Matisyahu - "Youth" - A Young Spiritual Revolutionary's View of The Education System

Matisyahu's new CD - "Youth" is an ecstatic blast of spiritual revolution. While U2 offers the airwaves a positive vibe and social consciousness, Matisyahu takes the same vibe to its ecstatic extreme.

In Romans 11:11, 14, Paul the Apostle proclaims his desire that the salvation of the Gentiles and our spiritual walk in the presence of God would provoke the Jews to jealousy. In a strange turn of events, Matisyahu makes me long for a Shabbat service at Chabad in Washington Square.

To put Matisyahu in context, it is helpful to read his bio from his web page. Matisyahu marries street beat box poetry to his Lubavitch-Hasidic worldview and challenges all of us to take a second look at the role of the poet in memorializing the experiences of our faith communities.

The Central Theme of the Education of the Youth
In the '90's, Kurt Cobain gave voice to a generation of bored and force fed youth, but failed to provide any solutions. In a similar fashion, Matisyahu speaks from the experience of a young vibrant mind thoroughly bored and demoralized by the educational system. As a parent, I reflect upon the poetic raps of "Youth" and have to ponder, "Do I want my children to grows up to be compliant or critical thinkers?".

Compliant or Critical Thinkers
In the title track, Matisyahu describes the effect of an educational system that fails to answer the questions that face adolescents.

storm the halls of vanity
focus your energy
into a laser beam streaming shattered light unites
to pierce between the seams and it seems
tear the world open, peer in the children see
rapid fire for your mind.
half the truth is just a lie,
they rub me the wrong way,
they say their way or fall behind.
seven subjects disconnect,
left out the concept as to why there's a spiritual emptiness,
so the youth them get vexed,
skip class and get wrecked fill with beer and cigarettes
to fill the hole in their chest

Secular education is incapable and thoroughly unequipped to answer the answers that plague the child as he awakens into consciousness in adolescence. Just at this time, the flame is beginning to spark and the seven subjects do not connect with the heart of the child. All this learning, but never the wisdom to answer "why there is a spiritual emptiness".

The first verse speaks also of this budding flame of the mind of the youth...

some of them come
some of them running
some of them looking for fun
some of them looking for a way out of confusion
some of them don't know what to be
some of them don't know where to go
some of them trust their instincts that something's missing from the show
some don't fit society, insides are crying low
some of them teachers squash the flame before it had a chance to grow
some of them embers do glow them charcoal, hushed and low
some of them come with the hunger suppressed, not fed them feel a death blow..

I remember when I was young. I was 100% alienated from society, and the only answer to the inner knowing that "something is missing from the show" came in my identification with the suffering of Christ and the beauty of the cross. Self-sacrificial love as the moral and spiritual principle (the logos) that defines the image of God that cries out to be heard and lived.

Such wisdom, the wisdom of the cross, is not taught in the schools, and how can they? They have no spiritual foundation.

So, how am I teaching my children? Are my children challenged to question and to seek the wisdom of the cross and the death to the ego as the path to true knowledge? Do we teach our children a compliance that doesn't question the moral insanity of the world system? Are they taught to deeply question the individualism and the materialism that drives the world and ends only in suffering?

Our Educational Motto - This is our conclusion.
We will raise our children to be critical thinkers first and foremost and to seek to answer the fundamental questions that plague humanity and that undermine the manifestation of the image of God in the people of God.

The kingdom is a spiritual revolution...
God Bless,
brad
Tags:Matisyahu; youth; education; homeschooling

Cerulean Sanctum: No "I" in "Church"

Cerulean Sanctum: No "I" in "Church":

Dan's post today is about the inherent individualism in the American worldview and how we need to re-think how this individualism has effected our ability to understand God's work with and dealings with communities. Also, are we really capable of understanding the moral implications of the community focus of the Gospel?

