Equilibrium

This post is a review of a film called Equilibrium, and contains spoilers. Read at your own risk. :)

In the first years of the 21st century..a third world war broke out. Those of us who survived knew...mankind could never survive a fourth. That our own volatile natures could simply no longer be risked...so we have created a new arm of the law-the Grammaton Cleric-Whose sole task it is to seek out and eradicate the true source of man's inhumanity to man: his ability to feel. 

In the 21st century following the third world war, a drug was invented-a drug that eliminates human emotion. The result? A totalitarian society named Libria, with a leader named 'Father' at its head; supposedly under a banner of peace for all

All, that is, except for those who would keep their emotions. The resistance. The tetragrammaton sends their special soldiers, called clerics, to eliminate the resistance along with items such as books, art, and music.

These elite soldiers do their jobs well:trained from childhood in a martial art heavily involving the use of firearms known as gun kata, they eliminate their opponents quickly and forcefully. These are the highest ranking soldiers in all of Libria. Emotionless, powerful, mighty warriors serving 'the greater good of the people'.

So what happens when one of these high elite doesn't take his emotional suppressant medicine?

This is exactly what happens when John Preston, highest cleric of the Tetragrammaton, knocks the small glass vial of his interval off of the counter on accident. *clink!*
It shatters as it hits the ground. And thus begins the tumble into emotional life...

Even as he stops taking his own Prozium, he keeps doing his job. There's one raid where they capture a sense offender named Mary O'Brian...who Preston interrogates for information on where to find the rest of the resistance...but instead of giving over information, Mary says something that makes him falter.

Why are you alive? You exist just to continue your existence...without emotion, breath is just a clock...ticking.

Mary's worldview is the opposite of the worldview of Tetragrammaton...

There is the disease. Its symptom is hate. Its symptom is anger. Its symptom is rage. Its symptom is war. The disease is human emotion...but Libria, I congratulate you;there is a cure for it. At the cost of the dizzying highs of human emotion, we have suppressed its abysmal lows...and you as a society have embraced this cure, prozium. Now we are at peace with ourselves, and humankind is one. War is gone. Hate-a memory.

Tetragrammaton sounds like their principle is near that of communism...but communism isn't the only historical similarity...have you ever heard of Babel? 

In the early days of the world, a group of people moved as far away from God as they believed they could possibly get. They wanted to unite themselves completely, in one heart and one voice, saying 'We are our own God!' 

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.They said to each other, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. ~Genesis 11:1-4

A case of human rebellion against the one true God, humanity has always done this. In the garden of Eden, Eve thought that by eating the fruit she would become 'like God'. In Babel, they sought to build a society that would elevate them to the highest honor possible. In Rome and Egypt, emperors and pharaohs claimed to be Gods. Communism seeks to find power through human nature. 

At last peace reigns in the heart of man. We are our own conscience now. And it is this conscience that compels us to rate as EC-10 for emotional content, all those things which might tempt us to feel again, and destroy them. Libria, you have won! Against all odds, and your own natures! 

Yeah, so i'm not going to finish the entire storyline, because I think you should go see the movie...but if you're not going to, it basically ends with Preston killing father, and the resistance taking out the Prozium factories so that their cause is won by 'human nature itself'. 

Well here's a bit of news for all of them...God is God, we are not. Human nature can't win. We can't win against our own natures, because our natures are fallen and sinful. No matter what we do, what societies we build, it will never, ever be comparable to biblical society, a society that acknowledges that it is fallen...and acknowledges that there is a perfect God, a God who sent his son to die on a cross for our sins, that we might be saved. 

We cannot save ourselves, should we sacrifice 10,000 times 10,000 animals, complete millions upon millions of good works, nothing that we do can cleanse one single person, of even one single sin. Nothing that we can do can make up for the fact that we are inherently flawed. 

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.  The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

God will always tear down societies opposed to him...societies that want to work away from him. A society, without God, is doomed before its conception...Babel, Rome, Communist Russia, Libria...

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ~John 15: 4-6

Those words are not enough...

In the year of the death of King Uzziah, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a high throne, and lifted up, and the lower parts thereof filled the temple. The Seraphims stood upon it, every one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain did he fly. And on cried to another, and said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole world is full of glory. And the lintels of the door cheeks moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me: for I am undone, because I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, and Lord of hosts. ~Isaiah 6: 1-5 


Something that i've been thinking about a lot lately is the Holiness of God...how God is completely set apart from everything else.

When Isaiah met God, the first thing he realized was his own sinfulness. "I am a man of polluted lips." As humans we are inherently born with a sin nature...that's why it's so easy to sin. But even when we know we're sinful, we don't fully comprehend the depth of our depravity...Isaiah didn't comprehend it either, not until he saw God. When he saw God, his eyes were opened because he saw the holiness of God! He saw the absolute purity, completely unblemished, and right then it struck him how sinful he was.

