Ultimate Fighting

previously - "coming this afternoon..."

9 pm is still afternoon :)

"Sword fights with blades held tight, slice, dip, and parry, with all your might
Muster up the strength to protect your life, Victory is found at the end of the night,

Grip the biceps of the adversary, take him to the ground, throw him if you can, but keep your footing sound.
Guard your hip because you often run away, and if he touched it you'd have to stay, no longer able to remove yourself when the situation made you afraid

Guns blazing in a battle, wits removed,
Explosions sound around your head, though none are passing through
Blood oozing out the chest, new cavity formed
Created by the heated lead, pray that dusk is reaching dawn,
Just need one more day to carry on.

Short, brief, terse,
The ephemeral curse

Life is but a moment,
You are like the vapor
No hand can demand to hold it,
No tongue can pray to savor
The fleeting pleasure that deceives
Life, existance, being, a much to costly luxury



Blessed are those who wait upon, the Word who spoke into the non
Gave existence it's definition on, the very day He suffered wrong,
Unjustly mutiliating spawn, laughed and cursed our very God,
But praise His name, for they knew not, he gave us everlasting life, when he endured our rot.
Our costly existance was fully bought, on the tree, that very spot, up to which every sin was caught, and then our God our sins forgot

Sonnet #1

Note: This does not follow the rhyme scheme of Milton (though I may revise the topical attack for that assignment I previously mentioned).

1. Uncertainty’s clouds plume around the vows.
2. Meaning’s indecision hurts the multitudinous crowds.
3. Solving riddles of masked verbiage, pretending to bow,
4. How can we discern truth when it’s surrounded by foul?
5. Liars conspire to trap the listener’s ear
6. Fighting fire with more liars draws us all to despair,
7. Where is the dividing sword of all the discussion we hear?
8. We would ascertain the blame but there’s nobody there…
9. I’m still wondering when the answer comes a’ thundering,
10. “Who dares to despair about the prince of the air, am I not still here?”
11. “If you need the wisdom, I’m not finding fault, giving freely from My vault,
12. I’ll catapult your understanding, I’ll send you equipped for the fraud’s assault.
13. And so when they please to defraud My salt, get to your knees.
14. You haven’t been informed only to wallow in self-pity.”

A lot of different thoughts have caught my focus lately
- how difficult would it be for us to go one day without talking in some fashion with a best friend, close loved-one, spouse, etc., and yet that's the type of relationship we often impose up the Lord. We determine the times when it's good and okay for us to talk with eachother, and oftentimes, we don't even let Him talk. We dictate the rules and we think that's the way it's going to be. I know for me it's so very important to stay aware of how much (or little) I'm yielding to the Spirit's leading lest I fall unto my own weakness.
- how important and what great pleasure there is to be found in the presence of the Lord. There are (as assumed above) people that you just enjoy spending time with. Can you think of those people who you don't even really need to talk with, but can just spend time with them and be satisfied (as much as we can be by other brothers and sisters in Christ)? God's presence is infinitely more satisfying than the greatest satisfaction we can know on this earth. Let's seek it and enjoy it
- Silence has been a theme to which these other topics relate, but there is also something unique about it that the others haven't intrinsicly addressed, that being the importance of silence i.e. Why do we need to be silent (other than the phrase "so that you can hear God's voice)? And I'm not saying that the purpose isn't hearing God's voice, it is, but who can understand that answer when we aren't dealing with a 100% audible to our understanding of audible - nor understanding in general - God? There is something mysterious about this as well as blatantly obvious. Spend half a day without speaking (use a weekend probably) and pray that the Lord uses the time to develop your sense for spiritual things. While basically dealing in the audibility of love , this could mean asking God to make you more aware of those who are suffering or in need, more attentive to the thoughts you harbor, relationships you are involved in and the godliness present in them, etc....

More thoughts on the way

God bless
DMS

People of the Book

"To think well is to serve God in the interior court."
-- Thomas Traherne, Five Centuries of Meditations

As "people of the book" it would seem to make sense that we should be avid readers.....however, this does not seem to be the case with many self-professing Christians. Perhaps one reason society's falling so far is that our illiteracy rates within the church have superficially gone up, that is, we aren't reading our book, and therefore don't know what we're doing half the time. How preposterous would we be to claim we have the answers to life in a book we can't read - won't - read......

Lead, Serve, Teach, Pray

Being given the blessing of leading and organizing Bible study is such an honor, to think that I might be intrinsically valuable to God to help feed His sheep (let's not argue about dispensation and such but let's agree that the Lord gets His work done perfectly no matter the situation in which it is) is pretty much beyond what amazing hopes to describe. God is Good.


Current readings: Letters to the Thessalonians
A conflict of Vision
The Unity of the Bible
Nicomachean Ethics
Inklings of Reality
Paradise Lost
The American Presidency: Origins and Development (1776-2002)
100 days in the Secret Place

Music: Selah - Greatest Hits
Sintax the Terrific - Curb Appeal and Merciless
David Crowder Band - Sunsets and Sushi

Good reminders

Someone has been reminding me lately of how rediculous I am when I victimize myself through my past experiences. I'm so glad to have such wake-up calls. Living a life of defeat is definitely the opposite of what we're called to be doing, and I need to be more conscious of the things I'm saying and how they sound to other brothers and sisters in Christ. Not to sound too Eldredge-esque, but, man, I've not been speaking like a man of God, acting like the soldier of Christ who glorifies the Lord in all I do. And for this, I apologize.