Here is my favorite part of Dan's post...Do you have life insurance? Health insurance? Does it cost a lot of money? Have you ever asked yourself why you have it?The reason you have it is because you've been taught you can't count on anyone but yourself to provide should disaster come. Certainly you can't count on the church to provide for you. But that is not how the Bible reads:
And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.--Acts 4:33-35 ESV

read more...

Cerulean Sanctum: Posts on Bloggers Who are Qutting

Cerulean Sanctum: When Other Godbloggers Say Goodbye...

I am not quitting BUT...there are things that seem to be pressing out blogging lately...If you can relate,...what are you up to??

It has really been hard to blog lately. I have tons of things to say and still feel like I personnally am growing and probably need to write the process out..BUT...blogging just hasn't been the #1 dicipline that I am working on right now.

What things are you trying to get done in your life????
Here is my list:

For me:
1. Develop a one day at a time method that works and is transferable.
My passion is practicing the powerful pressence of God. This my first obsession. I am naturally a very very impulsive and passionate self-centered abstract loner, so to develop a GOd-focused spiritual life is quite the battle. Oh...that is the human condition...

2. I have six children that will grow up without me if I don't pay attention.

I believe children realy need the approval of their parents or they will seek approval elsewhere (peers and sex). So as a family we spend a lot of time working on disciplines together as an opportunity to say..Great job!!!

3. I pastor a church...This to me is about discipleship relationships. If I meet with everyone I need to meet with on a weekly basis, ministry happens. I absolutely love meeting with people. Discipleship and discipling is by far the greatest joy of my life. This has been a great two years. I can honestly say these last two years have been the happiest since I was running a discipleship home when I was single.

4. Music - My mind is constantly filled with music and lyrics...Now, like blogging, to get this all down on my hard disk recorder is the task at hand....

I have decided that music is a duty for me and something I need to steward. There are few things as beautiful as music and the world needs another positive voice and well, "the revolution needs a soundtrack"...

SO I tend to not blog as much as I could....BUT

5. Blogging...I feel the need to write out the things we are learning as a faith community...This is more for our community and a memorial to the things we are learning because of this the public nature of blogging may not be the best media to get this down on paper...Lately, I have not been as willing to be so open and personal so I haven;t blogged much...

Love you all and God Bless,
brad

(e)mergent Voyageurs :: Venting vs. Confession

(e)mergent Voyageurs :: Venting vs. Confession

A new blog, for me at least, is emergent Voyageurs. Here is another example of a person on the journey looking to discern the path between being transperant and veering into anger and gossip.

It is very important for us to grow spiritually to learn to discern the movements of our heart and this requres confession. We model this discernment by sharing our hearts with others BUT we learn to still let the words be constructive and without any judgments about others.
Good post Jamie...

The Most Important Steps

I realize I haven't been blogging much lately. I plan on repenting of this neglect, but then again, I cannot make any promises.

Anyway, over the last few months, I have been walking the path through a study of the book of Romans. One BIG insight is that by far the most important and most neglected steps in discipleship are not the works steps like spiritual inventory and confession, but the faith steps like: We believe that Jesus Christ has provided us with everything we need for life in the kingdom. We believe we are declared righteous in God's eyes because of Jesus' finished work. We believe that Christ is our righteousness and that he is the same yesterday today and forever. We believe that we are dead to sin. The place and world of sin is separated from us and we are separated from it. We do not identify with our sin or the sin of the world. That world is the product of a world under God's wrath and all the sin and violence of the world is not the realm in which we abide. We are God's children. We are new essentially...and so on...

This knowing and reckoning the truth as real to us is a great part of contemplating the truth of the world around us and our identity in the world and the kingdom and living in faith.

I like to say: "We are Zion". "Through Christ, we are Jerusalem; the city on the hill; the city of peace".

We need community and we need each other to keep this vision of faith before our eyes. Ahh...the kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy.

