I remember when I was a little guy, I was going to be a famous keyboard player for Petra.  At the time, Petra was in their heyday as the foremost Christian Rock band in existence.  I learned every one of their songs on the keyboard, and if I couldn’t play them, I programmed them so I could pretend that I was playing them. This could have been the catalyst that started Midiboy.

I remember daydreaming that I’d be so famous.  Everyone would want my autograph, I’d have trouble going in public without people following me, asking me how life on the road is, or what kind of keyboards I recommended, or if I could teach them how to play.

Of course, none of that happened.  I’m actually rather glad, honestly.

There is nothing wrong with dreams.  In fact, it can be said that our dreams can spark reality.  While I’m not keyboard player in a big time band, that dream did launch me into what I am today.  I have played in several  local bands, and not just average run-of-the-mill bands either.  Just about every band I have played in contained at least one member that is a recognized figure in the local music scene as being at the top of their class.  My last band, Unique, was no exception. Our singer could give just about any winner of American Idol, America’s Got Talent or <insert your favorite music based reality TV show here> a run for their money.   Our bassist was also phenomenal .  He has played in some of the best bands around as well.

Same with previous bands too.

Before all the bands came, I had recorded several synthpop albums as well.  One of them actually did fairly well on indie radio.  I got “hooked up” into the Christian electronic music scene, had just about every major player at that time as a contact either on MSN Messenger, AIM or Yahoo Messenger and actually had good friendships with several. One such friendship was (and still is) with the man behind Jagged Doctrine. I remember meeting him for the first time, I was so excited.  I had every one of his songs and couldn’t wait to meet him in person.  Know what I found out?  He’s a normal guy.  Just like me (Normal being the subjective term here, of course).  Seriously though, while he had what I considered to be “quite the following”, he didn’t have the typical star ego, or the obsessive need for recognition. He is a very humble person.

Anyway, I said all that to say this.  Not every one of those situations was something I would have wanted.  Some of the people I had played with and some of the bands I had contacts with also had ego problems. (None that can read this, so if you are one of the people reading this, I am not referring to you).

I learned that the need to become a renowned expert in our fields so that we might become a recognized authority on it, be it music, writing, journalism, film making,  or what have you, really is fertilizer for ego, being controlling and is a recipe for a miserable life.  Our desires will fester until we are no longer happy with anything unless we have our hands in it. And if someone does or says something that we don’t have a part of, we will be miserable until we become a part of it, hoping that our input makes us out to be expert in whatever subject is at hand.

In short, I have learned it is better to keep my eyes on my own goals and projects and bring them to fruition. Things will happen as God sees fit.   Not saying we shouldn’t offer our help and assistance to others, we should, but we don’t have to have a controlling interest in everybody else’s goals.  That was hard for me, especially with music. I’m a natural arranger and composer, and love to arrange other people’s music.  Now, I have learned I can offer suggestions, and if they are accepted, great, if not, that is ok too.  Move on.  It’s their song or project.  If it fails, they’ll recover.  If it fails because of my suggestion, then I’m responsible for their failure and I don’t have to have to be the bane of their failure.

The same can be said for every field of interest, really. From teaching, preaching, writing, singing, etc.  We tend to be very passionate about our art, work and interests and somehow some of us feel that our self-proclaimed expertise is the ultimate authority.  I really believe that the reason we feel this way is that we want others to recognize us for being a foremost authority.  I have personal experience with knowing that this leads to less friends, a lack of respect from people you want to respect you, and ultimately, misery.

My challenge to you, if you read this far (and to me, since I wrote it), is to evaluate ourselves and see if this in any way applies.  If we offer our advice, and it isn’t taken, move on.  Continue with our own fields of expertise.  Let the others continue on theirs.  Who knows, we might learn something from THEM if we allow ourselves to.

Last, but not least, let’s remember what Galatians 6:3-4 tells us:  ”If somebody thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions so he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else.”

