The Man form George Street

I just watched a thing about the man from George Street. I am awed by what this guy did and I have 2 or 3 observations about him.

First, he is truly an amazing person, to work so hard and so long without any know results to hang his hat on. But perhaps it had to be that way to keep him from being prideful. I know from my own experience that I get prideful real easily. If you give me a little bit of power, and I turn in to a monster. So I hope I can get that pride under control so I don’t go my whole life without seeing the effect that I had on others. And if the Lord deems otherwise I pray that he also gives me the strength to keep going despite how fruitless it looks.

Second, after I watched this I said to myself if I could do just a tenth of what he did that would be awesome. Why do we (I) settle for so much less then what God wants. We should be like Elisha and ask for a double portion of what he did.

Third, everyone here should want to do this. But feels in some way unsure or scared of how to go about it. The thing is we (I) should just go out there and open our mouths. The whole while praying that god will give us the words.

whys are wise

Awhile back I heard a clip on Way of the Master Radio. This clip was a montage of witness encounters, where people professed to know Christ as a savior, but could not explain what they were saved from. this worries me; that we church goers and pastors care more about how to life a more Christian life, than about the setting a solid foundation. Ok, yes, we do need to know the how. But what good is a how if we don’t know the why. I firmly believe that one good why is as good as 20 good hows. E.g. ideal gas law is a why, from that we can understand how refrigeration work, how 4 stroke, 2 stroke, and diesel engines work, how planes fly, how the weather works, and many more things. So, why is it that so many churches only teach sermons like “how to live a faith full life”, “how to be a better you”, “how to have peace in your life”, and ect. Alright, so that is the problem as I see it.

So why do we need to fix it. So people can have a solid foundation; so they can answer the question “what did Christ save you from?”. I know, it’s hard to understand, it’s boring, people have heard it before, it doesn’t pull people in off the street. I’ll answer these one at a time. First, “it doesn’t pull people in”, well what good does it do them if they don’t hear the gospel in church. They can just as easily not hear the gospel on the street, and without the all the hypocrisies and impositions. Next, “people have heard it before”, well we are people and we forget. We need to be told over and over. Vince Lombardi in the training can after winning a super bowl the previous year to his professional player “we need to get back to the basics. Gentlemen, this is a football”. Re-hearing the basics is good for the people that have heard it before, but it is even better for the countless number of first time visitors. Thirdly “it’s boring”; boring how can you say that! If it’s boring, you may need to check you conversion. Because, for a Christian there should be nothing more exciting and heart wrenching than to hear that, while we were filthy, rotten, evil, bad, sinful men, that have nothing of any worth and no desire to follow Christ, He died for us. Lastly “it’s hard to understand”, yes, God’s sovereignty and mans responsibility is hard. So is explaining the Trinity in such a way that everyone understands and at the same time no gets confused and believes a heresy. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we should not do it.

Hopefully if we all can get back to the basics then we won’t have people like the one in the way of the master montage

“Know your Savior”

How can you have a savior,
When you don’t know what you’re saved from?
You don’t know where you came from.
You don’t know all His names done.

What you lack in wisdom,
You make up in rebellion.
You live a life that’s loathsome.
Read the word and grow some.

All your, good and righteous works,
Are nothing but cow dung
In the nostrils of God’s son.
A stench filling his lungs.

If you want to change this,
You need to be undone.
Realize your sin’s sum.
Get on your knees and pray some.

Repentance is the only way,
So turn your back on where you came from.
This is what His names done.
Bought your salvation.

the poem "Know your savior” is copyrighted by Chris Carey 2008

Authorship and Authority

There is an anime I like called “Bleach”; in it the characters have special spirit powers. They use these powers to send souls to soul society (heaven) and hollows (demons) to hell. Their weapon of choice is a sword called a soul slayer. I think that this is a good allegory for the Christian life. As Christians we have special spirit power, some heal, some teach, some prophesy, and the rest( 1 Cor. 12:7-10). We fight against the powers of hell, and win souls to Christ (Eph 6:12, Mat. 28:19-20). And the final point that are weapon is a sword called the word of God that we use to slay souls (make them dead to sin)(Eph 6:17,Romans 6:1-8). While this is a good thought I sincerely doubt that this is what the author had intended. So, who is right? Am I the one with the final say, since I’m the final user of it before it enters my brain? Or does the one who wrote it have the final say since he made it? who has the right to say what something means? As you can tell by the title of this post, I think that the author of the work has the sole authority. So, my way of looking at Bleach is most likely wrong. The only way I can find what the meaning of the anime, is to ask the author.