We cannot know who we are, we cannot know the depths of our soul, until we truly know who God is.

The key to this is in what the angels are saying..."Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: The whole world is full of his glory." It's also in the psalms, "The Heavens declare the glory of God!"

Throughout the grandeur of the stars,

To the beauty of a landscape...

To even the tiniest of creatures, everything declares the glory of God.

All of these things are just a taste, just a foreshadowing, of the actual glory of God. These things are just creation...He is the creator. His nature is light, and there is no darkness. The angels hid their faces and feet from him...we read that even the pillars (lintels) of the temple shook in the presence of God! Inanimate objects had the good sense to tremble in the presence of the Almighty! And they haven't even sinned...


Why do I worship God? It's not because he loves me, it's because of who he is. He is God, and he is Holy, holy, holy.

Yet even though he deserves to be worshipped just because of his being...He does love me. This God, this almighty glorious one whom all of the universe cannot contain loves me! A dirty, filthy, rotten sinner, among a people of dirty, filthy, rotten sinners. And this God loves me, and sent his only son to die for me...


Nothing is beyond you
You stand beyond the reach
Of our vain imaginations
Our misguided piety
The heavens stretch to hold you
And deep calls out to deep,
Saying nothing is beyond you!
Time cannot contain you
You fill eternity
Sin can never stain you
Death has lost it's sting
I can not explain how you came to love me
Except to say that nothing is beyond you


Awestruck by the majesty of God...everything that he is, is clean...spotless, whiter than snow. Everything about me is the opposite. Sometimes i'd like to think of myself as a knight in shining armor, but i'm not even close. I'm no more than a child wearing his mother's strainer on his head carrying a stick. 


And yet this God loves even me...

Nothing that I, or any other far better man, (Yes, even the Knights in shining armor,) could say will ever, ever, ever come close to describing .01% of God's glory...it's something we won't truly understand until we see him face to face...and it will bring us to the floor.

I lay my life before you,
I'm not getting up.
Father, how I adore you! 
Those words are not enough...

Why Does God Seem So Far Away? // Guest post by Miss Raquel

Hey all, 

So because I was on a mission's trip this last week, a friend of mine named Miss Raquel was kind enough to write a blog post for me while I'm gone! It was supposed to post while I was gone, but the auto-scheduling messed up because...well...computers hate me. :/ But, here it is now! 

The link to her blog is at the bottom of this post, and I cannot encourage you enough to go follow it. It's a fantastic blog written by an incredibly Godly young woman, serving the Lord to the best of her ability. I hope you enjoy her post here! :D 

A friend of mine recently came to me and said, ‘I feel like I can’t reach God.  I feel like he’s beyond my grasp.’

‘Have you prayed about it?’ I asked him.

‘Yes, but I feel like I’m just talking to the air.  I don’t think He hears me.’

Needless to say, I think each of us have felt this way at some point in our Christian walk.  I know that I certainly have.  It’s a very difficult – and slightly scary – time to go through.

I remember when I was having doubts about whether or not I was even saved.  Because I felt that God was ‘so far’ from me and how I didn’t ‘feel like I could reach Him’ made me wonder if He really wasn’t there.  Maybe I really wasn’t a Christian.

But the Bible tells us that if we believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, repent of our sins and turn to Him, we are saved. (John 3:1-21, Ephesians 1:7)  I had done that.  Didn’t I?

Then, I thought of something.  Maybe it wasn’t that God was far from me.  Maybe *I* was far from Him. 

As human beings, we sin.  Regardless of if we are Christians or not, we still sin and always will.  And sin puts us at enmity with God.  Especially sin that we keep committing…

Yes, Jesus has forgiven us of all our sins and cleansed us from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), but that doesn’t mean that we should continue sinning.  I believe that, as a part of punishment (if you will), that God seems to move farther and farther away from us because we are cluttering our spiritual life with sin that we keep committing…and not giving HIM enough time in our lives.  The time that He needs and is jealous for.

So when God feels ‘far away’ from you, take a look at your spiritual life.  Does it need some cleaning up?  Do you need to make more room in it for time with God?  God is never-changing.  His love for you stays the same.  But relationships are a two way deal.  If you’re not giving Him the praise, honor and time He deserves – and letting rubbish collect in your private love life with Him – then He won’t feel so near. 

Take some time today to ask God’s forgiveness for sins you’ve committed.  We should do this every day, but if you are feeling especially far from Him, take the time to examine your heart.  Perhaps it needs some polishing up.

Remember that God will always love you, as His child.  And He will always be just a breath away…

---

                                                                                       

Miss Raquel is a lover of words, beautiful photographs, twirly dresses, bowties, Converse, frozen yogurt, all things Western and romantic sayings.  She blogs at God's Daughter, where she writes on a variety of different topics.  Feel free to stop by any time and leave her a comment!

