Abraham received all of this news he gathered up his son Ishmael, every male in his household, including those born there and the ones he had bought and circumcised them, just as God had told him to do. Not a bad deal for the servants really. Especially the foreign ones. I mean it stinks to have to go through with getting the mark, but they’re pretty fortunate to have entered into God’s covenant even though they didn’t come from Abraham’s blood.

Ishmael was 13 on this day when he was circumcised.

And good ol’ Abraham was 99 years old.

Ouch…

Genesis 17

*If you hadn’t made the connection before, perhaps now you know where the song “Father Abraham” came from. And no, it wasn’t Abe Lincoln.

I woke up one morning after having a rather strange dream. I quickly jotted down a couple of the things I could remember but really only had two main ideas to base this story off of. I hope you enjoy it.

There had been a legend told by the sailors of the past that was as old as time itself. It was a legend of mystery, wonder and power. A story that had been passed down through generations, yet no man had ever attempted to test the story in order to find out if it was real or not. 

But one man, a scientist of his time, dared to pursue that in which he did not understand. If there was a theory out there then of course it would  be his duty to hypothesize, analyze, and test it- regardless of how far fetched the legend was. After all, every legend has got to have somewhere to start, right? So perhaps there’s a bit of truth behind every one of them. And perhaps this story had some bit of truth to it.

Perhaps…

And that possibility is all that was needed.

“The Door in the Sky” was the name of the legend. It was started long ago when a crew ship stumbled across a mysterious door in the sky. There it floated, shining as bright as the sun. But in order to reach such a door, the mast of the ship would have to be quite large. And luckily, the mast to their ship is noted to have been large enough to reach the door. However, the legend goes on to say that no one possessed the courage to enter it. After all, who would want to simply enter a door in the sky? Who knows what could be on the other side.

The scientist found this intriguing. If this theory proved to be true then it would completely change everything he knew. But then again, in science, everything has an explanation and if it was true… well, then he would figure out the scientific reason as to why. All he needed was the location, which he happened to possess. The long lost journal of the captain who originally saw the spectacle had been attained by his country’s kingdom and they had asked him to travel to the location and bring home a report on the legend. The captain’s journal marked the location of the phenomenon and did so with warning:

…To anyone who may read this: HEED MY WORDS. There is something unsettling in my being about this unusual event. I tell you that as surely as God lives, there is a door standing high above me- floating in the sky. However, some things were just not made to be tested. Some things are better off alone. I do not feel completely sane writing this location down, but my curiosity compels me to do so. But may it be out of your sheer will and determination that you find this door. I will not lie responsible for your actions- I have warned you.

This was the captain’s last entry before it happened. What I mean to say is that the ship had arrived on shore one day in perfect condition- not a scratch on it. 

However, the ship’s crew was gone.

There was blood staining the ship, but no bodies. The entire crew had disappeared. If it wasn’t for the journal the captain had left behind then no such legend would have ever come to be.

The scientist agreed to take the mission under the terms that he chose his crew. He did not favor working with more than he had to and such a legend should be pursued with those that he trusted. Among those that he trusted to his task was a well-known captain, a scholar, a doctor, a soldier, and a 17 year old boy. He also recruited a homeless man. While the scientist was no religious man, he was a good man and he had gotten to know this homeless man a little bit through short conversations with him on his walks to work. He knew that such a person would be humbled to be given the opportunity to make some money and perhaps it would help the poor man get back on his feet again.

The newly formed crew was gifted with a medium sized ship that had been built with a very tall mast in hopes that the legend was true. The scientist chuckled. What an odd looking boat it was. After a couple preparations had been made and jobs had been assigned the boat sailed off in search of this “door in the sky.”

After about a week of sailing the ship neared its destination. In fact it was so close that the scientist was sure he should have seen some kind of strange thing by now. The scholar desperately searched the captain’s journal for more clues and compared it with the map, but alas, there was nothing. Nothing strange in the sky and nothing strange in the water. Just a heavy fog in the distance.