Another faith step is the step of laying on of hands. We pray for one another that God removes our sin from us. We together as we confess our sins give our sins to Go and ask humbly for Him to remove these from us. We do this in community and we do this with the laying on of hands and we accept in faith that God has done His will in our live, and we know that His will is our sanctification. If we ask according to His will we are confident that we have received what we have requested.

Both these proclamations of the static and unchanging elements of our faith (our position in Christ and identity in Christ) and the more dynamic acts of faith of the laying on of hands and asking for the power of the Spirit for actual sanctification are the most central elements of the attainment of the blessings of the kingdom.

God Bless,
brad

Romans 4 - Abraham and Faith

This sermon discusses Abraham being reckoned as righteous by faith alone and gives a definition of this type of faith that is reckoned as righteousness.
Romans 4- Abraham and Faith (download)

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God Bless,
brad

Coming out of Denial and Discovering our Sin

Sanctification Understood
There are two big necessary steps to the process of transformation of the heart. The first is ruthless honesty which brings us out of our denial. In order to find serious change to our make-up, we must see our inner person as it really is. Many of us shy away from such analysis as being emotional or touchy feely, but sensitivity to our hearts and discernment is foundational to any spiritual progress. Steps must be taken for us to become aware of the hidden realities of our emotional and spiritual state. We must properly diagnose our condition and this is not easy. We must learn to practice ruthless honesty and grow in discernment of our inner life.

The second step is actually far more difficult and far more important than the first. Many, many people know their feelings and stop there. These poor folk do not find newness of life. We must go beyond just knowing our spiritual condition, we must become convicted of our sin. By conviction of sin, I mean not just our sins, but the sinful condition of our inner person and the need for a true transformation of the heart.

This looking for our "part in the matter" is the step that separated Christianity from other therapeutic models of the transformation of the soul. In the more therapeutic models, the subject seeks to understand the “wounds” he or she has received, and then proceeds to position themselves in a social or spiritual environment to be properly nurtured. The therapeutic model creates in the heart a message something like the following: "If I am only treated correctly, by God and others, and, if I experience love as God intended me to experience love, I will in turn feel more positive about life, God, and myself".

There are huge problems with the therapeutic approach.
1. We cannot ever put up enough boundaries to prevent pain. We will actually continue to be victims of our circumstances if we attempt to be healed through kind nurture. As we experience real life, people will continue to hurt us, and we will continue to defend and protect ourselves. The result is that we continue to be hurt. We continue to be victims, and we continue to be frustrated and dissatisfied with life.
2. The therapeutic method is contrary to the cross. The power of Jesus in us is that Jesus was treated poorly and yet was without sin. Our solution is not to be treated better but to learn how to respond to life with the unconditional love of God. Difficult circumstances merely brought our anger and fear to the surface. Our alienation from God and our judgments against life were exasperated by our suffering. The answer is not to find comfort from life but to find the life of Jesus Christ.

The discipleship method of Jesus teaches us to take a different approach to transformation which is altogether different from the therapeutic path. Our approach is to find our sin and our unbelief which manifests itself in a thousand forms of self-centered fear. These sinful responses to life have only served to keep us sore over the injustice of life. Therefore, the path to sanctification is to combine awareness of our suffering (honesty) and then to embrace the cross through faith in God’s sovereign care. As we embrace this path of the cross, we will learn to enter into His will of unconditional love toward all.

PART 1. So I suggest the following method of journaling. – Discovering our frustration with life.

List every person with whom we are even the slightest resentment or frustration.


Allow these names to come up onto the list for at least a few days. It is quite normal for there to be many people on this list possibly 100. Include on this list people, ideas, and institutions.



Next list what they actually did. “He joked about my looks” “She broke up with me for no good reason”. “He hit me and called me names.” “She gossiped against me and told people I was unkind or proud”. Notice in these examples that we are being specific to actual things that happened, specific events actual or perceived.



Now look at the way that they injured us. Our social relations, our finances, our self-esteem, our sexual relations, our emotional balance and health.