This soldier knows...

I don't believe in anything but myself

I don't believe in anything but myself

But then you opened up the door

Now I start to believe in something else

How do I know if I'll make it through?

How do I know, where's the proof in you?

And so it goes

This soldier knows
The battle with the heart
Isn't easily won


Falling doesn't hurt, it's hitting the ground that does. As human beings we do get hurt a lot. We get hurt by random things, we get hurt by people, we just get hurt.


Sometimes we don't feel like we have enough time to do what we need to, we feel we have too much time on our hands, we feel stressed and tired, we feel restless. We are creatures of change.

This is because we are creatures stuck in time, and to be in time means to change. Because God is outside of time, we know that he is completely unchanging. 

Scripture tells us that God is faithful and constant.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies shall never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ~Lam. 3: 22-23 

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ~1 Cor. 1:9

Scripture doesn't just tell us that God is faithful, it shows us through examples of his faithfulness.

Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the troubles of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, because of their taskmasters: for I know their sorrows. Therefore I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good land that floweth with milk and honey, even unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ~Exodus 3:7-8 


Then afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may celebrate a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice, and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. ~Exodus 5: 1-2


We all know what happened after this. God looks at people like Pharaoh and laughs. What puny resistance! God sent the pestilence and the plagues, until Pharaoh finally let Israel go. When Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites, all of the Egyptians were drowned while trying to follow Moses and the people of God across the Red Sea. Pharaoh was great on the earth, are not our problems likely even less resistance than Pharaoh could give? What an example of God's faithfulness and protecting his children!

Here's another: Throughout the old testament, the coming of the Messiah is forecast.

I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall break thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ~Genesis 3:15


For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and he shall call his name, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. The increase of his government and peace shall have none end: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to stablish it with judgment, and with justice, from henceforth, even forever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. ~Isaiah 9:6-7


We know that the Messiah has indeed come, His name is Jesus the Christ, the son of God, and where he is there I shall be also.


These examples certainly show us that God. Is. Faithful. God saved his people from Pharaoh, he saved his people from death. Indeed, God's deliverance of his people out of Egypt is a foreshadowing of Christ's coming to deliver us from death.

My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by
He will never break his promise
Though the stars may break faith with the sky
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

Scripture has shown us that God is faithful! It is in his inherit being to be faithful as seen in Exodus 3, when God reveals his name to Moses.

Then Moses said unto God, Behold, when I shall come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you: if they say unto me, What is His name? What shall I say unto them? And God answered Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Also he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.  ~Exodus 3:13-14


God doesn't introduce himself to Moses as, "I was, and I am now, and I will be in a little while". God says, "I AM THAT I AM"!

We know God is faithful because God cannot change, he just "is"!

We are becoming, he is. This is why even when friends fail you, you can trust in God. People change, God does not.

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The Darkness deepens, Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless O abide with me

So we know that when God makes promises, he keeps them! When he tells you something, you can believe it!

So when I read in scripture,

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah. 29:11


I know that even when life is hard, even when I feel hurt, even when I feel like the world is crashing down around me, God. Is. There.

So if I stand let me stand on the promise,

That you will bear me through

And if I can't let me fall on the grace

That first brought me to you

If I sing let me sing for the joy

That has born in me these songs

And If I weep let it be as a man

Who is longing for his home

You will be safe in his arms,

'Cause the hands that hold the world,

Are holding your heart.

This is the promise He made,

He will be with you always,

When everything is falling apart, 

You will be safe in his arms.

These are the hands that built the mountain,

The hands that calmed the sea.

These are the arms that hold the heavens, 

They are holding you and me.

These are the hands that heal the leper,

Pull the lame up to their feet

These are the arms that were nailed to the cross

To break our chains and set us free

You will be safe in his arms,

'Cause the hands that hold the world,

Are holding your heart. 
This is the promise he made,
He will be with you always, 
When everything is falling apart,
You will be safe in his arms. 


And so there's this constant battle that has to be fought within a person's self, between thinking that you can handle something that happened to you, or thinking that something that happened is your fault, or thinking that you can fix something-and between trusting God.

In fact, the battle is not even within yourself, it is against yourself-against your heart. This battle can't be won on your own, it is won for you by God. This is the battle where you have to learn to let go of everything that you hope for, everything you dream of, and trust that God will take care of you.

I. Have. Heard. My. People's. Cry. 


If we call on God, he will hear us. He will hear us in our pain, and he will combat it for us. He knows what say and think before we even speak or think it!