—

Dear Pepsi,

I am an avid fan of one of your products, Diet Mt. Dew.  I am writing to inform you about the near tragic accident I almost had with a can of your product.

You see, on weekends, I excavate old tombs and burial chambers.  I take three cans of Diet Mt. Dew with me on every trip into a tomb.  I take two to drink (one for the way in, one for the way out), and one, of course, to use as a weight as it happens to be the exact same size, mass and density as the obligatory crystal that lies on a pedestal at the very end of every ancient burial chamber.

Of course, as luck would have it, the first one I picked out of my backpack was as I would have expected it to be: cold, refreshing and full of the required amount of caffeine needed to spelunk further into the chamber.  The second one didn’t fare so well, unfortunately. Let me tell you what happened.

As I approached the pedestal with the beautiful, glowing crystal just waiting to be placed in our local museum so thousands of people could take in its glory, I removed the second can of Diet Mt. Dew from my backpack.  Something wasn’t right.  I have partaken in literally hundreds, if not thousands of cans of Diet Mt. Dew in my extensive career of crystal liberation, and I could tell that something was amiss.  Unfortunately, in the dark, damp and dank cavern, I couldn’t place just what was out of the ordinary.  So I said a quick prayer and carefully removed the crystal from the pedestal with my right hand while placing the can of Diet Mt. Dew on the pedestal with my left hand.

All seemed ok.  I placed the crystal in my backpack when I heard it:  the unmistakable sound of stone against stone.  I knew it was too late.  The trap had been sprung.  I looked up and the ceiling, complete with the required cliché life puncturing spikes was coming down to stick it to me for stealing the artifact.  I reached behind me to grab the can off the pedestal and was fortunately able to dive through the small hole back into the previous passage before I was skewered like last night’s shish-ka-bob.

Fortunately, I noticed that my fedora hat, which I have treasured since my pops gave it to me as a young child, had fallen off my head in the process and I was barely able to reach back in and retrieve it from the holey fate of Swiss cheese.

Thinking I was in the clear, I started to make my way back out of the cavern, since I had my treasure in hand when I started to feel the very ground underneath my feet rumbling.  Panicked, I looked behind me and would you believe a giant boulder the size of a small building was rolling towards me.  Needless to say, I ran.  I ran hard.

I honestly believe that if it wasn’t for my above average coordination and my uncanny ability to use a whip to swing across ravines and climb up the very face of a cliff, I would have never made it out of there alive.

Would you believe that when I made it to the light of day, there were locals waiting for me?  Apparently, me setting off this trap alerted them of my presence, and just in case I made it out, they were there to take the very thing I treasured most from me.

No, not the crystal, but my third and final can of the precious nectar of the gods, my Diet Mt. Dew.  I tried to hand them the crystal and they just laughed at me, muttering something that I was able to roughly translate as “That old fake crystal?  We put that in there to lure you so we could get a can of this heavenly concoction that tempts our very senses every time you come near.” At least, I am pretty sure that is an accurate translation.

They then demanded that I supply them with a large quantity of said concoction or they would make me very sorry if I did not.  I am hoping that somehow, you might be able to help an old explorer out.  My wife and two beautiful daughters will feel safer at night, knowing that the vicious head hunters have been satisfied by your product and forever converted from cannibalism to Diet Mt. Dewism.

Once they finally let me go under threat that they are watching and waiting, I took the time to examine the can that almost did me in.  I kid you not, the thing was sealed and there were no visible holes in it whatsoever, but it contained mere drops of dew rather than the 12 plus ounces it was supposed to contain.

In the meantime, I would suggest you make sure none of these head hunters have infiltrated your bottling lines and perched themselves under the machines that are supposed to fill cans with their mouths open wide.

If you find it in your hearts to keep me safe from an angry mob of cannibals, please contact me at [email addres removed for privacy] or traditional mailing address of:

Gregg Hart

[mailing address removed for privacy]

Thank you for your time, and I do hope my story made you smile and inspired you to live for every moment and remember the truly important things in your life other than corporate pressures.