As a result of this time of looking at our inner life, we should realize, much to our alarm, that we are filled with real anger and that to some extent anger has motivated and controlled our perspective on life. Anger effects and blocks our conscious contact with God. I have never found a person who was not shocked by the level of anger that was in there heart. Anger is the root of almost all our problems. Our path to meekness and mercy, the keys to the kingdom, must teach us how to rid our hearts of anger. This leads us to return to our list but from a totally different perspective




II. Now, we are to “look at the list from another perspective”. – Conviction of Sin

We ask ourselves a few questions
1. How have my own short-comings actually been at the root of the conflict or my disappointment.
For example:
She actually broke up with me because I was too needy or aggressive or self-centered. (fear/selfishness/greed for sex(lust), greed for approval (pride)
I didn’t get that promotion because I was lazy and didn’t do a good job. (sloth)
I am mad because my spouse will not follow my direction and he or she disrespects me. But is not the reality that we are not helpful around the house or that we are controlling or lazy and therefore we make it hard for our spouses to respect and follow us. If this is only true a little bit it must be accepted as a sincere character fault rooted in sin. This is what I call the 1% rule. (Even if it is only 1% my problem it is the 1% that I am responsible for).

How has my own fear, pride, inordinate desire for social status or sexual relations or pleasure or money been actually at the root of my anger? Why did I get angry? What does it bother me that so and so hurt me (actually or perceived)? What is my self-centered agenda?

I am frustrated with my boss or my customers or with my work but is it not possible that the root of our frustration is that we are greedy and desire more toys or luxuries.

Are we workaholics? What is the motivation for this lack of balance in our lives? We are frustrated with others but have we made ourselves too busy and is not the root of this fear or greed or pride.
Am I actually dissatisfied with God’s provision? Do I live to please others or to obtain social status? Do I fear of rejection?

We now are not only aware of our anger, but now we come to realize our actual character defects and heart sins that made us self-centered and was the actual cause of our frustration with life as it comes to us. For some of us, this frustration based in sin and fear created such unhappiness and resentment that we medicated our lack of peace with compulsive behaviors like TV watching or sex or alcohol. For some we are compulsive gossips or talkers in general because we cannot control our uneasiness about life. All of this is driven by our self-centeredness and our lack of care for our inner person.

Could not the cross, self-denial and unconditional love, solve all these problem? If the Spirit or God filled me and I was solely seeking God's glory and to express His compassion, would I not be free to live in self-giving love?

Yes, this path is attainable.

God Bless,
brad

ABC's of a true church

Tod Bolsinger is keeping up his series on "The Church and the church" as he critiques Barna's revelution.

I think this critique and this dialogue is extremely important. Wesley and Knox and others held the institutional church in very high regard and had weighty definitions as to what it means to be and do church. Many today are making critiques willy-nilly without a deap respect for the past. Is a church a church just because 2-3 are gathered? Bolsinger doesn't think so and neither did John Knox....read more

Bono on Worship

Bono calls worship "the highest of all art forms".

Discipleship Part 5 from MissionThink

It seems a lot of people think alike.

MissionThink

Old Articles from some knucklehead;
How Did We Get Here - Greek and Hebrew Education Models

Discipleship in the Footsteps of Jesus

Conversion to Trustworthy Leadership

There really is a 21st Century Reformation going on.

God Bless,
brad

MoJoey Got a New Camara Lens

Rivers Cuomo Interview and other stuff

Rivers Cuomo interview with a lot of good talk about songwriting. Weezer isn't on tour as Rivers is finishing his degree at Harvard. I am sure this is all old news to most folk but I was inspired by both of this interview and the bio in Wikapedia.

HT: MoJoey - my bro!!

brad

Thoughtful and Informative Cosmology Blog

Cosmology Curiosity

Though I have never addressed issues of origins and cosmology on this blog, I was a science teacher in a former life. So if you like history of astronomy and biography of great minds like Hubble and Halley and the like. Here is a good sight.