Yea, before they call, I will answer, and whiles they speak, I will hear. ~Isaiah 65: 24


I don't believe in anything but myself
I don't believe in anything but myself
But then you opened up the door
Now I start to believe in something else
How do I know if I'll make it through?
How do I know, where's the proof in you?
And so it goes

This soldier knows

The battle with the heart

Isn't easily won

...but it can be won

#suicide

I lay here,
Pouring crimson regret.
I'm crying,
Bleeding,
Screaming.
Day after day,
More lies about a world,
That never was, and never will be.
You don't know how you betrayed me.
Without my mask, where will I hide? 
I can't find myself,
Lost in the lie.
I know the truth now,
I know who you are.
I don't love you anymore.
It never was and never will be,
You're not real and you can't save me.
So goodbye, cruel world!
I greet my suicide, my Savior.


Scripture says this:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue still in sin, so that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live yet therein? Know ye not, that all we which have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death? We are buried then with him by baptism into his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we be planted with him to the similitude of his death, even so shall we be to the similitude of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead, is freed from sin. Wherefore, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hate no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died once to sin: but in that he liveth, he liveth to God. Likewise think ye also, that ye are dead to sin, but are alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof: Neither give ye your members, as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin: but give yourselves unto God, as they that are alive from the dead, and give your members as weapons of righteousness unto God. For Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Know ye not, that to whomsoever ye give yourselves as servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye have been the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart unto the form of the doctrine, whereunto ye were delivered. Being then made free from sin, ye are made the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of man, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have given your own members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, to commit iniquity, so now give your members servants unto righteousness in holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were freed from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being freed from sin, and made servants unto God, ye have your fruit in holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. ~Romans 6


You know, some scriptures you study because you don't understand them. Some scriptures you take to heart. And then, there are some scriptures that pierce your heart so that the only word you can think for the longest time is, "wow".


He that taketh not his cross, and followeth not after me, is not worthy of me. He that will find his life, shall lose it. And he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. ~Matthew 10: 38-39


When you die, you lose absolutely everything. That is why we are to lose our life for the sake of the gospel. Lose your life, for God's sake!


When I get to heaven, there will be many things in my life that God will not be pleased with. There will be one thing he is pleased with, and that is that his son Jesus the Christ lives in me, and that through Christ I am dead to the law, dead to sin. I wish I could say, I will sin no more. I know I will fail, I know I will fall, I know I will sin again. But I am dead to sin.

My suicide to sin is Christ, and Christ living in me I can say, "Behold I choose to die to myself, to die to my sins, to die to the world, and I am alive with Christ forevermore!"

All of the sinful pleasures and temptations of this world are fleeting, they're lies. Lies that seperate us from Christ. That's what I mean by a cruel world...your sins will stab you in the back. That is why we must give up everything in this world. Everything. All of it. Out the window, kaput. Gone.

The wages of sin is death. So you can live for sin, and then die and be forever lost. Or you can die to sin, and live for Christ. Our Lord has said that he who would save his life, must lose it.

We have to lay down our lives for Christ, I have to lay down my life for Christ. I must die in service to him.

Christ needs to be the center, 100% of our focus as Christians. I want him to be 100% of mine.




“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also! ~Martin Luther

Bring me to life...

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ~Jeremiah 29:13


Live. There is a difference between being alive and living, and God calls us to live a life set apart for him. A vigorous and fruitful life with no time wasted.


Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon Him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6


Run. Run for your life. Run for your Lord. Run from the sins of this world, run towards the cross. Run as fast as you can, as hard as you can, just run. Run to him.


I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me. ~Proverbs 8:17


We must actively seek God, and it's a theme that appears all throughout the Bible. God calls us to constantly and actively seek him in everything that we do, forever advancing in our relationship with him.

Without a soul, my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold. 
Until you find it there and lead it back home. 
Frozen in time, without your touch, without your love.
Only you are the life among the dead.
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems, I've got to open my eyes to everything.
Without a heart, without a voice, without a soul,
Don't let me die here.
Bring me to life. 
Wake me up inside. 
Wake me up inside. 
Call my name and save me from the dark.
Bid my blood to run,
Before I come undone. 
Save me from the nothing I've become. 

We cannot sit back and be apathetic about living for Christ, it has to be active, it has to be cognitive. We must live for him. We must run for him.

Scripture says it best:

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ~Deuteronomy 4:29


Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ~Matthew 7: 7-8


We must seek God to find him.

Love will carry you...

Am I at the point of no improvement? 
What of the death I still dwell in?
I try to excel, but I feel no movement. 
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?
Never underestimate my Jesus,
You're telling me that there's no hope, I'm telling you you're wrong.
Never underestimate my Jesus,
When the world around you crumbles, He will be strong. 


Gah, life can be so difficult sometimes, as I've been finishing up this quarter at college especially. So many things have been afflicting me on all sides, and then in my scripture reading today I found this...

Yet He is my strength and my salvation, and my defense, therefore I shall not be moved. ~Psalm 62:2

 The Lord is my strength and salvation, what am I concerned with down here? Cannot the God of all creation conquer it? Of course he can!