Sincerely,
Gregg “Indiana” Hart

Me?  I’m preparing for the end of the world on May 21st by planning on going to church on May 22nd to worship the Lord.  Like every week.

I’m actually looking forward to May 22nd, to be honest.

I’m sure you have all heard of Harold Camping’s latest prediction that Jesus is returning on May 21st, 2011.  Keep in mind, this isn’t the first time he has predicted Jesus’ return.  He was wrong the first time, he will be wrong this time as well.

Many people have “reminded” him of Matthew 24:36 or Mark 13:32 that states that no man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels or the son above, just the Father.

Harold Camping claims that Jesus said that TO the people of that time.  That nobody alive at that time knows the day or the hour.  He claims that that statement was only true for those people and does not apply to people in future times.

Consider this, however.  I could almost “buy” that if the verse simply said, “No man knows the day or the hour.”  Better yet if it said, “Nobody alive today knows the day or the hour.”

But that’s not what the verse says.  It says that no man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels or the son above, just the Father.  Therein lies the problem in Harold’s logic.  The angels and Jesus are not bound by time.  By including that in the statement, Jesus was showing us that not even we can know because if Jesus Himself doesn’t know, then it is not possible that we can know, since, when Jesus said that, He was already aware of what was going to happen in our time. I can’t think of any time that Jesus said anything that only applied to the people of His Earthly time specifically. Everything Jesus taught applies to all generations. In fact, some of what Jesus taught overrode Biblical law in the past that was specifically for the people of those times.

So, where did Harold get this date?

According to him, Noah’s great flood occurred in the year 4990 B.C., “exactly” 7000 years ago.  Where he gets that date is beyond me.

At the time, God said to Noah he had seven days before the flood would begin.

Taking a passage from 2 Peter 3:8, in which it is said a day for God is like a thousand human years, the church reasoned that seven days equals 7000 human years from the time of the flood, making 2011 the year of the apocalypse.

In its second “proof” the exact date is revealed by working forward from the exact date of the of the crucifixion – April 1, 33 AD. Again, where he gets this date is beyond me.

According to their reasoning, there are exactly 722,500 days from April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011 – the alleged day of judgement.

This number can be represented as follows: 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500.

It’s amazing what you can do with numbers, yes?  I mean really, what does 5, 10 and 17 repeated twice have to do with anything?  And what is 722,500?  Why is that significant?

Anyone able to shed some light on that?

Another problem in this prediction, is nobody at Family Radio (Harold’s radio station) knows exactly what to do to be SURE we have a place in Heaven.  He claims that God has already predetermined the 2 to 3 percent of all of us that will be whisked away on May 21st to live in Heaven for eternity.  The rest of us are doomed.

Didn’t Jesus say “…that whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish but have eternal life?”

Now, I’m not a Calvinist, but I still don’t think there are any true Calvinists that will say that if someone believes in Jesus (and by believe I mean the Biblical meaning of following and serving), that they won’t go to Heaven when they die.  They will just say that if God didn’t predestine someone, they wouldn’t want to believe.

Another issue I see with this, is that there are people that are leaving their houses behind, leaving their cars behind and leaving behind all their bills with no intention of paying them since they won’t be here in a little more than 3 weeks.

I don’t know how many people are in Harold’s camp, but if it is significant, that could cause a LOT of issues with the economy.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Comments?  Thoughts?

In these three albums, he explores his personal faith quite openly.

“The Last Temptation” is a redemptive story with a final song, “Cleansed By Fire” that goes down in history as being my favorite Alice Cooper song of all time.