Then again… there did seem something strange about the fog. There was no starting point to it. The fog was just heavy. It didn’t slowly trickle in as they floated towards it. Something wasn’t right. It had been completely clear behind them. It was midday and there was a bright blue sky and nothing but water for miles. How peculiar…

Silence grew over the entire crew as they approached the massive wall of fog. There was excitement in the air- but not without fear. What would they find in that fog? Would there be strange scientific wonders? Or would there just be nothing?

The front of the ship entered the fog and the moment it did, it disappeared out of sight. The fog was so heavy…

The crew had a natural instinct to leave their posts and group together. Open mouthed and wide eyed, together they entered the wall. Although so close to each other, the fog made it impossible to even see each other’s faces. But this only last for about two seconds. The fog was thick, but apparently the wall was not. They were now inside something even more odd.

A vertical tunnel of fog.

It surrounded them. Other than the blue sky at the top of the tunnel, fog was all that could be seen. The back of the ship continued to make it’s way through the fog until the ship reached the middle of the tunnel. Then there was a loud noise and the ship rumbled as it stopped dead in the water. They hadn’t hit a sandbar…

Next a huge wind swept through the tunnel and blew the fog completely away in about a second.

What beauty…

There were now huge islands in the distance that had not been there before. Every color the eye could see seemed so much more vibrant here. The water was a beautiful dark blue; the island’s sandy beaches were a bright gold and its forests spotted it with a brilliant dark green; the sky was a spectacular shade of blue with bright glowing white clouds. The sight was unfathomable. The crew was in wonder at this place they had come to find.

The crew was especially in wonder at the strange door that was now at the top of their mast…

There was no science here. 

No formula to solving the equation. 

Just confusion.

Confusion and the question of “what is on the other side of that door, and dare I open it?”

The crew gathered together to talk about what they were seeing. 

What was this? 

Where were they? 

What now?

Each individual had his own plan of action to add to the mix. But it was agreed by all that none should enter that door. Not quite yet anyways.

Or so they thought they all had agreed…

But how can you truly know the adventurous young heart of a 17 year old boy anyways? How could he just stand there and not see what was on the other side? Especially after so long! Those crazy patient adult folk wouldn’t understand. Its now or never and frankly the now had passed four hours ago when they  had gotten there. In another three hours the sun would be down and who knows what would happen then. What if they were released from this spot back to their normal world and never able to come back again? Yes, now was definitely the time for action. The adults were just being stubborn anyways.

As soon as the boy found a chance while the adults were talking, he ran over to the mast and began to pull himself up it. No one even saw him! He was so clever and sneaky in his ways. His heart pounded as he neared the top. What kind of treasure would lie behind this door? The boat had stopped in the perfect spot for the mast to reach it. But stranger things had happened day. He took one last look at the vibrant beauty the world around him possessed. He could see so much of it from up here. He then turned for the door slowly and began to open it. A bright light shown out of the door as he walked into it.

The room was coated with a glowing white light. It was the only color that existed in the room. Even his entire body and clothes were glowing white. There was no room for any other color to exist- except for that hint of blood red on the stand in the middle of the room. Words were engraved on a white stone tablet underneath it:

“THIS RING BELONGS TO THE KING. HE IS GOOD AND LOVES HIS PEOPLE. NO ONE ELSE MAY WEAR IT FOR NO ONE ELSE IS AS GOOD AND LOVING AS HE AND CAN HANDLE ITS POWER WITHOUT CORRUPTION.”

However, being that there was no real warning in this writing, the young boy tried the ring on.

Images began to flood his mind. Images of all that was good. Its very difficult to describe it but the boy saw love. He saw goodness. He saw both in its truest form. He saw Heaven! But these weren’t his memories… Nor were the feelings he felt watching the memories. No, the boy had never experienced this kind of love. This was far to powerful a love to be of this world. These must have been the memories of the King that the stone was talking about! 

How could anyone be so good? 

So pure? 

So righteous? 

So loving?

So… perfect?

How could this be a King?