Links - Discipleship

I was talking with a pastor friend of mine and he said "Oh, ...that was before the consumerism of the '90 really hit with full steam". I can't remember what we were talking about but that matter of fact statement about the plague of consumerism in the church coming from a seasoned pastor was memorable. It is like "Remember when Kirk Gibson hit that homerun in the world series. Oh yeah and when consumerism became the mindset of the church community." WOW!!! What a challenge!!

In seminary, I had a viseral response to the idea of "Church Growth" and seeker sensitive church, but I never knew why. "Mission think blog" below talks about the problem:

Part 1 of 3

Part 2

Part 3
Another source for what's going on out there in Emerging Land. PurplePastor.com

From Anger to Love - The Pastoral Theology of the Book of Romans

There is much talk today about community and about the church becoming the good news for the sake of the world, and I certainly am a proponent of this community aesthetic as the primary apologetic for the gospel.

One place we see the connection between community building and the Gospel is in the book of Romans. Without going into a big proof of this premise, I contend that Romans was written to the Roman churches to bring unity to the Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. For example, in the climactic theological sections (Romans 9-11), Paul speaks of the envy and/or pride between Jews and Gentiles and the sovereignty of God in bringing the Gospel to all as He pleases. Looking at Romans in its context we see that all the theology in Romans is written to a pastoral purpose. So, the question is "how does Paul's theology in Romans work to bring about unity?".

The Pastoral Theology of Romans
We begin by understanding that the problem Paul is addressing is a lack of Morally Beautiful (i.e. loving and unified) Community in the Roman churches.

To address this problem, Paul takes the recipients of his letter down a path toward conviction of sin. The conclusion is that the real point of cause of the problem is the heart and that a true follower of God needs not a circumcision that is outward but a "circumcision of the heart".

If we look at Paul's life we can see how this circumcision of the heart happened to Paul. Paul was a righteous person according to the external trappings of the law (Phil 3). But he found himself to be miserable and having one serious character defect - he was covetous or filled with envy (Romans 7). You see, Paul could obey the external elements of the law and created a theology to support this observance as the key to righteousness as a Pharisee. But the law also contains inescapable demands for a pure heart and Paul personally was laid low by the tenth commandment; "Thou shall not covet". Paul was ruthlessly honest and desired to obey all the law. When he was convicted of sin, namely his envy, he was undone. This conviction occurred on the road to Damascus in the presence of Jesus. Wrath was revealed in the gospel. The law was upheld and Jesus provided the answer in His atonement for the wrath of God.

This covetousness turned Paul into a violent offender who opposed true religion. Who did he covet? What was he envious of? How did this make him the chief of sinners? The answer is Paul coveted and envied Steven and the Hellenistic Jews who were externally breaking the traditions of the law. They were law-breakers and yet they found what Paul was looking for. They had shalom. They drove Paul to jealousy. The church had found peace between the nations. The nations, the Hellenistic Jews, were bringing their offerings to the feet of the apostles and the wealth of the nations was flowing into Jerusalem via this supposed heretical Way of Jesus Christ.

Steven, the law-breaker, did not wear phylacteries. He trimmed his beard. He associated with the gentile world. He was ceremonially unclean.
Paul was furious!!! "How could You give him a word of grace? How could you give this rebel against tradition the power of miracles like a prophet? When I saw his face shining like an angel and I realized You gave him, this disloyal Greekish Jew, You gave him shalom and happiness and peace like an angel. We tried our best to take away that peace. We tried to shut him up but he just kept smiling. Our stones could not touch him. It is not fair!!! I labored for you all these years and you never gave me a fatted calf that I could make merry with my friends".

"Oh Paul..why do you persecute me. Is God the God of the Jew alone? Is there but one God of all? Did I not create the heaven and the earth? Is it not my right to grant love and forgiveness and mercy? Behold, I will show you what a great work I will do through you to these very people. I forgive you Paul. This fury you feel is covetousness. You too are a law breaker and I forgive you. Stand up. Go to a man named Annanias and I will show you how you will serve me. I will give you what Steven has if you would only ask. For I am the God of the gentile and the God of the Jew and the Your God and Your savior Jesus, whom you persecute."