Check out the lyrics:

Cleansed By Fire

I don’t know but I’ve been told / The streets of hell are paved with gold
Crazy, crazy
You told me that nothing’s free / Except my own insanity
Crazy, maybe
Wake me, shake me / Wake me, shake me

You offer me the world and all its wealth / All for myself
You promised me a life eternally / And drink to my health
I may seem only half-glued / But I can see right through you

[CHORUS]
Burn it up, burn it down / Burn this sucker to the ground
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Going, going, going, gone / There’s a party going on

Do you think I don’t know who you are / A fallen star
When I feel my soul scream out at night / I know you’re not far
You need a better disguise / This one won’t win any prize

[CHORUS]

Cleansed by fire, cleansed by fire / I may seem only half-glued
But I can see right through you

What about dark / What about light
What about wrong / What about right
What about death / What about sin
What about the web you’re trying to spin

What about truth / What about life
What about glory / What about Christ
What about peace / What about love
What about faith in God above
What about war / What about hell
What if I stumble / What if I fell
What about blood / What about greed
And all of these things you’re offering me

Yeah, what about me, little me / You lose and I win
You couldn’t suck me in / It’s over, you have no power
You’re lost / And I’m found
And I’m Heaven bound / Go back to where you belong
To where you fell / Go to hell

I absolutely love that song.  It’s the perfect close to an incredible story of coming into faith in Jesus Christ.

His next album, which came 6 years later has some great lyrics on it as well. While not a story, nor are they “outwardly Christian”, each song deals with an issue that is plaguing us today like racism, gluttony, nihilism, gossip, greed, domestic violence, as well as sitting back and not doing anything about the problems other than complaining about them. Certainly all things that we as Christians should be doing something about.

Following that album is Dragontown, which continues the trend Brutal Planet and has some of the best lyrics from any Cooper album, only with a little more of a direct approach of stepping on our toes.

Dragontown is a fictional representation of Hell. (Get it?) It’s like each song is sung from somebody spending an eternity there and serves as a warning.

For example, a song called “Sex, Death, And Money” is all about hypocrisy among Christians.  It talks about a Christian who is claiming to be upset about nudity and violence in the movies, yet sits for three hours taking it all in. For brevity, I won’t share the entire song. Some of the lyrics are:

I was so offended / As I sat for three hours / It was mental cruelty / I was so shocked / Just a little more flesh / Just a little more blood / Little closer to the edge / A little deeper in the mud / I’ll never be the same

Later in the song, it goes to talk about going to a strip club and spending hundreds of dollars, yet telling others how offensive it was.

The chorus pretty much sums it all up:

Sex, death and money, sonny / Makes this wicked world go round
Sex, death and money / It’s the Gospel here in Dragontown
Sex, death and money, honey / Grease the wheels and make them fly
Sex, death and money, sonny / That is why we all are gonna fry

One of the funniest songs Alice has done in a long time is called Dis-Grace Land.  We finally know where “The king of Rock and Roll” now lives.  He even sings it like “The king” Check this lyrics out:

Dis-Grace Land

I wanna tell you a story / It happened long ago
About a redneck boy / Down from tupelo
I got the slick black hair / I played a rock guitar
I liked to shake my hips, man / Then i went too far

He ate his weight in country ham / Killed on pills and woke in disgraceland
Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land

I had a lot of girls / I had a lot of guns
When they found me dead / The whole world was stunned
Went to the pearly gates / Said, “I’m the hippest thing”
And Peter said “Well son, / We already got ourselves a king”

He finished his short life, / Sweaty and bloated and stoned
(A-Hey-Hey) He ruled his domain and he died on the throne
No “Yes-Men”, no colonel, he went……all alone…

(Hey, man, that looks like me down there on the floor)

I heard the devil cry / Real loud and clear
“You were the big man, there / You’re just a sideman here
Well, I know your face / And I’ve heard your name
Looks like heaven’s loss / Is gonna be my gain”
(I’ve got plans for you, man)

Well, I woke up, right here / In dis-grace-land
Thank ya. Thank ya very much

The clincher song on this album though is “It’s Much Too Late”

It’s Much Too Late

I never kicked a dog, / A child or my wife
I never looked at pornography / I swear it on my holy saint mother’s life
But somehow she’s down here with me

The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven

Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late

I never stole a thing / A toy or a kiss
My conscience is a clear as can be / And when I was a teen
All the sex that I missed / Was an abstinence blessing to me

The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven

Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late

Anyway, he has released several albums after this series, and while lyrically they may contain one or two songs about his faith, they are typically just really good rockers, usually of a darker theme, but this series of three albums he decided to publically talk about his faith.  I am glad he did.

