Take-out wisdom

Remove the imperative to get what you need,
And all you get is greed, all that grows are weeds.
Suffocate the purpose, drowning by the means;
User made the used, and the useful made king.
Nightmare turned dream, confused beyond belief,
Given all you have, but nothing will you receive,
Because this world has nothing to give
That you would want to be given,
When this life putters out
And all that's left is Heaven.
You cannot take it with you, but that's beside the fact that
Nothing here is worth taking; and even if it was you'd have to give it back.

So get for yourself what must be handed down,
Get those first things that come from the crown.
First, get that fear by which wisdom is first found,
Then go about growing wise so that justice abounds.
You need to learn much truth, the knowledge of God,
Get it in your youth so that evil you avoid.
Add in as much understanding as you can as a boy.
Grow in observance of the righteous around,
Walk the upright upward path and never return down.
Keep the commands that goad you the right way.
Tie them on your hands, and keep evil at bay.
Avoid loose-moral'd women, and don't run after them either.
That pleasure will be pain; they change like the weather.
And you'll die, buried alive in the grave you enter willfully,
Rejecting these words written for you carefully,
So determine your way prayerfully,
Hearing all of God's words, not just opening it sparingly.
If that's what you do, it says you're a fool for not hearing me.

Decisions - Part 1

When no way out shows,
When no parachute pulls,
When the line goes cold,
When the tale seems told,
When the day seems old,
When the player should fold,
And hope stands dulled,
Just a grope for gold,
That's when faith gets bold,
That's when belief takes hold
That's when doubt gets pulled
And dice get rolled.


Watching at the crossroads and waiting for a sign
To shine and set up house in his mind,

To hand him a directive to plod on either side.
But, he waits with no response; the message never arrives.
With a silence so deafening his heart suffers surprise,
The demise of a prize captured in midst of his mind's eyes.
To death, put his momentary hope, in the sky,
Fly away. Leaving him ruminating all day, "Why?"
He knows the reasons seem shy, evading all reply,
But the priority for intimacy between them is too high,
"Come!" moans the seeker, "Don't leave me to die!"
But stillness is all he gets, the silence begrudges a cry.


So through the struggle of uncertitude, though certainty's sure,
He crouches, sniffs the air, and then walks away from one door
Toward the other that promises nothing but still calls to his core.
Though poor, there's no treasure in store,
For the seeker to keep moving, but he's still hoping for more,
Of what, he doesn't know, though clear about who he's doing this for.
Even if that seems untrue if explored,
The seeker knows in his selfish fear to appeal to the Lord.
Many times past it's to Him he's implored,
Then questioned responses as if there'd been a questionable word.
He knows that wasn't right, because the Word is insured,
By His own blood that He poured,
To give the seeker life through the cross He endured.

With his faith re-secured and the path no longer blurred,
Now fixed on not a way, but the Way, with his troubled-heart cured,
The seeker presses forward, to wherever He sends him to go,
Finding satisfaction in the Sender, and so enabled to sow.

When peace comes down, again.

Calling out for peace,
Holding hope for tomorrow,
O that the strife might cease,
But all that returns is sorrow.
Where to turn to now?
Whom to cry to for help?
How long can we hold out
Until the sky falls down on us?

We're calling out to You.
We need a miracle,
Pure and true,
To revive our souls.
Make us new.

As the darkness fades and the light beams forth,
We're mesmerized at the all-surpassing worth
Of Your work.
What was once veiled,
And formerly concealed,
In the face of the Son of Man
Has fully been revealed.

So I cry come Lord Jesus,
Not take me home.
But make me home.
Finally the place where You've set Your throne.
But not all will be going,
Because some keep rowing,
Striving against the waves
And God's love's flowing.
Towing the sins they own,
Owing debts full-blown,
Calling out for the mountains to enclose 'em in stone,

But the mountains will flee with the sea.
The sky will rip open to display God's glory.
None will be hidden from His face on that Day,
When Peace reigns full and the wicked are repaid.

So plead for peace quick,
Because the Judge is coming soon,
To lavish us with more love,
To manifest evil's doom.
Put your-self to the tomb,
Turn to our Groom,
Praise the Living One who makes life from death bloom.