It didn’t make any sense! What kind of man could be given power and use it with this kind of love. These memories were so strong that the boy knew they had to be true no matter how much sense they didn’t make to him. The boy had to show the others! They had to experience this love! This ecstasy!

With the ring on his finger he ran to the door of the room and opened it. He stepped back into the world, his face and clothes radiating white. He stepped onto the mast and closed the door behind him. But when he did, something strange happened.

New memories?

What were these?

There was evil in these thoughts…

But not the evil of the King, rather the evil being done to the King.

The strong love of the King was still felt incredibly in the boy’s mind, but outside of that room of goodness and love was an extreme hatred. He saw demons and Satan and he literally felt their piercing hatred and anger towards everything. The boy watched as these evil spirits spread across the Kingdom; invisible to the King’s people. They whispered into his people’s ears evil thoughts, harsh words, and blasphemies. 

“KiLL HiM!” they said.

“KILL HIM!” the people yelled.

Next the demons looked right at the boy. 

“YoU KiLLeD HiM!” they barked.

The evil corrupted the Kingdom and soon the all-loving King was taken by His people to face a gruesome, horrifying death. 

So much blood spilled…

So much horror…

And still…

So much love.

The King’s thoughts rang out through the boy’s head as he watched His people torture the King.

“But I love you.”

They spit on Him.

“I… still… love… you…” He was growing weak.

They left Him in pain and suffering for three days.

“I will always love you.”

The boy could take no more. He removed the ring and dropped it, losing his balance while doing so. He fell from the mast, tears streaming down his face. 

He made no noise. 

No scream for help.

Nothing.

Everything was in slow motion to him. 

Why? How could such a love be subject to such hatred? 

The ring landed on the ship.

tink

The boy just nearly missed the side of the ship before hitting the water.

SPLASH!

This alerted the others to the fact that the boy had not been around in awhile. They all stopped what they were doing and ran to where they had heard the splash. There the boy laid face down in the water.

 The soldier was the first to act. It was as if he had been trained for this moment all his life. Quickly he dived into the water with perfect form and grabbed the boy. He was no longer radiating with light. The others threw out a rope to them and pulled them in.

The doctor was next. He kneeled over the boy and began to do all in his power to revive him. It was quite a fall he had taken and it was possible that there was more damage done to him than that of a simple drowning case.

Everyone circled around, hoping, praying, waiting for some kind of life to return to the boy.

And fortunately…

It did.

The boy coughed out the water he had taken into his body and he somehow didn’t have a scratch on him from the fall- despite the fact he should have been dead from it. The boy rolled over to his side and saw the ring lying on the ship. He ran quickly ran over and grabbed it. The others stared at him in confusion. The boy knew that what he had seen had to be shared. 

It was meant to be shared.

He told them of how he had snuck into the bright door and how he found the ring there. He told them of the love he had seen in the King and how the evil in the world tried to kill his perfect love, but never did. Sure, the evil had killed the King as a person, but not the King’s love.

The scientist walked over to the boy. He asked for the ring. Being a scientist, he wanted proof. He could not simply just believe this story. The boy was reluctant at first for he did not want anyone else to have to go through the horrifying things he had just witnessed. But finally he handed it over. The scientist took a deep breath and tried it on.

…

Nothing.

Hope in the other’s faces faded as they saw the scientist grow angry. Why had the boy lied?

The boy grabbed the ring back. He explained that now that he knew of the King’s story it was his responsibility to tell others of it and that they would just have to believe him. And perhaps if they believed him, then the ring’s power would work. That was it! To put that ring on without belief is to ask the ways of the mystical to follow the rules of science. 

Faith.

That was it.

That was what it took to make the ring work.

But now it was growing late and the ignorant adults decided it was time to eat dinner. Let the boy have his fantasies.

When the crew was done eating they decided that perhaps now they would go and check the mysterious door. But the sun was getting ready to set and no moon or stars had seemed to come out yet.

Or maybe they were never going to come out…

The only light left at this point was that of their dim lanterns. Everything else was pitch black. Then there was another large noise and the ship shook once again. It sounded as though water was pouring out of somewhere, but where? The scholar looked over the side of the ship and came to realize that all of the water that was once below them had fallen away. There was nothing but a circle of blackness below them and they were still stuck. There was still water all around them, but not under them.