As you may have seen on my wife’s Facebook account, we did a lot of work this weekend.  We went to Home Depot with the intent to buy some tomato cages (gotta keep them from running away, you know), and came home with a 7x7x8.5 shed.  Isn’t it funny how that happens?

I have been wanting a shed for quite a while because I have no real place to store my lawnmower, bikes, my ladder, my various yard tools, etc.  The garage was getting very crowded.  So, my wife and I agreed to get the shed since Home Depot has a 12 months interest free thingy going on right now.

The box said “Fast And Easy Assembly.”

I don’t know what product they were talking about, but the head of that marketing department needs to consider a career change, because there was nothing fast or easy about this.  None of us can hardly move today.  I got the thing home Saturday, got it out of the box, and we got all the “pre-assembly” stuff done and the walls up on the first day.  That took us almost 4 hours.

The pre-assembly stuff was a pain.  This shed has 10 windows in it.  All of which have to have gaskets placed in them, the plexiglass placed in and the fancy frames put on the outside.  Oh, and none of the holes are predrilled.  You have to use these “self threading screws.”  There were 8 screws on each of the side windows and 12 on the front windows for a grand total of 56 screws just for windows.  Yeah, no big deal, right?  Did I mention that the holes weren’t pre-drilled?  They were “started” but not drilled all the way through.  The shed is made of a hard vinyl. And I don’t have an electric drill that works any longer, so we had to do this by hand.

My daughter, Zoe was a trooper and she did half of them herself.  I am so proud of her, because they really were hard to get in.  She’s only 10, and she was doing stuff that was hard even on us adults.

Once we got all the pieces assembled, I placed the walls down onto the base.  That wasn’t so bad, until we got to the last piece.  Because all of the other pieces were down, that last piece is rather tight to get in, but nothing the three of us couldn’t handle!

I figured we were done for the night. We were really tired and mom had the burgers and brats ready.  After we ate, we decided to call it a night.  None of us could move.  All we had left was the roof.  I figured it would be another hour or so to finish.

Next day, after church, I told Zoe that she could play today since she worked so hard yesterday.  I figured she’d like to play a little at least one day of her weekend.

But no.  Zoe was determined to help.  And she did.  I am so proud of her.

That hour job…turned into another 3 hours, but we are done.  Talk about a sense of accomplishment.  Of course, all three of us are sore beyond belief today.

Oh, and I broke my garage window.  I was trying to push the shed away from the garage, and slipped and fell right through the garage window.  It broke in about a million pieces (give or take ten or so).  Several pieces scratched up my car pretty bad, but I suffered no cuts, which is amazing because I went right through that window.

Anyway, here are the pics to prove we did it!

Some churches have tried to “counter” the boring factor by attempting to make it exciting by reaching out to people who have this preconceived notion that church is boring.  While I have nothing against using contemporary means to reach contemporary people, you have to be really careful that it’s not sugar coated and that it contains actual substance.  You see, just like the food we eat, sugar does not sustain us and only satisfies us in the interim, causing us to crave more.  Sure, it might seem ok to leave people craving more of the sweet stuff, but just like food, if we eat only the sweet stuff, we won’t live for long.  We will die.  We need protein, vegetables and grain to grow.

Likewise, spiritually speaking, if we get only the sugar coating, we will not be able to grow spiritually and that’s not good either.  While it may keep people coming back for more, that church is doing nothing but promoting spiritual ADHD. One could say that ultimately, churches like this are spiritually boring.

