Change, Kingship, Frustration

I'm sitting in the computer lab at Liberty University right now after just hearing the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. speak at convocation. I should be doing an assignment for my History and Philosophy of Worship class, but instead I'm drawn into the conversation that is going on behind me. There are 4 or 5 students (I don't know the exact number because I don't want to awkwardly turn around) and they are discussing a variety of different things (who's dating who, finals coming up, etc.) but the their discussion continues to come back to the words that we heard from Bernice King this morning. And quite frankly, it's disturbing me.

Let me explain...

Dr. Bernice King spoke today about Kingship, and how as children of the King of kings we are to live lives as kings and take authority over things that we have influence over. She referenced President Obama several times and made similarities between him and God ("God spoke this world into existence, and Obama spoke his presidency into existence.") Obama's campaign slogan "Change" is apparently a revelation from God for us to repent, and she says that it is sad that the Christian community wasn't able to cling on to this before the election. She likens Obama's presidency to the Promised Land since her dad represents "Moses" and his 40th death anniversary parallels the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert. Some things that she said like this bothered me, but other things I believe had merit. She mentioned that we need to be willing to take a stand against morals that are not biblical even when those people are your loved ones (like she did in 2004 when her mother took a stance to support the gay and lesbian community). Overall, I believe that she had a lot of good things to say, as well as some unbiblical things to say (like her dad being the only national prophet that america has ever had.) But moreso than what she said, what the Liberty students behind me are saying bothers me just as much.

"She's friggin' retarded", "I wanted to punch her in the freakin' face", and "She looked like she had a headache at the beginning and it might've been, like, God trying to smite her" are just a few of the phrases that the fabulous 4 (or 5) have been tossing around in this convocation rebuttal. They have criticized everything about Bernice, from her hair style to her voice. It seems to me that their critical analysis of what happened earlier is every bit as disturbing to me as what the speaker said today if not more so.

I've been reading "The Unlikely Disciple" (since it's pretty much the 'new thing' on campus to do) and it's behavior like that of those behind me that line the pages of that book with colorful characters that shock even me, as an evangelical Christian. Not to say that I am a perfect Liberty student that has never given the name of Christ or Liberty a bad rap, because through reading this book I have felt much conviction about similar things that I have done that could have caused a non-believer to think that I am no different morally than most of his friends at secular school. I'm just frustrated that we cannot evalute critically what is being spoken to us without pulling apart more than just the falsity of the words. It's been my expereince more than once after convocation where someone will attack a person rather than their words.

I guess Liberty can be a tough crowd.

Please know this though, this post is not intended to bash Liberty or its students (or Bernice King for that matter either.) I am typing this up so that we can all realize that we do need to analyze what is being said and filter it through the Bible and if it's not true, we need to make sure to take note of that, but we also need to analyze our own speech and filter that through Scripture and see if what we are saying is meritted through it.

Well, it's nearly noon... I should probably get a few minutes of work into that project before lunch.

Encouragement.

This weekend was phenomenal.

I had the privilege of playing at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York with Sounds of Liberty this weekend. I have been refreshed spiritually as a result of this trip. From the moment we stepped foot on the campus to the moment we left it I knew that the Holy Spirit was moving. The way the congregation worshiped there was unlike anything I had ever seen out of a western church. I felt as though the crowd understood the words of each of the songs and as a result sang them unto God with full meaning and comprehension. I'm guilty of making songs habit too much, I need to analyze the lyrics I'm singing and use them fresh and anew each time I sing them to God. The best thing about it was that Jesus Christ was glorified center stage the whole time. I never felt like the choir, the pastor, the worship leaders, or anyone else was trying to take the glory for anything, but rather they were leading God's people in worship that was really in spirit and in truth. What a great experience!

Another thing I wanted to mention to you guys is this little blog that my dad has for his non-profit organization. It's a blog that he posts every now and then about what goes on in the Philippines, and I have felt much encouragement and conviction from reading it. If you're looking for a ministry to pray for or support, I would challenge you to look into this organization.

http://globalwarmthblog.wordpress.com

and

http://www.globalwarmth.org

In Touch With Out of Touch

I've come to hate something: my little facebook world. I have become so non-personal with people because I think I already know what's going on in their lives. Status updates have become all that I feel the need to read to feel like I'm in touch with people. I may occasionally look at some pictures, or read a few notes, but I think I've become so stretched out socially that I don't invest my time into people anymore. And for this I apologize. It needs to change.

In other news: 2009 brings a lot of challenge for me. I have decided that I need to do a few things to better myself as a person. And they are as follows:

1.) Be surrounded by positive people.
- It seems that whenever I am surrounded by people that complain, I take on the same attitude with nearly everything that's going on in my life. I look at things pessimistically when I hear negative conversation. I need to be more positive...

2.) Read More
- This goes for my Bible and other books in general. I only read my text books and sometimes I don't even fully finish those... Reading can help me to learn so much more and grow mentally.

3.) Witness More
- I feel like the only times I witness are those times I'm on mission in the Philippines. It's easy there for me. It's a comfort zone that I should have everywhere, but I don't. I need to break myself of this and thrust myself into the spiritual warzone here in the States.

4.) Set Goals
- I never seem to set goals that work because they're always so far away. "I eventually want to do this..." or "In the future I'd like to make this happen..." I want to make those goals shorter term and be able to actually work some of them out.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm tired of mediocrity. I would love for you to join me in this fight against being average and if you're willing to fight with me, let me know.

Now off to read. I feel better already...

Merry Christmas?