So, Paul's heart of anger and rage and envy and jealousy was laid to rest. He was convicted. He was forgiven. He was cleansed and His affections were set free. Through conviction of sin and the offer of forgiveness through the atonement that is in Jesus Christ Paul's heart was quieted and for the first time he understood from the heart what it means to love the Lord your God with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his mind and all his strength.

God Bless,
brad

Anger is the Greatest Enemy

It is common among all of us to hide our inner life from ourselves and others.

The reality is that we are much more spiritually unclean than we realize. The most common and most deadly spiritual disease we are plagued with is anger. There is a process to go through that is very helpful in bringing our sin to our awareness so that we can properly confess and be cleansed.

The answer is the resentment inventory. This process starts with listing everyone you could ever have possibly had a resentment toward. This is a process of journaling every name that comes to your mind. This excercise is very powerful in bringing to our conscious awareness the fact that we are indeed filled with uncleanness. Inside us is dead man’s bones and ultimately some of us our mouths are closed graves but it always conceals the reality of the uncleanness inside of us. The journaling process is the best method of letting this internal uncleanness to the surface.

During the process, if we are rigorously honest with ourselves, we come to realize that our lives are to a greater extent than we previously realized motivated by anger. So we list all the people first. Then we list all the wrongs that have ever occurred. Then we acknowledge what areas of our lives this effects, our social life, our sexual life, our finances, our self-esteem and emotional life, our confidence, our spiritual life etc. Now we are aware of the reality that we are generally pissed off with the world and most every person we have ever met. We take about two weeks sometimes to be thorough. We keep writing until nothing comes to mind.

We have already received an incredible benefit from this process. We have come to see the reality of our wretchedness. We may in many cases feel justified in our anger but if you are sensitive you are aware that this is no way to live and certainly no way to become spiritually healthy. Now comes the Gospel key…

We return to the list and look at it from a completely different perspective. Here is the key…Here in lies the difference between the Christian approach to life and the more therapeutic methods employed by the secular world. We look at the list and are determined to discover “where was I to blame”. In many cases, we realize that our own self-centeredness has brought this problem upon ourselves. In other cases, is it our own self-centeredness that set us up for being hurt. We have an agenda and the rest of the world does not want to follow our agenda and we are hurt. We are rejected because of our own sinfulness. We are controlling and manipulative and people do not like to be around us. We lie and steal and people do not trust us. We are gossips and people tend to be closed to us. We are know it alls and dominate conversation. We are fearful and needy and become a burden to others. This too is self-centeredness. So the world has rejected us but in reality they are under no obligation to submit to our requests and cater to our self-centeredness.

So we begin in ruthless honesty to see our own character defects. No matter what our personality is we are all plagued by some form of self centeredness that we carry with us. It is this universal character trait that we learn to discover and are preparing ourselves to let God remove from us as He performs a circumcision of our hearts.

When we come to own our part in the matter and turn our gaze to our side of the street that we begin to overcome our anger and begin to find real deliverance from our impulsiveness. Here is how discipleship differs from the therapeutic model. The disiciple is after a cleansing and removal of our own sin. Sin is our problem and we are seeking a spiritual solution of power from the Holy Spirit to deliver us from what truly ails us.

The Wrath of God Revealed - Romans 1-2

Sermon on Romans 1 -2. Listen here: The Wrath of God Revealed

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RSS to 21st Century Reformation Sermons

A Portrait of the Emerging Pastor

As a pastor, and a child of the streets of “Los Angeles”, I find a cultural clash occurring between various cultural expectations of the pastor as a role model in the evangelical community. There is the emerging pastor who maybe dresses down and expresses himself in a very accessible and common manner. The pastor is the normal Joe. The primary value is authenticity and his demeanor is intended to contradict the stereotype of the "good looking guy who has it all together" image of a by-gone era. To the emerging pastor, the key is to put your worst foot forward as opposed to your best foot. To show weakness and to use yourself as an example of weakness and spiritual neediness is central to the meta-message of the emerging pastor's approach to his place as a role model.