I guess the question that begs to be asked is, “Why do we go to church?”

Do we go to be entertained?  Or do we go to worship God?

Should WE be entertained?  Is church about US?

Ok, that’s a trick question, I know.  There are a lot of people that meet Jesus for the very first time in church, but still church is not about them…it’s about God.  God brought them there to hear His message and spoke to their hearts to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The angels rejoice every time someone comes to that knowledge.  That’s certainly not boring!

Perhaps church might seem boring to you because you yourself are not close to God.  Think about this…if you are close to someone, you want to spend as much time as possible with that person.  Just being in the same room as that person is good enough to keep you going for an eternity.  You want to know as much as possible about that person.

Why do you go to church?  Do you go for God or to be personally entertained?  If you are close to God,   you want to know as much as possible about Him.  We can’t possible come close to knowing all there is not know about God, so don’t try to kid yourself into thinking you can’t learn more.   So, if you are looking for entertainment while sitting among other people who are there to worship God and to listen to God’s message, of course YOU will be bored, but is it fair to call church boring?  You aren’t there for the right reasons.

Is church the only time and place that you are actually a Christian?  It shouldn’t be.  If you are truly a Christian, then it is safe to presume that you love God.  Loving God, like loving anyone else, means you want to know all there is to know about Him.  Knowing all there is to know about anyone means you have to study on your own as well.  Surely you can’t know all there is to know about someone from setting aside one measly hour a week to listen to a sermon.

Ok, so, what is it about church that makes it boring to you then?

Is it the singing?  As a whole, people love music and singing.  While some won’t admit to it, there are few people that truly hate music and singing.  In fact, how many tunes and jingles can we think of when thinking about various products we enjoy using.  Why isn’t singing about God as enjoyable as singing about Big Macs?

Is it the praying?  Again, if God means anything at all to you, you WANT to talk to him.  Praying is how you do that.

Is it sitting still and paying attention that is boring to you?  Again, if God means anything at all to you, you want to pay attention to His word.  Funny how people can tell you every detail about certain movies that they enjoy that last 2+ hours but can’t recall a single detail of last Sunday’s sermon.

It seems to me that spiritual things are only boring when you simply just don’t care.

That being said, if your church isn’t teaching you about God, maybe that is why you are bored. Go find a new church.

“Dear Jesus, thank you.  That’s all. Amen.”

You know, us adults might find that silly or we might feel we are too mature for such a simplistic prayer.  We seem to think that our prayers should be Nobel contenders or should make people envious of our great prayer skills, but you know what?

Then a few nights ago, when I was putting one of my daughters to bed, who had been in some trouble that day for not obeying prayed the following:

“Dear Jesus, I thank you for mommy and daddy and that they love me even when I disobey them.  Please help them to forgive me and give them new experiences tomorrow.”

There is a reason Jesus said not to suffer the little children to come to Him. There is a reason Jesus said that we must be like a child to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

I wonder if sometimes when we pray our big fancy prayers with big fancy words, if they get filed into the “Heard that before” category.  You know…the same category us parents put many of the daily ramblings of our children into.  The category that’s not quite ignored, but not really acted upon in a fast way because it’s the same thing day in and day out.

But the prayers of our little ones, that are spoken in utmost sincerity and open honesty are the ones that get heard and touch our Father’s heart the most.

Maybe we need to learn to pray.  First, perhaps, we should learn how NOT to pray.  The big fancy words might impress our friends and other church members, but they don’t impress God at all.  I always find it amusing when people pray in Old English as if that is the language God speaks just because their KJV Bibles are written in that way.

I think that it’s the “Dear Jesus, thank You, that’s all” prayers from 2 year olds that will always bring pleasure to Him.

In July, the official rules will now state that Proper nouns ARE, in fact, allowed. Names, Brands, Places, States, etc. Mattel feels this will introduce a whole new generation to the game and get more people playing it.

Unfortunately, I agree.  But I think that is a bad thing.