Silly me...everything that has been happening in my life, everything I've been upset or worried over, it all counts as nothing in comparison to the importance of Christ. Absolutely nothing.

Behold the fowls of the heaven, for they sow not, neither reap, nor carry into the barns, yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ~Matthew 6:26


This principle is one that I keep having to learn, and I write it here for everyone to see:

A life spent worrying over the things of this world is a wasted life, for you cannot glorify God when you are concentrated on yourself.  Don't waste your life, live for God, and for him alone. 


He will take care of you, He will take care of me, and I don't want to waste one more minute, one more second worrying, I want all of my time to be spent glorifying Him.

Lift me up Lord, turn my ashes into flames that burn for you.



I searched for love,
When the night came,
And it closed in.
I was alone,
But you found me,
Where I was hiding. 
Now i'll never ever be the same,
It was the sweetest voice that called my name, 
Saying, you're not alone,
For I am here. 
Let me wipe away your every fear.
My love, I've never left your side,
I have seen you through the darkest night.
I'm the one who's loved you all your life
Faithful and True, forever.
My love will carry you. 








SDG

Rock of ages, cleft for me...

What love is this, that love should die?
Now I am his, and he is mine. 
What a love came down to rescue me? 
Where I was bound he set me free. 
I don't need a new truth, all I need is more of you.
To the cross I will run for all my Savior has done. 
I will stay here, never move on. 
No other moment in time, So glorious, so divine. 
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. 
I will stay here, never move on.

#Good things happen to bad people

I believe in you

I'll give up everything just to find you

I have to be with you

To live

To breathe

You're taking over me

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure, hid in the field, which when a man hath found, he hides it, and for joy thereof departs, sells all that he hath, and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like to a merchant man that seeketh good pearls, Who having found a pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." ~Matthew 13: 44-46

The way that
You move me

Takes me far away

I seek no escape

I'm overtaken

By the way that you deliver me

There's no place I'd rather be

Without you I'm incomplete

It's hopeless

You consume me

Holy, Devoted,

I immerse myself in you

Drowning in the thought of you

Taken by the things you do

Doesn't matter what I lose

I'm yours

You consume me

Like a burning flame, running through my veins

"Jesus then said to his disciples, If any man will follow me, let him forsake himself: take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what shall it profit a man though he should win the whole world, if he lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give for recompense of his soul?  ~Matthew 16:24-26

Sometimes, I don't get what I want. I will have ideas about how things should be, and they don't turn out that way. I can't help but wonder why this bad stuff keeps happening to me. Every time this happens though, I get hit with the realization of how blessed I really am. I'm a Christian! Christ has called me to be with him forever and ever!

All my righteousness is as dirty rags, I look absolutely filthy in the sight of God. The living dead-without Christ. With Christ you change from this creature abandoned to be cast away from God for all eternity, into a servant of that same God. So Christ offers a hand out of the pit, and says that if we are to follow him we are to forsake ourselves. Forsake everything that we want.

It's worth it, for Jesus is the great treasure, the kingdom of heaven. When I think of how utterly dead I am without Christ and how ugly I must look in the sight of God, I'm amazed that God would choose me. Me? Of all people? Christ is the good pearl, and good things certainly happen to bad people; because i'm a bad person.

It's worth it. It's totally worth it. I pray I can show the fruits of the spirit, for faith without works is dead. Don't make the mistake of thinking I am saved by works, because frankly I'm not. Nobody is. For every good work I have given, ten evil works have been done. True Christians will show their faith in their life, not be justified by it.

I want to show that Christ lives in me. I give up everything I have, everything I want, I trust it all to Christ. I lay it on the altar.

Everything is yours Lord, I am facedown on the ground, ready to do your will and to follow your desires. My Lord, My Captain, My King, My God,

My Savior.

Oh, the deep deep love of Jesus
Vast unmeasured, boundless free

Rolling as a mighty ocean

In it's fullness over me

Underneath me

All around me

Is the current of thy love

Leading onward

Leading homeward

To thy glorious rest above

Further Up, Further in.

Homesick. Does it mean nothing? All the longing?

But Jesus said unto him, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the heavens have nests, but the Son of man hath not whereon to rest his head. ~Matt. 8:20

Our home is not with Jesus, our home is Jesus. When we accept Christ into our lives, he becomes a part of us. Indeed, the ultimate goal of a Christian is to glorify God, which we do through being as Christlike as we can. So, If the Son of man hath not whereon to rest his head, where do we rest our heads? We are only travelers here. 

This world is not our home. We must give our lives to Jesus, we are not our own. ~John Elefante

What I hear people say is, on earth, there are all of the aches and all of the pains that come with being an Animal. A mere mortal creature. God destined us for something greater, creating us Imago Dei (Image of God.) 