In fact, the key principle is that there is no difference between the emerging pastor’s public and private persona. This principle is intended to teach that we ought not to live in fear, but, instead, the church is to be a safe community where there are no hidden rules and hidden agendas. The church is to be first and foremost a “no condemnation zone”. The church is the safest place on earth to be open and honest about your struggles with sin.

Pastors are called to be safe to the most hurting people in our society. The addict and the deviant must know that this man understands the self loathing and the powerlessness one feels when they carry with them a history of shameful deeds. A polo shirt or a suit and tie doesn’t make the outcast feel safe and at home.


Salt and Light – Being Distinctive
It is an interesting thing that the emerging pastor is often criticized for being more concerned with Pop culture than being distinct and holy. But this is a misunderstanding of the values of the emerging community leaders. The meta-message behind being hip is not “look at me I’m hip” but that we do not believe that cultural distinctives are good barometers of heart holiness. Being distinct is not so much about cigarettes and secular music as generosity and hospitality. The emerging pastor has Weezer on his iPod and a homeless family in his living room. By contrast, the old model tended to maintain the home as a sanctuary and to consider keeping in step with Pop culture to be a sign of worldliness. In the new paradigm, being culturally hip is simply a way of saying that it is not cultural distinctiveness that is the proper barometer of holiness but honesty, love, compassion, and a mild temperament. Being culturally aware is simply a way of showing that the old standards are superficial. The world is in need not of the forms of religion but the power that can transform the affections.

To the uninitiated, this new set of values is easily mis-interpreted. The old wineskin cannot hold the new wine. When the two are combined (the old wineskin with the new wine) much confusion and misunderstanding can ensue. What is needed is for the emerging pastor and the old paradigm to find a place of conversation and dialogue. All parties must learn to submit our preferences at the feet of the Missional purposes of the God of Love and become a multi-cultural expression of love and tolerance to a world caught in the grips of fear and guilt and all the lonliness that comes from a life of hiding behind the mask of a self-imposed prison of false dignity.

God Bless,
brad
emerging;Church;Christianity;Jesus;Emerging Church;Ministry;

Blogging and Stuff - Best Music 2005

Lately I haven't been blogging. I don't think I have been in a good enough place to blog. I need to press back into it...BUT

I do have some links...Top 10 music I listened to in 2005
1. Matisyahu - King Without A Crown
Matisyahu is the top pick for enlightening music in 2005.
He is in the wonderful ecstatic tradition that has yet to become reality.
Maybe, such a dream will become a reality and Matisyahu will blaze the trail.

2. Steel Pulse - Chant a Psalm
This is old school reggae at it's best. I wish I could. Ok I will...click here.
Pure joyful celebration...These guys may be heretics but they understand the kingdom...Go figure??

3. System of a Down - Hypnotize
If my son grows up to play guitar like DARON MALAKIAN I will be officially justified.


4. U2 - Miracle Drug
Bono for man of the year. This song we have reviewed here before. It is Bono's dream for all of to come together in Jesus name and find a cure to various diseases that plague the globe. No one leverages celebrity for good like Bono.

5. Monk/Train - Nutty

6. Weezer - Perfect Situation
I listened to the Make Believe album with MoJoey on the way into town from Palm Springs this morning and I could not for the life of me understand why this album didn't get great reviews.

7. Matt Redman - Nothing But the Blood

8. Switchfoot - Stars

Best DVD here - The Violet Burning - click here WOW. Why isn't The Violet Burning as big as U2?

God Bless,
brad

2005 Christmas Sermon - Anna and Simeon

For sermon audio click here (2005 Christmas - Anna and Simeon)

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God Bless,
brad