People that have a hard time spelling will be able to place something like “Hesapeo” and say “Oh, that’s the name of someone I go to school with.”  There will be no limits to the words that people will be able to play and “get away with” claiming it’s an alternate spelling to someone’s name or a place, or a food item they love.

In other words, they are making it easier for people to “be stupid.”

Education is taking a backseat to laziness with the current generation, and it’s really frustrating, and scary.  Rather than enforcing grammar rules, we allow a new “dialect” to be created called “ebonics” which is an insult to the intelligence of all of us that have to hear it on a daily basis.

Today’s society really caters to the lazy and it’s justified as being convenient or “more entertaining.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love my modern day conveniences like my universal remote, my cell phone, my mp3 player, my PS3, etc., but I also know when it’s time to do important things like go to work, mow the lawn, do things with the family.  I try not to let the modern things get in the way of the important things.

But changing the rules to make a classic board game more accessible to those that don’t know enough words in the English language to play is just plain redonculous  (yes I know that word is not a real word and thus is not found in the official Collier Scrabble Dictionary).

This article touches on three ways that the world usually can tell we are Christians by our love.  Of course, I am not only talking about real love…I’m talking about the love of junk and being right as well.

They Know We Are Christians By Our Love…
Of Junk

Most of you that have known me for a while know that I have talked about this before.  Jesus Junk is so popular these days.  It’s always amazing how we’ll pay $25 for a T-Shirt that says “Got Jesus?” and think it’s the funniest, most original thing since, well, milk.  Today, I feel that many Christians are marketing God just to make money from the sheep that will buy anything just because it says “Jesus” on it.  Couldn’t that money be put to better use?  How is this any different than what the money changers were doing in the temple in the 2nd chapter of the book of John and the end of the other 3 gospels.  In fact, it was so important, that it is one of the only events other than the birth and resurrection of Christ that IS actually repeated in all 4 gospels.

The book of John describes the event a little more than the other three.  Basically, they were turning the temple into a market to take advantage of the poor in requiring people to exchange their “lesser” currency for the “proper” currency needed in order to buy sacrificial animals and doves.  They were selling the animals at extremely inflated prices and also charging inflated prices for the money exchange.  The thing is, even if they had the “proper” currency, they were still required to exchange it for “clean” currency to “ensure” that the currency wasn’t used for “unclean” things.

Now, I’m not saying not to purchase things from a Christian bookstore.  There are plenty of great things to buy, like Eric Wilson books, Ted Dekker books, Robert Liparulo books, Travis Thrasher books, Austin Boyd books and plenty of good music you might like.  Granted, most of those items can be purchased a LOT cheaper at other outlets or on Amazon, but on sale days and with proper coupons, you can usually do pretty well.

What does disappoint me with the Christian bookstores (at least the big, National chains), is that they are completely ok with setting aside convictions (if they have any) in order to make a buck (or fifty).  Why the gimmicky stuff that has no real purpose other than making someone else a whole lot of money just because they had the “ingenuity” to take a secular catch phase, “Christify” it, repackage it, mark it up 400% and laugh all the way to the bank?   Obviously, I have nothing against Jesus, His name, or even merchandise that may in some way include His name, but, I think it’s a shame that the majority of said merchandise is nothing more than parodying a secular logo or idea.

Taking God’s name in vain is a whole lot more than using his name as a cuss word.  Taking someone’s name in vain actually means using it without meaning or conviction.

Another big issue with a “Major Chain” Christian store is the way they treat their employees and their management style.  This whole “management through fear” thing they are doing is just not right.  While “Whatever it takes to get the job done” seems like a good “Christian” idea, in practice, it isn’t being used well at all.  When they are asking their employees to work off the clock, not taking breaks, and not getting to eat their lunch, they are not only breaking laws, but not promoting a good work environment at all.   Not only that, they are encouraging their employees to get customers to sign up for the store’s BofA Credit Card (because, you know, being in Debt is Godly and holy), they are now requiring suggested selling of items.  If they don’t sell a certain amount of these “special items”, the store gets marked down.