They were hovering in mid air.

That’s when they heard it. The horrifying piercing screams of those creatures. Those noises. The crew looked around at each other. What was going on? Something had just landed in front of the scientist. He held his lantern up and saw a distorted face staring back at him. The creature had wings and sharp teeth that never stopped gnashing. It breathed heavily in front of him and had a rotten stench.

“No oNe tO sAVe YOu,” it said. “No oNe to gIVe YOu loVE.”

The boy yelled. It was the demons he had seen in the memories! They loved hatred. They loved evil. They loved darkness. And now they were going to feast on them just as they had done with the captain’s crew who had written about this location in the legend. What was once such a beautiful and vibrant world had now become dark and ugly. It had become Hell. 

Literally.

Demons flooded out of the open space below the boat screeching loudly before landing on the ship. Hundreds of them pushed the crew into a circle. So this was the scientific mystery of the door in the sky was it? It was a religious experience. There was no scientific explanation. It just IS.

The boy yelled at the creatures in the pain of remembering the King’s death. The demons chuckled and smiled at the boy’s pain. The scientist turned to the boy.

…

“I believe.”

All of the sudden, the homeless man’s ragged clothes glowed with bright light. His whole body radiated just as the boy’s had earlier, but this man lit up the entire earth. The demons covered their eyes and screamed. The man was glowing with more than light. He was glowing with power and authority!

“WhO iS tHIs MaN?” they cried.

“I am the King,” He replied. “The one who was, is, and is to come.”

The demons began to blister in the brilliant light. “It CAn’t BE! WE kiLLed yOu!”

“Fear me demon! You have no power over me or my people! They have the same authority to rid you just as I do!”

The demon screamed and quickly jumped off of the boat into the eternal abyss.

The crew fell at his feet immediately, calling Him King. 

So many questions. 

So few answers. 

So much confusion.

So much…

Love.

The King looked to the scientist. “Now, my friend, you see the power of belief.” He looked around at the rest of the crew. “There is good in all of you here. I see it in your lives, your professions, your attitudes. But the only way to truly unlock that love and goodness is to believe in my existence. I am the definition of true love and true goodness and I am currently building a Kingdom away from here. I want the whole earth to join me there. I will let anyone and everyone in, as long as they believe in me and live for me here on earth in love and goodness. Anyone who doesn’t do so will live among those demons in their kingdom for that is the life they have lived for here on earth. Please, my friends… Please, don’t let that happen. The entire earth is made of my people. I cannot stand to have them live among Hell’s kingdom.” A tear fell from the King’s eye. “Please tell them about me. I love you all and I will always be with you. We will meet again soon.”

Just then, water returned beneath the boat and it rumbled back into place. The King vanished as the boat moved out of the mystical realm it had been in.

The crew was silent. 

There was so much to bring back home with them. 

Who would believe their tale?

Who would consider them insane?

None of them cared.

This crew was not going to let the King’s people fall into that demonic abyss. 

This crew had just experienced love at its fullest.

And love moves people…

This story represents that of Jesus Christ.

“What the heck is a day of rest!?”

Well, if Christianity didn’t look appealing before, perhaps now it will! Looking back in the Bible, we saw this concept invented right from the start by God Himself when He made the world. After building our world in a few days, He rested. Then He told us to take time in the week for ourselves to rest as well.

It’s funny that a God who could really make us do whatever He wanted decided that He wanted us to take time to rest. We view this idea as crazy in today’s culture. We are ALWAYS on the go. If we’re not somewhere then we were supposed to be half an hour ago and we feel that if we’re relaxing then there should be something better and more productive we could be doing.

Think of what you could do with one day to relax. You could enjoy family time or time with your spouse (if you have one of course), do something you love, or just have some time to do a whole lot of nothing. Who knows, maybe that would strengthen households and we’d maybe even see less divorce out of that one day a week when people can relax with each other and connect out of their busy schedules.