In Heaven, there are no more aches or pains or tears.

So? Is that why you want to go to heaven? I fall into this thinking all the time, especially when life is hard. I wake up some mornings and I just say, "Oh God, please take me home today. I'm tired of being here." 

But that is not It.

I don't want to go to heaven to avoid all of the pains and worries that come with an animal life. I want to go to heaven to be with my Lord, My Lover, My Savior. 

On earth, the devil will kick sand in your face when you're already down. 

But In Heaven, you are out of what Lewis called the shadowlands. You are done seeing through a glass darkly. I know that when I die, I will be face to face with God. I will not be able to handle it, unable to bear my shame. Every single lie i've ever told, every single time i've ever been angry, every single time i've ever had impure thoughts, every single time I have ever sinned, the record will be laid bare! Absolutely bare! The veil between myself and THE God Almighty, the Lord of the Heavens and Earth will be TORN IN TWO! I will fall to my knees, tears streaming down my face, shaking and pleading, "Oh My God, oh Mighty Lord, cast me not into the pit, cast me not away from your presence! I am yours Jesus, save me!"

Then In Heaven, Christ will come to my trembling and prostrate form, and he will pick me up and say to me, "Did I not say, 'all who call upon me shall have eternal life?' Come into the presence of God. Now is the time to worship, do you hear? NOW is the time to worship. Come unto your King, fully lean on the Lord your God completely. You. Are. Home."

Then In Heaven, I will spend all eternity worshipping the one true God. Complete unity with God, for all eternity-When we get to sing with the Angels, "Holy! Holy! Holy are You! Lord God Almighty!"

I cannot wait. I just cannot wait to be in the presence of God completely, with no cares, just to be forever in bond with Him in worship to Him. And then I find this verse: 

Let your heart not be troubled: Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places: If it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that Where I am, there may ye be also. ~Luke 14: 1-3

God will take me when I'm ready. My fruits have to be ripe. In Luke 14, God doesn't tell us why he doesn't take us home right away. He tells us he will come back for us, that we may forever be where he Is. 

That is It.  That's what it's all about! Everything, this entire life that we live on this earth, that's what it's about! It's about Christ! It's about forever worshipping Him in His presence!  

We're born, we live, we hope to marry, have careers and a family, avoid pain and be happy. Is that it? No! Of course not! Again, I say to you that everything, everything, EVERYTHING is about worshipping Christ for all eternity. 

Does it mean nothing? That homesickness, that longing in the back of your head that says, "this is not your home"? 

That homesickness is Christ calling you to Himself. That's what it is, that's why we have it. I know that I can't go home to Him until He calls me once and for all, until then I must serve Him here to the best of my ability, worship to the best of my ability, and honor to the best of my ability. 

I know that when I die, this is where I'm going. I know that I am going home to God. 

When I die, I shall see Him. 

The anticipation you get when you know you are going to see a girl that you have feelings for? (Or a guy, if you're a girl.) Those goosebumps, those chills? How much more is being with God like that? 

The even greater anticipation that I imagine you get when you are going to marry the girl? What is marriage, but a representation of our eternal union with Christ? 

THAT is the anticipation I have for meeting my King. The anticipation I have to hear Christ say, "Come home, Come home, Come home. Come further up, and further in. Come evermore into me, for I am yours and you are mine. Well done, good and faithful servant. Come into the holy of holies, into the presence of the one who has loved you all of your life. For now my child, and for all eternity, You. Are. Home."

Soli Deo Gloria

What am I?

O Lord our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the world! Which hast set thy Glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I behold thy heavens, even the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, What is Man, say I, that thou art mindful of him. and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and worship. thou hast made him to have dominion in the works of thine hands, thou hast put all things under his feet. All sheep and oxen: yea, and the beasts of the field. The fowls of the air and the fish of the sea, that which passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our lord, how excellent is thy name in all the world! ~Psalm 8


What is man, say I, that thou art mindful of him? What am I, say I, that you should love me Lord?

I'm nothing. Nothing without you Lord. Draw me Nearer, never let me go. Closer to your heart, draw me nearer Lord.

I've been wading in shallow waters, You're the ocean I am after.

You're all I have
All I need
The air I must die to breathe
You hold my life
In your hands
Hang my head
Break My heart
All I felt I had torn apart
My burden to bear
Taken from my cares
You're all I have
All I need
The air you died so I could breathe
You offer your love
In your hands
Lord you let me know
That I can breathe again


My King is my all in all, the air I die to myself to breathe. My breath is my life Lord, and you are my breath. My first breath when I rise, My last breath when I rest.  I know all I can do is keep breathing. Thank you Lord, I know that I can keep breathing.

Divine Romance...