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." - James 5:16



ALSO!!! This same person encouraged me to recommit to memory the order of all of the books of the Bible - for both knowledge and chorale purposes, and last night this challenge was accepted and completed :)

English, a study in poetic mediums

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I have The Theology of the English Poets, and after mentioning to the professor about my inclination to write Christian poetry through the medium of rap he noted that he had thought about whether or not Jesus would be a rapper if he were to have come during this present day (the context for this discussion dealt with studying John Milton and how much emphasis he placed on "decorum" which is the idea that each message should be presented in its rightful medium). I told him that I agree that there are styles that are essentially more "beautiful" than others. The problem, however, is that no one teaches these "great styles" in our day (unless you have some sort of poet/mentor or you are in a highly-selective, graduate level, creative writing program). I presented him with the following proposition: If he would teach me the "great styles" I would work to conform my (Christ's) messages to such styles.

That said.....we have Miltonian sonnets due next Tuesday :)

You shouldn't be up this early...seriously

Today shall prove a most productive and effective day. The newly memorized verses, 1 Peter 1:5-8

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness; and to brotherly kindness, [Christian] love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Looks like passivity is out the window if we have to "make effort" to follow rightly... "But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded." - 2 Chronicles 15:7

New Post, Old Words

Rules for copying lyrics still apply - give credit or ..... just give credit please :)

Faster by David Stehlik

Quicker than sin catches you in trouble, I break the trail with a fast and burst the enemy’s bubble, can’t catch what you can’t see when I’m seeking out God with such sincerity, I desire to get away, God I want my soul cleaned, redeem me from the past, draw me closer to Thee. Let me rest in your holiness, the shadow of your love, I confess my unworthiness, God you are O so good.

That’s why I’ve proclaimed this fast; I wanna break away from all that’s past,

I wanna humble myself so that I don’t crash, I need your provision so that I’ll last

Seeking you out like my treasure, I want to be fed, not by the world but by Your holy Bread. I seek the living water that quenches my spirit’s thirst, gluttony here is the dead man’s curse. Sell your soul away for a 30 shekel purse. And so I call on your name, I read Your words everyday, I just need to hear Your voice and what you have to say, I need guidance and I need delivery soon, and so I declare a day where I abstain from food. Though I could abstain from drink, I could abstain from ink, I could abstain from sports, tv, or hyperlinks. Abstain from whatever takes over your idle time, from such idolatry begins to shine. Quickly slam its head by placing the Head first. God I need your presence lest I be lead into sin’s hearse.

That’s why I’ve proclaimed this fast; I wanna break away from all that’s past,

I wanna humble myself so that I don’t crash, I need your provision so that I’ll last

Sometimes I’m not sure how to reach you quick enough, I stepped off the path a ways back and felt that I was stuck. I heard a call to repent before the Lord’s wrath struck, I read about Nineveh’s fast and prayed with any luck, that I too would receive the mercy that you’ve given to all your children, many times passed, when you’d healed them, could have done anything, and even said you’d kill them, but when they fell on their faces and decided to “be still”, then you determined it was time to rebuild them. Well I pray the same, I want to be rebuilt in your name, better this time than I’ve ever been, closer to your ways like it was in my shoes you were walking in.

That’s why I’ve proclaimed this fast; I wanna break away from all that’s past,

I wanna humble myself so that I don’t crash, I need your provision so that I’ll last

I take a set time to dedicate my spirit and mind, to the Lord divine, I just want His light to shine through, instead of eating food I pray for a reverent mood, we generally don’t take His presence as seriously as He’s due. I feel ashamed just feeling like I have to place a break in the middle of my week just to take a moment to pray, shouldn’t everyday be worship-filled with praise, and so like this the Lord begins His change, in me another phase to see, a way for Him to clean out the depravity, it’s not like I was the one to decree, but the Lords made a decision and that I was just bound to be, a part of His plan set in motion by a man who because of a glimpse of doomed town, felt compelled to bow down, refrained from indulging in daily meals, stopped the enemy’s pursuit and was hidden in heaven’s veil.

That’s why I’ve proclaimed this fast; I wanna break away from all that’s past,

I wanna humble myself so that I don’t crash, I need your provision so that I’ll last

New work

Working on some new poetry specifically for the blog.....I'll keep you (mainly myself at this point) posted.

I hope this will satisfy for now...

(If you decide to post these rhymes elsewhere, please give credit, otherwise I'll be forced to not post them again).
Thin-cutting like the razor's edge, we'd never heard words such as he said, took life to bring back the dead, since the beginning the end has always fled, tried to defile the marriage bed, but couldn't because of the purity he bled. Lead by serving, serving in how he lead, gave His body so that we could be fed. Gave His Spirit, counseling with His meds, giving us new bodies, instead of these broken sheds, recognize the One and dispose of the other heads, upon the ground He walked we tread, such ground came out of His very being, being from the one who gave a definition to what's living

Welcome the secret place

Fare-well my friends, for the road is narrow and straight, no faltering will do....But remember, we pray not for lighter loads, but stronger backs. We pray not that we could handle our burdens in a godly manner, but rather we give them over to God Himself.

Seek and you will find (Seek righteousness. Seek humility. Perhaps in the day of the Lord's anger you will be hidden. - Zephaniah 2:3). Do not seek, and you will not find.

Knock and the door will be opened:

Revelation 3:8
I know your [record of] works and what you are doing. See! I have set before you a door wide open which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My Word and guarded My message and have not renounced or denied My name.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me.

Revelation 4:1
AFTER THIS I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the calling of] a [Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.] war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future.

Ask and it will be given you (James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.)