We’ve got so much more work to do now a days. As great as the internet it is, it’s screwed us up pretty good. Now we don’t even have to be at work to do work. We can have deadlines from our home. Our ongoing work schedules are stressing us out and stress can lead to a whole lot of other things.

Last semester I tried to incorporate this day of rest, or sabbath, into my life on Tuesdays. I only had two classes and then I was done by noon, so I would try to get home right after and then relax for most of the day at least from doing work.

Now I’m not saying it has to be like “don’t move a muscle” kind of rest. We see Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath in the Bible and all the Pharisees viewing Him as a sinner because of it. I think God just wanted us to take a break from life and spend some time with Him and relax. After all, if He had to take a break then by all means we should know that we weren’t programmed to run on full power.

These are my thoughts on the forgotten Sabbath. I think it’s more important than we realize. I might even go so far as to say that we NEED to make time for it. I will know more as I continue to read through my Bible but in the mean time this was on my mind and I thought I’d share it.

Take it.

Chew on it.

Think about it.

Here’s some ideas Taylor Keating put together about sleep in one of our band’s video blogs:

We’re making a CD based off of each day in Creation and this is the musical idea representing sleep that we have so far.

The ADD Generation

When assessing the idea of innovation in our churches, it is of great importance to have an understanding of a key element in today’s generation. This element is known as A.D.D. That’s right, the generation we want to reach suffers poor concentration with a very short attention span. Now please keep in mind that I write of this idea while living in this generation myself. 

I wonder how many pretzels I ate tonight… Oops, sorry.

This idea is essential to comprehend before indulging yourself in the rest of this book. The major reason behind innovation in the church is taken from this idea.

Think about it. The junior high and high schoolers of our generation wake up five days a week to go to a school consisting usually of six classes, each measuring approximately an hour long. From one tedious class to the next they are given large amounts of information (often times in lecture form) that will stick with them until their next class starts (if even that). These students do this for seven years and leave high school not even able to remember the names of the 50 states of America.

And yet, can we blame them?

You see, the problem here does not lie completely with the students. Sometimes it lies with the teachers. Take a moment to reminisce about favorite teacher and all the great slow motion moments you had in their class. Now why were they your favorite teacher?

Because they gave the most boring lectures ever?

Because their monotone voice could soothe you to sleep like no other?

Oh wait! I know!

Because they could somehow speak for an hour straight without stopping!

Chances are that the teacher who sticks in your mind the most had a different way of teaching. They were innovative, creative and had passion behind their teachings.

I remember one of my favorite teachers…

*Jamin looks to the sky to reminisce as the screen turns black and white and blurs into past memories.*

His name was Mr. Zainea. The truth is that I had a hard time getting good grades in his class, but to me it did not matter. I learned ten times more in his class that I did in most of my others. Why? Because he cared! He was passionate about what he did and because of that he showed interest in his students. He showed us that he wasn’t in the teaching business for money (not that teaching really gets anyone anywhere financially) but that he was in it for us.

It seemed like every day he had something new and creative to do to get his point across. Whether it was showing a clip from the Simpsons, taping quarters to the bottom of his shoes and attempting to tap dance on desks, singing a song with his guitar or playing his trumpet, he was always looking for new ideas to keep our attention.

In other classes I would have to struggle to stay awake or find my own creative way to learn. I remember having a hard time paying attention in geometry so I would turn the notes I took into full blown comics. My superhero “Math Man” would return again and again to beat off trapezoids, skateboard across angles and explain how proofs worked. But I could only entertain myself with the idea for so long and soon returned to listening to the tedious lectures with the attention span of a child waiting to open his Christmas presents (It seriously took me about ten minutes to figure out how to end that sentence).

*We now blur back to color and reality*

The truth is, if you want people to come out of a message or lecture having learned something, you better have some form of innovation, creativity or entertainment incorporated in your teachings. The world is constantly trying to catch people’s attention and typically education is not the avenue that attention is grasped through. And a lot of times when you know you are about to be taught something, you pull out your pillow and drool away. In fact we are so used to pulling out our pillows that we are completely caught off guard when a speaker walks on stage to talk and catches everyone’s attention with a joke. 

