OK, I posted this reply on the CBSSportsline board to a poll that said..."Will there be riots if Obama loses?

If anyone knows me, they know that I get so frustrated with the pathetic choices in leadership our current system provides us with.  Anyhoo....

This is the weakness that our two-party system creates.  Two choices are only one more than no choices, and in mine and many other people's case we see this election as yet another, none of the above election.

This has been the case since Ronald Reagen's last term and have given us some of the most ridiculous presidencies in our country's history, a Bubba between two Bushes.

So if Obama wins we get the People's Republic of America.  Goodbye compassionate conservatives (whatever the heck that was), and hello compassionate communism.

If Obama loses, we will probably get riots in LA, Oakland, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Houston, Richmond, Washington DC and New Orleans, just because it sounds like a good excuse.  Oh, and John McCain for a president, never has a VP candidate been so important.

The left  (using the labor unions and the media) manipulates the poor and minorities while they continue to do what they need to maintain whatever power they have accumulated.  The right  (using religious leaders and talk radio) manipulates the middle American white church goers, Cubans and the over 55 crowd.  They both do it by dangling the fantasy of future security.  The left will protect us from greedy companies and rich people by making us subjects to their will, and the right will protect us from terrorists and illegal Mexicans by blowing up Iraqis and building a fence.

What are we left with???  A freakin' mile long shouting match where, ironically enough, neither side is right.  I will vote as I always do, but until we rid our system of this dualist nonsense where both sides exist for each other's mutual benefit, WE ALL LOSE!

Ok,  a quick thought on the Lord's Prayer, and semantics.  I don't think semantics are unimportant.  If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then an important phrase like "Thy kingdom come" should be taken for exactly what it says.  Not for what we have made it say by our endless repetition.

If I was to say anything and then follow it by the word "come", that assumes that the preceding object has already come.   If we used language like "to come", or " coming" that implies that we are talking about something that is not present.

As an aspiring writer in high school, I used to have a problem with this phrase in the Lord's prayer.  I was analyzing this prayer from my American Christian, heaven's waiting room perspective.  From that place, we speak of the Kingdom, coming.  What I didn't realize is that it wasn't the words that were uncomfortable, but it was my point of view that blurred my understanding of the prayer.

Jesus said over and over that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  It was there.  It was present.

When Jesus died, rose again and returned to his disciples, he told them that he would send a helper.  The Holy Spirit became the Kingdom's representative on the earth after Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is here until Jesus reign is established on the earth.  Until Love reigns in the world, we have the Holy Spirit to help us.

This is why we don't sing...Joy to the World the Lord is COMING.  He came, and through the Holy Spirit, HE IS STILL HERE!

So thy Kingdom IS come...not is coming.

OK, a kid picture to close.

Here I sit,

I am a waiting on a word from the Lord.  I have an opportunity to take a 2nd job.  I want to know that I will be serving God through this action and not just holding on to a thread of the American dream.  I don't want to do this out of a sense of comfort, but out of sense of serving my family.  Trying to enable them a better life with their mom at home.

I'm going to the mailbox, in silence, and I'm'a gonna listen.

More notes on the NWLC later on tonight or tomorrow.

Notes from National Worship Leader Conference

July 22-24, 2008 Riverbend Church Austin, TX

Tuesday 07/22

Dr. Leonard Sweet “Jesus singing”

all the thoughts are Dr. Sweet's..the notes are mine

Mark 14:26 …in the upper room, at the last supper they ended with singing of a hymn

“the last thing Jesus did before everything went nuts was to sing”

“My God, My God why have you forsaken me”  not a quote or statement but a song title..Psalm 22  similar to saying “Shout to the Lord”…the first line implies the entire song…Jesus sang from the cross

Our job, as worship leaders is not to put words to music, but to use music and words to evoke images.  We create metaphors for the people of God. 

A metaphor is a metamorphosis.  Our mind is made up of metaphors.  We don’t remember in words, we remember in images and sounds, our senses.  Words are only powerful when they evoke the senses.

Holy metaphors are our business.

“ostraneny (sp?)” --- a Russian term…making the familiar, unfamiliar (“I never thought about THAT, that way”) Jesus ministry was largely made up from this concept (“You have heard it said….but I say”)

Gutenberg was the revolution of the previous era…Google is the revolution of the present era

Ours is a Campaign against the Cliché

7 Metaphors

1.       Design- Everything has to have a design, our culture is all about style, down to our designer coffee, toilet brushes, and handbags (Sex in the City)  We needs live designed by Jesus

2.       Transformation – practicality, once I was… then Jesus…now I am…

3.       Pilgrim (pilgrimage) followers—we spend lots of time training leaders, maybe we should spend more time training followers…disciples of THE leader…Jesus.  Very counter intuitive to the expectations of the world

4.       Connection- previous generation metaphor was a ladder…the present world, connection more closely resembles a web…how are we building connection?...1/2 of the people on the earth own a cell phone…this is a Google world…an event happens anywhere in the world…in a matter of hours ¾ of people on Earth can know about it…we need to prepare people for that world…not connecting in the Gutenberg world

5.       Organic- apple (whole) vs. oranges (segmented)…in the previous era our lives were segmented, religion was just part of what our lives were about….in this area, our lives are a whole and everything we do/are permeates every part of our lives…we aren’t seeking to make the scriptures come alive, we need to help people come alive to the scriptures  Diversity means, “not broken into verses or parts” taking into account the entire context…the whole of the scriptures