The Lord is exalted:for he dwelleth on high:He hath filled Zion with Judgement and Justice. ~Isaiah 33: 5

O God, my heart is prepared, so is my tongue. I will sing and give praise. Awake, Viol and harp. I will awake early. I will praise thee O Lord among the people, and I will sing unto thee among the nations. For the mercy is great above the heavens, and the truth unto the clouds. Exalt thyself, O God, above the heavens, and let thy glory be upon all the earth. ~Psalm 108: 1-5

Sometimes I feel apathetic, and I hate it. God is so great, and yet sometimes I feel like it's just another Monday. 

What I have to force myself to realize is that God is God, and we are not. We don't praise God because he's good to us, we praise him because he is God, worthy of praise just because he Is. 

and yet, just for His glory, he created all of the world and all of its beauty. And when humanity fell, he sent his one and only Son to die for our sins. So this being, the creator, who is completely worthy to be worshipped by every creature alive is good to us even though we don't deserve it, and even though we often forget it.

::commence tears of joy at how absolutely and completely awesome God is::

Open the floodgates up

I want to change my mind

I want to be in love

I want the water in my eyes

I want to cry until the end of time

I want to let the rain come down

Tonight

And what little we see of the glory of God here on earth? I cannot fathom what it will be like in heaven.

My eyes can see the colors of Glory. My hands can reach the heavens before me. Where our hearts will beat with joy together, and love will reign forever and ever, Oh my God, I want to be there with you! I want to see you face to face, where being in your arms is the permanent state. I want it like it was back then, I wanna be in Eden. 

And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride trimmed for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be their God with them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, neither crying, neither shall be anymore pain, for the first things are passed. ~Revelation 21: 1-5

For you

I sing I dance

Rejoice in this Divine Romance

Lift my heart

and my hands

to show my love

What of it?

“So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: "I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”
― Martin Luther

Romans 12:15

Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Which comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God. For the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolations aboundeth through Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is wrought in the enduring of the same sufferings, which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. Our hope is steadfast concerning you, in as much as we all know, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. ~2nd Corinthians 1:3-7


Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. ~Romans 12:15


On Saturday, May 5th, Josh Eddy-a close friend of people very dear to me-passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.
I never met him, but I feel like I did, hearing the stories of how good he was, and especially how much he loved the Lord.


Josh is in his heavenly dwelling now, the place the Lord has prepared for him, the place that he has longed to go to.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed, we have a building given by God, that is, a house made not with hands, but eternal in the heavens. For therefore we sigh, desiring to be clothed with our house, which is from heaven. Because that if we be clothed, we shall not be found naked. For indeed, we that are in this tabernacle, sigh and are burdened because we would not be unclothed, but would be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life. 2nd Corinthians 5:1-4.


Mortality has been swallowed up in life. Where, O grave, is now thy sting? For we do not mourn as those who have no hope.

For our hope is in Christ, the one and only son of the true and living God. The Life among the dead. The one to whom Josh is now saying, Holy, Holy, Holy are you, Lord God almighty.

Frankenstein...

I recently read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I found the book to be very interesting, not only from the writing skills that went into it, but from the deeper themes involved in it.

It does not seem to me that Mary Shelly was a Christian, and so I doubt that she intended for the themes that I extracted out of her novel, to be extracted out of it, but I got them anyway.

The novel is told in epistolary form, which means it is written as a series of letters or other documents. (Like Paul's epistles to the early church.) In this case, the letters are from a ship captain to his sister. The captain, Robert Walton, runs into Victor Frankenstein in the ice of the arctic. Victor proceeds to tell Walton his story.

(Spoiler Warning)

A young Victor Frankenstein was a very blessed guy. He was bright, his family loved him, and he had a girl just waiting around to marry him. Things couldn't really get a whole lot better. What could he possibly want?

As his education grew he started reading alchemy books by authors like Cornelius Agrippa. His professors at university taught him about science, and eventually, he decided he wanted to play God.

Oh, that's what he wants.

Stopping right there, and taking that point, there is already a theme emerging in the book. Ever since Eden, man has been tempted to be like God. It says in Scripture:

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made:and he said to the woman, Yea, hath God indeed said, ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruits of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, ye shall not die at all, but God doth know that when ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. So the woman, (seeing that the tree was good for meat, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, to get knowledge,) took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.  ~Genesis 3:1-6


As Victor built his creature, his "Adam", he talked of how how beautiful it was, how wonderful it would be when it was finished. When the 8-foot-tall creature finally awakened, (details to the creation are not given in the book,) it is while Victor was sleeping. Surprised and disgusted by his creation, which once beautiful, was now hideous in his eyes, Victor fled and left his monster behind.

Eventually, Victor's younger brother was found murdered. His close friend Justine was tried and convicted of the murder, despite Victor's knowledge that the killer was really his own, twisted child.