A perfect example of keeping people’s attention in a message would be my dad. Being the children pastor he is, he has accustomed himself to teaching with different forms of entertainment. Whether it would be having comedic conversations with his puppets, singing some crazy songs, or telling stories, Dad is always ready to teach through entertainment. And it works! And the cool thing is that it works for more than just children. I tell you, I have never seen so many old people laughing at some of things he does.

Every once in awhile Dad will get the chance to act out one of his stories to the entire congregation on a given Sunday. While his stories may have up to 10 different characters, he is the only actor which makes for quite an interesting show. I recall in one story he told he was acting out four different kids at once as well as a cat. From one character to the next he jumped around. Two of the boys were bullies and tossing a cat through the air to each other while a little girl (the cat’s owner) cried about it and yelled at her brother to make it stop. The whole church was cracking up and at the same time receiving the message that was being told through it. Again, people strive to be entertained and as a church we should be trying harder than anyone else to do so. After all, we have the most important message of all.

***

So now that we know what the problem is, why do we have such a hard time being innovative in church?

Well, one of the reasons is that it takes time. If we are going to add more to our church schedules then that means there has to be more planning, writing, and assessing. Our world is already hectic enough as it is so why would we want to add even more to our plate? And who’s going to work on these ideas? Are we going to have to hire a creative arts director?

All of these questions are very important to look at but none of them should not stop us from innovating because it is more than a want at this point in time. 

It 

is 

a 

 necessity.

If you keep telling yourself “I’ll do it in the future,” then you might as well scrap the idea in general. It needs to start NOW. The church is declining quickly and if we want to attract new people to church as well as stop people from leaving, then it is a necessity that we are creative. 

Another reason we are having a hard time being innovative is because we have become way to comfortable with tradition no matter how recent tradition is. At my church, “Cornerstone,” we went through a phase where all we had all this technology and up to date equipment to use and we somehow still created tradition. Every week we had the same set-up with the same amount of familiar songs and the same way of doing messages. We had all this other stuff to use and yet we were not using it to its full advantage.

What was once brand new and attractive had become old and routine. Something had to change if we were to get our messages across and engage people in worship. And as you might guess, that something was innovation.

I got to thinking last night about Heaven, hell and Earth. And after sorting out my thoughts, I came to the conclusion that in the realm of God, earth just makes sense- its being; its reason; its existence. I apologize, however. This is one of those subjects that I can only truly understand in my mind and have trouble putting it into words.

First off, let’s enter into discussion remembering where it all started: the Kingdom of Heaven. Here we find Satan himself chillin’ with God as an angel. We have perfection to the fullest. All the angels are there worshipping the Most High who is, in fact, the image of all that is Good and Perfect.

This seems unreal to us. Perfection just doesn’t make any sense at all. 

And we even come to find out that this is unreal. While we have this image here of true 100% perfection in goodness, we also come to terms with the fact that even among the angels there is capacity to do wrong. Satan is the prime example. It seems as though God has given even His very own angels free will to live how they want. There are no atheist angels-they know exactly who God is. There are only angels that for some moronic, selfish, and evil reason decide to go against all that is Good. All this evil is cast out of Heaven and into hell.

Later we see God recreate free will, but this time apart from the Heavens. He tries to give perfection another chance, but still without creating robots who are built to automatically worship Him. This time, however, we are built into a world where there is already Good and evil, because without the chance to do evil, free will really doesn’t exist. Yes, the earth is Good, but Satan corrupts humanity and henceforth corrupts the earth with sin. After taking a bite of the forbidden fruit we see perfection ruined again and we distance ourselves from what is Good. And because of that bite we opened ourselves to have the capacity to do evil. But at the same time, we are still capable of doing Good.

We have this idea of Heaven of being really high in regards to earth and the idea of hell being at the furthest depth from us. This concept actually creates a wonderful chart we can look at to grasp better the meaning of Earth. Take a look at my beautiful picture here:

My amazing artwork… Except not so much… I apologize for the countries that weren’t drawn in.