6.       Wind (Spirit)- we are in the spirit business,

The trees don’t move the wind, they bow to the supremacy of the wind, Only by the spirit do we do anything

Wind surfing…the wind blows where it will…if you’re born of the spirit, then you are aware of the wind and the direction and adjust your sails accordingly

7.       Harmony- matter is vibrating threads?  Unpredictable  A church is built from the “sound “ up.  Jesus Christ is God’s perfect pitch.  He is the song , just as in the NOOMA of rhythm, we are seeking to be in harmony with God’s song

Joy to the World (we sang, it was awesome)

here's another picture from Austin...hanging with Paul Baloche...actually we were eating lunch in the hall where he had just done a workshop, they were actually playing his "Creating Flow in Worship" dvd

 on the screen which I watched at Mountain View a few years ago...anyhoo...goes well with Chick-Fil-a

Hey it has been forever since I sat down to write in here.  I have been all over the country and seen lots of things and written about them in my journal, but nothing on here.  That is so not cool.  So, I am on a television fast for the month of August so I'll be looking for other, more worthwile, ways to spend my time.  Hopefully, this will be one.

I'll be putting in the notes that I took from the National Worship Leader conference I went to 07/22-24, in Austin, TX.  Great information, but alot to keep up with.  If I put the notes here, it may help me unpack and put into practice the things I learned.

the parable of the wheat and the "weeds"

Here is the problem, I read Matthew 13 today, this parable, and I think to myself.  "Self, you should journal/blog your thoughts on this today", "OK", I respond, "I think I shall".

Then I notice my little RSS gadget, and there is a little headline there from the www.jesuscreed.org blog on this very parable today.  So in my fleshly way, I feel cheated, yet.......what I will do is reread the parable, do a little more digging and then give some more thought to my own inspiration and write.  so ha!

Anyway, pray for me, here goes.

I tried to break down the main characters and incidents in the parable, and what I see.  God sowed good seed in the world, ONLY good seed, as the men slept, the enemy came in and sowed weeds, or tares, or thistles.  I like thistles the best which is what is used in the Message paraphrase.  Thistles are a better representation, for my taste, because while they certainly are weeds, they are so much more pesky than say crabgrass or dandelions, because they have thorns...nasty thorns.  Having grown up in the country I have stepped on a few.  Not cool!  Anyhoo.

So as good grew, so did evil.

This is when the workers woke up and started paying attention. "Hey, where did these weeds come from"...The enemy planted them while you weren't looking.  While you were comfortably sleeping.

So what do we do?  Master.  Do we rip them out of the ground?

Short answer from Jesus, or the man who planted the good seed.  NO.

This is where I feel like we, the church, have left the way that Christ has described here, for us.  The church does lots of wailing about the weeds, and have tried for hundreds of years, using many different techniques to "gather them up" or "pull them from the soil".  This is just what, THE MAN in the story told his workers NOT to do.

It seems to me, that Christ is giving an example of what a sustainable revolution looks like.  Real, fundamental, change doesn't come all at once.

The socialist revolution that is taking over in American government has been successful, because it has been subtle, slow and bloodless.  The hearts and minds of average citizens have been warmed to the ides.  This revolution, which is happening right now, for everyone to see, is happening in degrees.  We have the most socialist,conservative administration anyone could ever imagine in Washington DC right now. Most Americans have decided that since this hasn't worked for them, they are preparing to elect a true-to-life Marxist as president.  Welcome to the People's Republic of North America. Brilliant!  Just as Jesus would've planned it.  (absolutely no tongue in cheek whatsoever, I am completely serious..please read on) Liberation Theology, brought to you by CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News.

Of course, if the church would have just followed Jesus.  If we had taken this parable seriously as a guide on how to affect real change in our world, Marxism would never have been conceived.  It would not have seemed necessary.

The key concept in the parable is this.  No..Wait. I have a better way, one that is exactly opposite of what human pragmatism teaches"  It's the boiled frog story.

this light

this light

is too bright

my eyes turn away

my eyes stare at the ground

my eyes gaze beyond

behind

this dark

it is too safe

my mind is deceived

my mind remembers not

my mind

finds comfort

in forgetting

do i desire the light?

yes

no

yes

yet the darkness caresses me

holds me

like a friend

tightly

too tightly

by Dwight Parker

OK, I have written in my notebook about 4 blog entries that I haven't posted on here yet.  This sucks as it completely contradicts why I put this up in the first place.  I journal like crazy and I think some of it is rather good.

Anyway, I was wondering what crazy Lenten promise will I make this year to test my discipline??  No chocolate?  Too easy.  Redo the August, No TV for a month thing?  Hey I hear the writer's strike is going to end, so....maybe not.  Not to mention it is not August, it is February.

So I pop over the Jesus Creed blog and there it is.  Take the Jesus Creed lenten challenge.  So I'm in.  On the surface it seems to be simple, but it goes so much deeper. (truth usually does)  So I'm throwin' that out there.  Here's a link if you want to get in on it.

Jesus is amazing!

Scot McKnight's excellent blog

And a picture to make you smile

OK, this is what I am doing.  I am writing down my intentions so that they will be something more than simply an idea in my mind.  They exist somewhere outside of myself and therefore stand as a monument to what I intend to do.  A contract with myself...if you wheel.

I will blog as a way to reduce the amount of discussion with my truck steering wheel. 

I will make this as interesting as said steering wheel conversations, at the very least.

I will finish the long awaited book that I have started called "The Brotherhood of the Welding Helmet".

The rest, as with life, is TBD.

W.O.