nothing in common
There are things that we’ve got no business sympathizing, empathizing or identifying with in any way. The kingdom of God is about plundering the demonic realm of everything it thinks it has claims on - which is a simple matter of speaking out of the authority given to us. Yesterday, today and forever, Christ’s love is demonstrated by bringing freedom, not commiseration.
There is no need to try to understand darkness, dig up stories of the darkness that we used to live in, or even talk about the twisted perverted works of darkness under the guise of “there but for the grace of God go I.” All this breeds is a dumb vulnerable fascination with something we really want absolutely nothing in common with. Slip out on these conversations, turn off these songs, shut off these movies - develop a quick response of “there’s nothing here for me.” Just as Proverbs says when describing the mind of the adulteress, “Her ways are movable (always shifting), you cannot know her.” So don’t even bother.
Darkness doesn’t need to be understood to be exposed. The way to deal with darkness is to turn on the light.
Great post. I’m sick of hearing testimonies where someone spends 2 hours talking about how bad they used to be and then 5 minutes talking about how good God is. We are saved for a new life not just the end of the old one
Ah yes those. It’d almost be OK if it were just testimonies - someone can always come up, take the mic & switch gears quickly. We’re seeing a whole culture built up around a message of “I’m really just like you, only I have faith.” It’s kind of become this generation’s version of “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” Only trying way way harder to convince the world we get it.
People sing songs about it, write books about it, shoot films about it, even plan churches around it…it sounds so non-threatening and unpretentious. “We deal with all the same things, we’re just as vulnerable and compromised, we’re just as twisted and damaged as you.” It’s supposed to be the polar opposite of a pointless holier-than-thou message. But what it doesn’t get is that it doesn’t matter how you dress the hypocrisy up. Claiming to not be any different from the world is just as massively disappointing as claiming to be in Christ and secretly living like the devil. Compromised powerless godstuff turns people OFF to God period - with or without disclaimers.
Here’s the crucial question we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves - if we’re really just like the world only we have faith, why would the world ever want that faith?
Hello.
I was going to comment on a point, but you more than cleared it up in the response. I started looking here because I love your music (any plans to play New Hampshire?) but I am encouraging people regardless of musical taste to check out and read your web page. I love how real you are about Christ in your music. It firs with your writing.
I can’t really say anything too fancy here, except for the fact that I’m sitting here at work, jumping over to this website to get some encouragement, and I get blasted with a new spiritual revelation.
PRAISE GOD!
Please take a moment to check out a very informative blog post about http://www.souljunk.com:
http://www.menofisraelrecords.com/Welcome Corporate Spies/885326DE-C23D-476F-AA09-8F40CFD2E39A.html
I’ve always liked that unicorn T-shirt
I agree with Richie too. When I read this, it reminded me of a guy named Jim White who referred to those “testimonies” as “that’s not a testimony! That’s disgusting!!”