The concept here is that we have Heaven (Good) at the top and Hell (Evil) at the bottom. We are the middle ground between these two and given instruction on what will get us where. We can accept Jesus as the Son of God and live for Him on a journey to the top or we can do nothing and stay at the bottom. It’s not necessarily a ladder concept, but more of a “do you want to be the best for God that you can be” concept.

I explained it to a friend earlier this week like this. We’ve got two kingdoms ruling over the earth: The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. We are not the kings of either and never will be, but we will follow a kingdom whether we know it or not. We are born into the Kingdom of Satan and Evil and unless we choose to join the other side of God and Goodness, we will continue to live in hell on Earth. It’s funny because we realize that hell is a horrible place that none of want to go, but we complain because the other Kingdom requires us to do something in order to get in.

A popular question among people is that if God is good, holy and loving, how could he ever condemn us to hell? Well, if we live our life in hell’s kingdom of evil on earth, then how can God let that evil enter His goodness. I imagine that the hardest thing that God has to do is let people go to Hell. He loves us all unconditionally and for that reason, it must rip Him apart to be separated from us for eternity.

This whole idea written here may be hard to understand or swallow, but I thought I’d just give you my thoughts on it. Trust me, I had a hard enough time trying to understand it myself. I hope this gives you something to think about while I know it’s hard to read because of the hard time I had writing this.

Journal entry regarding our band’s future CD “The Creation Architect” made on 3-28-08

The purpose of The Creation Architect is that of all of our CDs: to bring God into our music, and send that music out into the world to be shared with others, earnestly hoping that they see God in it. Nothing else is more important than this and I will not risk covering up God’s message. may it always come first and I pray that we give His message in a way that’s not stereotypical, cheesy, or threatening.

We had originally wanted to create a CD called “The Creation Architect” which would be a soundtrack based off of Creation. Each song would be inpired by some form of nature.

The Creation Architect needs to be 7 tracks or so since Creation was only seven days.  Each track will resemble what was made on each day.

We would like to make this album very symbolic and extremely inspired by what it is. Therefore we would like to do our best to place ourselves in places surrounded by the form of nature we are working on. For example, when making a song about water we should go to the beach or something along those lines.

Since all of these songs are instrumental, their names are our words to portray God. Our music is all about God even when instrumental.

Seeing as how we know all of this Creation from the Bible, studying the correct verses are essential to knowing what sound to create and in getting an image in our head to work with.

Although this is obviously the story of Genesis, I’d like to use Job 38 and 39 for the theme of this CD.

In these verses, God tells Job of His Greatness by speaking in great detail about creation. I think it will inspire us in our creating this album.

Idea for a song

Journal entry made on 3-29

Imaged DNA

Today I begin work on Imaged DNA. Lord, take this song and transform it to your glory. Help me not to do anything out of place that You wouldn’t have me do. I pray for help in reflecting your glory through this song.

I’ve taken Uberzone’s Ideology into mind while working on this song. I feel that that sound would be a cool idea to aim for in reflection of complex DNA being formed.

We are made from dirt, so I would like to have a shovel sound or something at the beginning of this song. From there on I need to try to imagine a complex human being being put together.

Forgive me for starting without You Lord. Right now I pray You’ll give me words, images, anything to go off of with creating this song. I will wait. After all, You were there during Creation. I imagine you have a pretty sweet soundtrack in mind for it.

Distractions

That’s what human life is like…

Distracted

Lord, as I lay on the ground, there was a number of distractions:

traffic

Taylor wanted to show me a song

Jaron’s video games

Loud music upstairs

And a strange loud crack of something unknown

You also showed me Light. As I laid my head down I put it in the exact spot where sun shone through my window. Perhaps to tell me to keep this song happy/major because of Your joy in creating humans and how much You love them.

The distractions are a great concept too because I could make this song rather busy and random in the beat.

Thank You Lord.

Key: D(istractions)

I can use the Drum N’ Bass Remix section to create organized chaos.