Draft.

Update

I'm in the Balkans right now, and I'm super busy with updates elsewhere.  I probably won't post anything new on this blog before mid-August (at the earliest).

Great Post on Time Management

HERE

Did God really say?
It began that day,
The craftiest of the creatures plotted the play
Prodded the prey,
Teasing the feast that he was preparing to slay
..."Stop, Away."
If only it had ended that way,
Instead it continued down a path to decay,
To their utter dismay
Devastated listeners could only hope and pray.

"Then what happened, Moses?" the littlest blurt.
So he continued sharing about Mr. and Mrs. Dirt.
His own brother?! came next,
and then "They all died?"
No, I said God saved Noah and his sons and their wives.
So many lost lives...
Only sorrow it seems,
A bite of a bit of fruit ripped the world at its seams.
And then a single bowl, and other brothers were split.
Trouble and trials, they couldn't see the end to it.

If only there were the means to reconcile this breach.
The enmity must be removed to permit man's reach.
But no man can offer up.
So God offered down.
Sent His only Son to people the kingdom of the ground,
From the Lost to the Found,
He carried the message around,
He had come as He promised so that joy might abound.
But He was rejected and despised just like in the Garden,
Dismissed, but He kept on the mission He had charted.
Unlike men, His heart was guarded,
He would endure the shame.
He was executed and then crushed,
Bearing man's blame.
This is why He came,
To show the greatest love born in the greatest pain.
That's why He's got the greatest Name.
That's why He ever reigns.
He's worth more than the praise from all things
Praise be to Jesus, the Lamb that was slain.

Being mastered

Just some quick thoughts

Have you ever wondered why most rappers don't publish their lyrics (and when YouTubers do, the song suddenly stuns you with its graphic nature or stupidity)? My guess is they realize how foolish their messages sound when spoken without the aid of trance-inducing harmonies and deafening bass rhythms. "I'd pop a 9-milli off my hip, and let it emit." That's inspiring. Not. And yet, that crass music is shaping our culture - or should I say destroying it...poisoning it. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that all music with great harmonies and deep bass are bad. I'm talking about lyrics, lyrics which ride on the coattails of auto-tuning and take advantage of ignorant youth. These lyrics are poorly written, immoral in most matters, and just plain dumb. Perhaps there have been a few sophisticated rappers in the genre's history who have cleverly engaged political, social, economic, and religious issues, but they are exceptions. I believe that a fundamental shift is occurring in the genre. Whereas in past days the best rappers were secular and they offered color-commentary on the racial divide in the States along with goofiness and fun-loving street stories, today's secular leadership raps about demonic possession (Eminem's new song as well as Jay-Z's self-glorification in hijacking the transliterated name of the Hebrew God prove this point), illicit sexual immorality, and all other forms of iniquity, today's best rappers are Christian, trading places with those of yesteryear. Whereas the old-school Christian rappers were rather laughable in ability in comparison to their secular counterparts, today's Christian rappers are both adept in skill and provocative in their message. They have something NEW to say to this people-group, and they're sharing their message much better than everyone else is sharing theirs. Now, to be sure, I'm talking about a small group of the overpopulated genre bloated with money-chasers and fakes, but that's how all categories are often defined - by the group that becomes large enough and visible enough to determine whether there is something good or beautiful for others to desire or enjoy. When an art form reaches a point at which it's respected, that's when people begin listening. With Christian rap, that point is being reached. With secular rap, that point may be lost - I can only pray. You can too.

It's not "just music" my friends. Just like the hijacked planes on 9/11/2001 were not "just planes." Vehicles can cause real damage.

To make the imagery as vivid as possible, the smutty rap that's being shoveled to my youth these days is like a sexually transmitted disease that these fame and ephemeral glory hounds are spreading like male cult prostitutes for Baal seeking satisfaction by means of darkness. And the heinous nature of this disease is that as my youth have spiritual intercourse with this trash, they begin reproducing it in kind. They bear the fruit of this darkness.

Whereas good issue (Biblical terminology) brings forth good life, these prostitutes spoil good waters with their filth.