I , as a customer, hate to be sold things under pressure.

Unfortunately, I can go on and on about that, but I’d be crossing the line into the following category.

They Know We Are Christians By Our Love…
Of Pointing Out Faults.

One thing that has really been on my mind lately is the way it is so easy to allow ourselves to be consumed by things we shouldn’t be.  We take things so personally.  If someone offends us or wrongs us in some way, we make it our mission to find 100 other things that that person does to offend us as well.  Why don’t we just move on?  Instead, we almost stalk the person, watching their every move, just waiting to watch them hang themselves, or perhaps waiting for that perfect moment to slip that noose around their neck when they aren’t looking.  It’s important to us to make sure everyone around us knows just what that person did to wrong us, or how that person is making bad choices for their own lives.

Reminds me of a little thing that Jesus said.  You know, something about removing that plank from our own eyes before pointing out the speck in someone else’s?   While that was Jesus showing perhaps a sense of humor, He did so with a really good point.  We tend to ignore our own faults while making sure the world knows of everyone else’s problems.

Understand me when I say that I am pointing fingers at myself.  This is an area that tends to be hard for me, and I know a lot of others as well.  We love to gossip.  We love to make ourselves look good, even at the expense of others.

I don’t believe this is in any way honoring to God.

What if HE did that?  We would have no chance in Hell (excuse the pun).

Remember, if someone wrongs us, there is a very specific guideline we are to follow, mapped out in Mathew 18.  First we approach the person to talk to them.  If that doesn’t work, you take one or two other people.  If that doesn’t work, you tell the church. (That doesn’t mean everybody in the world).

BUT, the part we miss…if that doesn’t work, you don’t continue berating and gossiping…you ignore it.  You move on.

We have a hard time with that moving on part, perhaps because it’s more fun to continue riding our holy high horses and trample those underneath us.

But Do They Know We Are Christians By Our Love…
Of Other People?

This is where a great number of us fail at times.  It’s easy to say “Sure, I love other people” but in the words of DC Talk, remember, “luv is a verb.” In other words, love is an action, not words.  And if we truly love people like we say we do, that means we love ALL people, not just the people we want to love.

Jesus says to love our neighbors.  Even when those neighbors might be enemies.

In fact, there is only one commandment greater than this, and that’s Love the Lord your God with all your heart.  Matthew 22:36-40 says that this is the greatest commandment of all, and the second greatest is just like it.  Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Since Jesus gave us this commandment, and since He is God, failure to obey the second commandment is failure to obey the first as well.

So, our challenge today is making sure that the world knows we are Christians by our love in the sense of The Greatest Commandment and the Second Greatest commandment. Not the junk we collect or the holy high horses we ride upon.

While the lyrics were sound before with the line “I’d be damned if you did not save me / I’d be damned if You did not die / I’d be damned if on the third day / If from the grave you did not rise”, I decided I didn’t want my kids going around saying I’d be damned.

The new lyrics are mostly the same other than everywhere it used to say “I’d be damned” it now says “where would I be?” I think I actually like it better.

I redid all the vox today and really like the way it now sounds.

Here are the complete lyrics.  Stay tuned for a sample of the song…

Where Would I Be?
(C)2006 / 2010 Midiboy Music
Words: Gregg Hart

It isn’t about what I deserve, because if it was, I’d have no chance
Sometimes I’d run away if I thought I could, given the right circumstance
But I can’t, no I can’t, so I won’t, no I won’t, because I would not get too far
Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, every time of day, right there is where You are

Where would I be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise

If I were to get what I have coming, I couldn’t complain, justice would be served
But Your mercy, Oh God, and your grace, Oh Lord,  are never ever ever ever deserved
When your amazing grace came down, it saved me from my destiny
To You, oh Lord, my praise belongs, for you have made me see

Where I would be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise