Back to Creation

We spend all this time trying to get back to Creation

to who we were at the beginning of the earth

so God

today

refine me

continue showing me who i was when you created me

and who you want me to be in you.

make that my one and only identity

and my one and only desire

to love you above all else with every moment of my day.

i know i'll fail.

i know it.

but yet again your relentless forgiveness and mercy comes in and amazes me again.

my broken promises to you.

i am a perjurer.

i am unfaithful.

i am a sinner.

create in me a clean heart

o god

and renew a right spirit within me.

restore unto me the joy of my salvation

and renew a right spirit within me.

a right

joyful

focused spirit.

only you please.

make that my desire.

the biggest desire please.

let me not forget.

bring me daily back to your creation around me and in me.

amen.

"...Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."
Psalm 139: 23,24

The Problem With School History Class

THE PROBLEM WITH SCHOOL HISTORY CLASS

Problem with school history class: We never really learn anything. We learn dates and facts but history continues repeating itself because we never learn the lesson.Just the facts. And facts are worthless unless there’s a moral.

And the funny thing is- the world will tell us otherwise. Our teachers will tell us otherwise. They’ll tell us that all these facts are virtuous and are going to give us a better life out of high school. Lies. Unless we learn the lesson from the facts, the future will be a repetition of past mistakes and failed morals.

I think that’s why we like our Founding Fathers so much. Because they stood for something.

But now, no one in politics can stand for anything. They must be neutral ‘so as not to offend anyone’. Seriously? What’s up with that? The people who are supposed to be the greatest leaders are forced by the American public to have no backbone or stand for anything because, well, God forbid they might ‘offend’ someone. Or make things a bit ‘uncomfortable’.

So you see. Because we’ve forced our public schools and politicians to be neutral…unoffensive…comfortable…almost none of our politicians have a backbone of basic truth. They have been forces by some invisible, moral, worldly code to not offend anyone and therefore just stick to the facts instead of the lesson behind the facts.

It’s adult peer pressure at its finest. “Well, we can’t carry a Bible in school cause then everyone would have to be allowed to carry a Quaran in school. Or the Torah. And who knows what would happen if people were forced to cooperate.” “And no, we can’t have a Bible study cause then we’d have to allow other studies.” “And no, we can’t have a class where we look at morals because that’d we way too controversial.” “No it’d just be easier to call it ‘The Bible as Literature’. Cause if you look at it as literature- mere facts- then it can’t offend anyone. No parents will call in mad and force me to be uncomfortable. Or to question my own morals. No. It’s just easier this way.”

You see. We’re stuck on the facts. But facts don’t help unless they’re applied. Have you noticed how the greatest teachers are the ones who allow you to explore not only facts but also morals. And you remember those teachers for the rest of your life. So God forbid we make someone a bit ‘uncomfortable’. I’m not here to offend, but in my struggle, in Christ’s struggle for your soul, we might tangle. Cause the devil’s real. And he wants people to be comfortable. And factual. Rather than having a bold and nicely opinionated backbone.

So lets dare to pray for politicians and teachers who have a backbone of morality rather than fact. Who are free to learn from history rather than just memorize it. And we will do the same.

Grace and Peace and Truth from the Word.

And let’s dare to learn from our history classes more than just facts.

Forgiveness

Hmm this is stuck in my head

I don’t exactly know where it’s gonna go but I guess we’ll see

What ever happened to forgiveness

Not small scale

Not the type like I’ll forgive you cause you stole my pen without asking

Or I’ll still be your friend even though you did steal my joy

And I let you.

Side Note: Are we supposed to show love to the devil? I mean. I don’t love the devil. Or even like the devil. But since we aren’t supposed to hate, and satan loves hating (and no I WILL NOT capitalize that name), wouldn’t it be even more of a slap in the face to show him love?

But he’s not human I guess.

So we’ll show the humans who are under his control

The beautiful love of God.

Okay side note officially over.

Forgiveness.

We’re talking about the big type.

The type that goes through the heart and gets rid of all prejudice

Or pride.

And I know thanks to Jane Austen those words are now cliché but that’s okay because they’re way too true to not be used.

Pride

And Prejudice.

Don’t they get in the way of so much?

So the other day I was talking to my friend.

And he was like “so are your parents thinking of buying you a car soon?”

And I was thinking.

Well.

No.

My dad just lost his job so things are tight.

So it probably might maybe just be a while before they think about buying me a car.

And either way

I’d pay for it

And I like it that way.

I want to pay for it.

I don’t know- just the idea of earning something.

Earning my car instead of having it handed to me.

And when I do.

I don’t care if it’s a junker.

I earned that junkerJ

(Oh and another side note: typing is like playing the piano. It still can be really emotional. You know how people sometimes rock back and forth with the music while they’re playing the piano. And they think it helps the music go. And it does. Well. Typing can be the same. I don’t rock back and forth. That’d be weird and awkward all at the same time. But anyways. Just listen to the keys go. It’s a type of music in itself.)

Ok. Back to my junker that I earned.

Instead of telling my friend that my dad got laid off

(Which I don’t mind

I like having him home)

I think a bit of pride got in there

The type of pride where you make the truth look a little more pretty so they don’t see what you don’t want them to see.

And I know my friend would have been perfectly fine with the truth

And maybe the not-truth too

But the fact of the matter was

There was a bit of pride in there.

And I’m sort of excited.

Not for the pride.

Sorry for that Lord.

But for the fact that we might have to see the welfare side of things

And obey God with all we’ve got.

You know

When you take away the things that embellish life you might finally be able to see clearly into the perfect Truth in creation.

Well. I don’t know how that has to do with forgiveness but

Oh yes.

Forgiveness that surpasses pride and prejudice

And hatred

Pure hatred

I mean

Yes love is hard

But the devil is stupid

What takes a person from being born

To living to hate others

The devil’s working right there.

Well. Lord we pray right now

That you release hatred from whoever you like lord.

Our leaders

Our followers

Our friends

Our Strangers

Any one stuck in welfare

Any one who thinks they’re too good for welfare

Even from me Lord

I don’t think I’ve got a lot of hatred but that’d be pride

You see I’ll never be perfect and I love that

Thank you for your grace

And the ability to write.

Amen.

Back to forgiveness.

So just think about this for a sec.

Sec.

Sec.

What if everyone just took up an attitude of forgiveness.

Not the one where you’ve still got a stick up your but and you say I forgive you cause you have to…

What about the forgiveness that comes deep from the heart.

Where we not only forgive others but ask for forgiveness for even for a second thinking that we were worthy to be served and pleased.

Cause we’re not.

That’s the truth.

Every person who serves me on a daily basis

Wherever I go

A restaurant

My neighbors

My parents

I’m not worthy of being served

Brings us back to paul’s words

Whatever is to my gain is a loss for Christ.

Which is totally backwards from what the world thinks

Gain

Gain

gain

I forgive you for making my coffee wrong and lord forgive me for having had the mindset that it was a big deal in the first place.

I forgive you for bombing my country and forgive me for the prejudice there that causes nationality to sacrifice love.

I forgive you for having your nationality or religion separate an alliance or friendship and lord please somehow if you could ever ever ever forgive me, please forgive me for bombing people I don’t even know.

That type of forgiveness would be big.

And it might seem backwards.

Especially the first bombing one.

But you see

In both circumstances

There’s the pride factor

That which allows us to not forgive another person is always pride.

Pride gets in the way.

And prejudice.

Prejudice that started the bombing in the first place.

I mean not even just bombing with real bombs

Assaults with words

And the daughter that rolls her eyes at her mom or sister or brother

Or the dispute between boss and employee

Or employee and employee

Just imagine that-

Forgiveness everywhere you look

I think another name for it would be love

Cause if we’d just love in the first place then we wouldn’t have anything to forgive or be forgiven for.

Except for the fact that we’re still human.

And love only comes from God.

Through us.

But from God.

You know.
Another side note

Number three in think.

The other day I was listening to something

I forget what it was

But it pointed out that truth only came from God

So when asked

“What is true?”

God is true.

Not chemistry.

Not what they teach me in school.

Not US History or anatomy or physics or facts that I learn in health class that I may never use again let alone remember them if I need to ever use them

But God is true.

His Word is true.

He is true.

He’s what we know.

So I’m wondering.

In all the school work.

In all the reading

And writing

And learning

What in that cram packed jam packed schedule is feeding me truth

Nothing.

Only that which I read out of his word and witness in creation.

He’s true.

His word is true.

His son is true.

Not school.

Not MTV (we all knew that)

Not oprah

What does she know

Not myself

Not myself

Not myself

So when I look for answers in myself

I am a liar

Cause I do not know truth fully

And when I say this, this is in an ever-continuing effort to not be hypocritical

Cause I haven’t memorized the bible

Nor do I read it as much as I should.

But it is truth at it’s finest

To it I will turn.

So the idea of forgiveness.

It’s not from me.

Only He is good.

Only He can create peace.