Many people today, seem to take opposite view, especially in the area of religion. They want to say that they make their own reality. That they to say that, since I’m the end user, I’m the final authority on what is true in my life. This is post modernism and for a long time now it has invaded the church, in the form of the emergent movement. The thing is they can no more change truth, morality, or God by the way they think, than I can change the meaning of Bleach by the way I think. God is the creator, the author of all things so to find absolute truth or morality we need to ask God what he means by all this. And he will answer us thru prayer and meditating on his word. As in all things it always comes back to his word. Read it, study it, meditate on it, and believe it. Sola scripture

Meaning?

What does this poem mean to you?
When you read this thru and thru,
Does it warm your heart or make you blue?
What does this poem mean to you?

What do you see in the stars?
When you gaze at them afar,
Do you see a big bang or God’s pow’r?
What do you see in the stars?

What does this poem mean to me?
That’s what the question should be,
Since I’m the Author it’s authority.
What does this poem mean to me?

What does this world mean to God?
That question shouldn't seem odd.
since the world he made un-flawed.
What does this world mean to God?

the poem "meaning?" is copyrighted by Chris Carey 2008

PS if you want to read more and better arguments about post modernism of the emergent church go to the pyromaniacs blog (click here) team pyro is the only blog I read on a daily basis. Also listen to some of the archives of “let my people think” (click here) radio broadcast in particular “Absolute Truth in Relative Terms” is a very good place to start

First post and rules for commenting

This blog is going to be, most likely, a boring place for anyone not me. I don’t think my I have anything important to say. I don’t think I write with any great style. In fact, I think that my grammar and spelling are sub-high school level. I don’t have any ideas of grander. I do think that I have learned a lot from many people and places, and I plan to regurgitate it here. My reason for writing a blog is twofold; first I heard it said that you never know something until you can explain it and never understand it until you experience it. Second reason for writing is just to express myself. I have ideas that pop into my head and have nowhere to go.

My plan is to write once a week. By not writing more than once a week should keep me from being too shallow. Not saying that I won’t have shallow posts; just minimizing the likelihood of shallowness. Also, anymore than this would be too much work. I want this to be fun ( a pleasure)not work. I have come to an understanding, after reading many of C.S Lewis books, that true pleasure is derived from God and points to God. Pleasure can be perverted by us humans. This perversion comes by desiring the pleasure more than the pleasure giver (lust) or by turning the pleasure in to work. I have seen in my life pleasure being turned into work many times. As an example that is relevant to most people is reading books. all through school, up till my last English class in college, reading was work. But now, and since my sophomore year in college, I have enjoyed reading. A second example from my life was with football. I have always loved football. Some of my earliest memories were crying after the browns lost to the infamous drive. I would play imaginary games in my back yard when I was 7. Then when I was in college because of the amount of effort needed for practice and weights and film study I lost the pleasure of it. Thankfully I never lost the love so the pleasure of it came back in short time. Tangent, in my mind love and pleasure are like a logic problem; all things John finds pleasure in, he also loves: some things John loves he also finds pleasure in. If John loves snow does he find pleasure in it? Nope because of the word “some”. I’m sure there is a good marriage example but since I’m not married, nor have I ever been, I’ll refrain. The point is I want to enjoy this.

What my reader, if there are any, can do for me, is help with this horrible thing we call a langue. I have had just one college level writing class. I guess that engineering students don’t need to know how to write well. Several things that I’m really bad with are homophones, grammar (by grammar I mean when to use commas, semi colons, parenthetical remarks), knowing when to start a new paragraph, and spelling. If you wish at any time to correct these things I would sincerely appreciate it. However, please be constructive in the correction. Tell me why what I did was wrong, how to correct it, and how to stop from doing it again. Also keep the corrections on a normal level, 80% of the world doesn’t know what a split infinitive is nor do they care.

And to close out my first post; some rules on how to comment.

1. No profanity. (no swear word, don’t use God’s name in vain, acronyms and symbols are the same as the word, when quoting the KJV ass is ok when referring to donkeys)

2. Keep threads on topic ( exceptions will be made for English lessons just make sure it gets right back on track)

3. Be civil. (Insult me if you must not my friends, family, or church. In reality there is no reason to insult anyone. If your argument is so weak that you feel the need to insult perhaps you should change your view or hold your peace)

4. Minimize sarcasm ( it can be a useful tool to make a point but it is hard to pick it up on in written form, also it can be insulting)

5. I will not responded to all comments (if I want to I will, but I don’t get upset. And I for sure will not respond to arguments that will end in a stale mate. Such as if the gifts of the spirit are still in use or not)

6. No trolling

7. I run this blog my thought opinions and rules are subject to change with my whim but I don’t like change

(in the “Screwtape Letters” C. S. Lewis talks about pleasure being God’s territory, and the older devil tells the younger devil to turn the pleasure in to work. Since, he is worried that the pleasure will lead the soul to God. And the part about desiring pleasure more than the giver of pleasure I’m sure I heard that or something like that from someone else)