Victor retreated into the mountains, ashamed and disturbed. One day, he ran into his creation in the woods.  The creature, (now educated by watching the actions of a small group of humans. He learned to speak, write, and even read Paradise Lost.)

The creature demanded that Victor make him an "Eve" whom he could flee with.

The creature demanded. Specifically he said,

"Do your duty towards me...thou hast made me more powerful than thyself, my height is superior to thine, my joints more supple."


The creature had taken control of Frankenstein's life. It is, (to me,) the embodiment of Victor's sin. Sin has taken over Victor's life, and it now haunts and pursues him.
The visitation of the consequences of sin is a theme prevalent in scripture...

And David sent and inquired what woman it was:and one said is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, wife to Uriah the Hittite? Then David sent messengers, and took her away:and she came unto him and he lay with her; (now she was purified from her uncleanness) and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, therefore she sent and told David and said, I am with child. ~2 Samuel 11:3-6


And he wrote thus in the letter, put ye Uriah in the forefront of the strength of the battle, and recule ye back from him, that he may be smitten and die. So when Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that strong men were. And the men of the city came out, and fought with Joab:and there fell of the people of the Servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite also died. ~2 Samuel 11:15-17

Wherefore hast thou despised the command of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus said the Lord, behold I will raise evil against thee out of thine own house, and will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with the wives in the sight of his sin. For thou diddest it secretly:but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. ~2 Samuel 12:9-12


The story of David and Bathsheba is just one of many in scripture that show the consequences of sin. Sin starts out so tempting, and seems so not wrong, but eventually it catches up to you. Victor is as David, the Monster is as Bathsheba; representing the sin, and the consequences of it.

Eventually Frankenstein conceded and started to create a mate for the cause of his terror and fear. The mate never tasted life however, because Victor destroyed it before giving it the vital seed of life. As it so happened, the monster was watching when its Eve was killed.

It vowed vengeance upon Victor, saying:
I will be with you on your wedding night...


Victor returned home, and married Elizabeth, the girl who had waited for him all of this time. (Patient lady, isn't she? They've only been destined for marriage since...like...12.) When the creature swore to make Victor pay on his wedding night, Frankenstein assumed the creature would try and kill him, not his wife.

Idiot. Stupid, stupid man. You killed his mate, why would he not kill yours?

Sure enough, when Victor came to the room where his bride was waiting on the honeymoon night, she was dead; murdered by the creature.

At this point in story, Frankenstein swore to pursue the creature until one or the other of them is dead. He pursued him all the way into the arctic, where he died. The creature, regretful of what he has done, left, never again to plague humanity.

Throughout the entire story, our tragic hero's sin returns to visit him again and again, in the most horrible and frightening of ways. What was his sin? He tried to play God. His pride, his hubris, got in the way of everything else he had been blessed with.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a high mind before a fall. ~Proverbs 16:18


The entire time I was reading this, I found myself comparing myself to Victor. I always think I can do it. I have that manly urge to fix things myself, I don't ask for help nearly often enough.

I can do this, I can handle it.

No. I. Can't.


And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches. Afterward, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and the wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said unto him, where are thou? Who said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid:because I was naked, and therefore I hid myself. And HE said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? ~Genesis 3:7-11


Adam and Eve wanted to play God. They did not trust God as they should have when he told them not to eat of the tree, and because of this they, and consequently we, fell.

They thought they were right, they thought they could do it. Look at the consequences that followed.


None are stronger than the humble, few are weaker than the proud. ~Rich Mullins


I am a prideful man.

Make that, I am a prideful young man. 

I am a failure at being like Jesus. I am a horrible, dirty, unclean sinner, who's works are all as filthy as rags.

I deserve to be cast into hell, forever separated from God. Thankfully though, I don't get what I deserve. When Adam and Eve were cast out the Garden, a promise was given. 

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall break thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ~Genesis 3:15

The serpent's head has been crushed, and it has been crushed by God's one and only son.

For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ~John 3:16

Unlike Victor Frankenstein, a character in a book, I have hope. There is no savior built into the world of his story, and his sins have caused him to perish. I have a savior. 

I have hope in the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, that I am destined to eternal life despite my heinous crimes. 

There is so much stuff involved in true manhood. Faith, love, and humility are just a few traits that a man of God embodies. True manhood, biblical manhood, calls us to be like Jesus. 

I have hope one day, I will be a loving, humble, Godly man. 

I want to be a man of God, more than anything. I want to be exactly where God wants me to be to do exactly what he wants me to do.

Dear God, thank you for the gift of your son, born to die so that I, and all who call on him in faith, might live.  Humble my heart and make me the man that you want me to be. I do not call on you nearly enough, nor do I use properly the tools you have granted me on this earth. 

I am yours Jesus, save me and shape me.

In Christ, and his grace and mercy alone, and to his glory,