So here it is. Christmas. There are two firsts for me this Christmas:

1.) It's the first Christmas of my 20's.. and
2.) It's the first Christmas without my family.

I'll admit, I was kind of depressed that I would be spending Christmas half a world a way from my family. Hearing of all the wonderful Christmas plans that my friends had made with their families caused me to sulk in my loneliness for a while. It seemed at every turn there was a family enjoying a meal, or a commercial with a family eating Christmas dinner. Christmas this year seemed like it was just going to fall short of being Christmas...

As the clock struck twelve (Christmas), I read aloud Matthew 1 as I played my guitar slowly. I actually got excited reading the genealogy of Jesus for the first time. As the names got closer and closer to Jesus I started to play harder and read louder. By the time I got to verse 14 I could no longer hold back, I shouted that Azor was the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan! Jesus was coming soon! I continued on almost sweating: Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born JESUS, who is called Christ!

My hair stood on end as I read verse 21: "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." THIS is the first Christmas that I've truly reflected on that. Jesus was born into this world so that He could take our punishment. I would encourage you to reflect on that. I don't know who you are reading this, you may have just stumbled on this randomly, or you may be a close friend. Either way, may you be transformed by the love of Jesus Christ this Christmas season.

Christmas Break

As Christmas draws nearer I've been thinking more and more about getting away for a few days and just camping. I don't know if this desire has sprouted from my immediate family being half a world away or if it's just my masculine side telling me to get out and live life in the wilderness for a while. It seems that I'm surrounded by concrete so often and that everything is man-made. It would be great to be in the woods reflecting on how marvelous God's creation is for once... I think that I may just do this with Josh the weekend after Christmas. It'll be rock and roll.

In other news, I actually cooked lunch for people other than myself today. Roberts family was brave enough to let me do it, so I prepared chicken adobo (filipino goodness). It looked like this:


It worked out though, I think. No one threw up at least...

Wow. So I Have A Blogger Account?

I totally didn't realize that I had a blogger.

Nor did I realize that I've already posted TWICE on it. Maybe I'll post more often? I don't know... regardless, I wanted to share something I realized this week: I need to engage the lost around me more.

I realized this when I was at the Jacksonville Jaguars game with Robert on Sunday. My warm and fuzzy, Christian bubble that Liberty University has so wonderfully crafted around me was rudely popped by a wave of alcoholic tinted screams of profanity hurled from Jags fans behind me towards any and every member of the Green Bay Packers. I started to count the different profanities that I heard and quickly realized that it was futile because I can only count so high. I even witnessed a man with his child almost get into a fight with someone in front of him. I don't know what it was about, but they were throwing every cuss word imaginable at one another.

I became very uncomfortable.

This is what gets me though... I did not reflect Christs love upon them. Rather, I cast judgment in my mind. Instead of talking to these people, I kept my mouth shut and my eyes focused on what was on the field, creating my own set of blinders to what was going on around me. What would've happened if I had reached out to these people and met them where they were at instead of hiding in my shell and retreating from the world? I'm not really implying that the buzzed guy next to me would've become a preacher if I had just been nice to him, and I'm not really saying that anything would've changed at all. But maybe, just maybe, if I had acted in the way Christ would have, someone would have notice the Light.

So, I guess what I'm getting at with all of this is we need to be Christians that stand up in the midst of culture and meet people where they're at. I'm pretty unhappy about the way I've met adversity and that needs to change.

To Run or Not To Run.

It's 36 degrees outside right now and it's raining. Hard. I'm supposed to run today but I'm highly considering staying inside where my chances of survival are much higher. Running in the rain is fun, but when you have to run in rain that's at almost freezing temperatures... completely different story.

Which brings me to my rant: I hate the fact that water is still the substance that falls from the sky at 36 degrees. Why can't snow just round up to the nearest hundred or something? It's not like snow has any children to tend to while he's off duty. I'm angry at snow for not showing up more often, it's like he doesn't even care. Children have school to be cancelled. I have snowballs to make and out in my freezer so that when summer comes the little children won't know what hit 'em. There are snow forts to be made, ice skating to be had, snow angel's that are begging to be formed. Have you ever gone outside when it snowed with a giant bottle of juice and started to make your own snowcones? It's awesome. Especially when it's grape juice and people who walk by see this huge purple spot of snow. It's also fun to make lemonaide snow cones so that people freak when they see you actually eating yellow snow. My friends parents actually tried to stop me one year because they thought it was pee. I put it in my mouth and ran. Poor people probably still think I ate pee that day....

It's my review time: Today I will review the music CD "Moonbabies" by Planet X. Formed by two members of the Steve Vai band and former keyboardist of Dream Theater, Planet X is the kind of band that makes you want to throw up out of excitment. Their music is a blend of jazz fusion, progressive rock, and magical amazingness. I would highly suggest it to anyone looking for music that's not aimed at the "I'm a pre-teen that's depressed and I'm looking for a girlfriend but nobody will love me because of my ridiculous hair and bad taste in fashion but at least I love MCR whatever that stands for! RAWR!"

BingbongBEEDAH! That's the sound of the Person of the Day award. For my first ever person of the day award I choose: Abigail Smith Adams. That's right, wife of our 2nd President and mom of our 6th. Without this woman we would have NOT had a sixth President. By her begatting John Quincy, we laid ground work for democracy by allowing this country to have a 6th President instead of not having any President at all. Without a President we could have very well become a nation of anarchists and punk rock lovers. Oy. Oy. Oy vey. So thank you Abigail Smith Adams, without you we'd all be "misfits".

That concludes today's entry. Check tomorrow to see if I'm clinging to life by a snot bubble after my run. Bye.