Only He can form bonds between something so broken and distraught and messed up as this world.

So god.

I don’t know where this came from.

But it’s going on a blog.

And I don’t know who will read it

But I pray that it makes them think.

And turn to you

Jesus Christ.

Who died to give us the grace that looks past our human ugliness

And made us so so so so so beautiful.

Holy.

That’s a big word.

Thank you lord.

Amen.

Thought officially overJ

NEWS- A CD of How To

so just to keep you filled in, we’re making a  cd.

of lyrical poetry.

A CD of ‘How To’

and it’s going to be beautiful.

well actually it might be a bit interesting.

and not exactly super high quality

but god uses everything

and he loves us.

so it’s going to be poetry describing what Ode is, what we want people to participate in, how they can participate, and a bit of inspiration.

That’s what’s in the works. We’d love it if you’d be praying for this whole process.

Thanks for sticking with us. 

God’s going to do some cool things with this cd and eventually this book.

ptl

Poverty

so i just returned from a mission trip to chicago. and after every trip and every life experience, it becomes all the more evident to me that the faces of poverty are so vast. I met this beautiful lady at lunch named teresa. And she and her husband liked camping. And this man named Philip liked Michael Jackson. Good music. But thinking about it, as i looked around the soup kitchen, all those beautiful faces were so very different. Each has a beautiful story that can be and is being transformed by God. And each person has their reason for being there. And poverty, as you see more of it and experience it, is not always just of money. Poor in faith. Poor in self-confidence. Poor in hope. Poor in life. Poor in family. Poor in kindness. And sadly i think all these less apparent poverties are what lead up to the evident type- poor in money. Because of so many peoples’ poor spirit of compassion or giving, the more evident poverty exists. Because of your and my poverty of self-sacrifice and richness of selfish ambition does the monetary poverty exist. So I guess this week i’ll be searching for the many faces of poverty. one that has especially stuck out to me is the poverty in teen girls of self confidence and self-worth and beauty. As i see it in other girls, i don’t exactly know what has caused it for each one (all happen for different reasons), but i recognize it as a type of cause. A cause just as large as the need for food. Beautiful girls who somehow get lied to and convinced that they need to be a certain way. That is a poverty i have noticed lately. I’ll be praying.

So continue searching for the poverty. Let’s get to the root- to the poverty that causes it all- the poverty of truth. When people believe lies and are deprived of truth. Look for the lies. Blot them out. Replace them with truth. And although we may become poor in money, we will be rich in all things true.

The Unseen Poverty

Mother Teresa:”We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

we’re always finding out more about this.

all the different types of poverties.

i’m going to be praying about them. that my eyes are open to them

What ODE is...

“He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners.” We are his hands and feet to the forgotten.

Welcome. Welcome to something that’s currently an idea. But it’s a big one. The idea in general has been a part of the world and Christianity for around two thousand years, and longer. But the idea itself, taking the specific form of Ode to the Poor the Lame and the Blind is just arising. Just formulating. Still shaping. And we invite you to be a part of it. Define it. Feel it. Verbalize it. It’s got to be bigger than you. And bigger than me. Its poverty and its all around us.

But what are you and I going to do about it? You tell me. Write it down. Take a picture of it. You’ll see.

There are millions of brothers and sisters all over the world. Hurting. Needing care. Needing the overflow of the love that He’s given us. And it’s our job to give it. Yes- I’m guilty of it too. Of sitting at the kitchen table wondering what I can do. I just did that this afternoon. But here we are. I realize now as millions of others have in the past- that the poor, the lame, and the blind of this world are crying out from the ground. Their blood is in our hands. The poor, the lame, and the blind. They may be across the world from you, in your backyard, or even in the room next to the one you’re in right now. What are we going to do about it? How will we respond to this magnificent command from Matthew 26 that’s been given to us for thousands of years, yet is daily being redefined and lived out? Well. In the broad scheme of things- for the rest of our lives- we can be living sacrifices. Humbly washing the feet of our brothers and sisters in humanity.

At the same time, you can help us write a book. An ode of sorts.  But it’s more than a book. It’s an upheaval of all that tells us that the poor will stay poor, that the blind deserve their blindness, or that the lame will never again be able to walk.

Lord. We pray that you give us the strength to be weak. Help me and help us to give ourselves up for your cause. Help me to come to you, so that I may go to them with a truly pure heart and be your hands and feet. At all costs. Lord help us to give freedom to the captives, hope to the prisoners, good news to the poor. A light in the darkness of this world. Ode to the forgotten.