Category Archives: Venting

The Syrian Proxy War: Solution

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I figured out how to end the Syrian proxy war.

  • Solution for the United States: Only attack ISIS.
  • The only way to handle a big complex problem is a small simple solution. Otherwise you only add to the problem.
  • You will either do one thing, or you will accomplish nothing.
  • You must pick one enemy to fight, and expose your side to the others in the war. You will be saying, “I am not guarding against you, because you are not my enemy.”
  • The nations who watch will be tempted to utilize your vulnerability against you, but usually trust brings out the good in people which secrecy allows to hide.
  • Pick one enemy. The world will not be fault you for attacking the same organized people who attacked Paris and your own nation, and who have behead Christians.
  • What’s more, United Sates, you must pick this one enemy which you had a part in making, because of your involvement with Iraq. ISIS is a monster you helped make. Take responsibility in destroying it.
  • Once ISIS is removed from the equation, start talks of truce.
  • Once the war is over, the Syrian refugees may return home.
  • Then you must turn your attention to your own borders and wipe out the Islamic Extremists that have infiltrated this country.
  • To not attack evil is to harm what is good.
  • To make peace when the real enemy is still at large is premature.
  • So do it, United States. Focus your attack on ISIS. Expose your side to the others. They will stay out of your way, and even if they don’t, turn the other cheek.

Happy Thanksgiving.

An Outcry from the Earth

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The earth raises an outcry!
Stars give birth to sighs and sobs
Evil ones siphon life from the weak.
As angels far and near weep bitter tears

The anguish of eternity strained by a fault
Where the continuum is shattered with corruption.
The Joy of a child is truncated to the impish fear-slave
Who powerfully shapes the world to his cold, imprisoned self.

The ignorance of sticklers too engrossed in their pride
To march in their fury as one brick-burning tide
Of lava born from new and uncultivated earth
To demolish man’s futility and gold of no true worth.

Crusty squabblers talk the wind out of noisy gullets satiated
By the unending torrent of frenzied feedings they crave
While the simpler joys go tasted without gumption
And silence waits his turn to escape the vault.

“How long?” the earth bemoans its weight
It cannot stand to see the angels weep.
The heart of man is like the earth
It bleeds both fire and water.

Vanity (A venting of feelings)

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Futility’s ache of timelessness borne
In a time capsule that drifts downstream
Between eternity past to eternity future
And conveys us before the scrutiny of Angelic eyes

The winding of a clock ticking in purple space
Floating endlessly in an expanse of starry hosts
They study how the Glory of God looks
When flowing steadily in one direction.

AICH! Those capsules that encase eternity entrapped
Down the tube which we call finitude which isn’t so bad
Except for the corruption that has corroded the metal
That would have preserved time’s treasures unwasted

Oh the loss of precious seconds, those synovial drops
By which the clock-works turn their increments
Over and over, made pointless not by the repitition
But the emptiness that accompanies the incredulous tick.

Daddy, Time-Keeper, Heart-lover, friend-forever,
I spit out time into a cup like lukewarm water.
I etch out the daily grind of losses repulsive and unnecessary.
I cry out for meaning in this enterprise I take.

Why do the hours cake over my heart like mud?
Why can’t the hours be burned up in flames
Fuel for the passionate heart that utilizes
All the stuff of life, so nothing goes to waste?

Come, O God, show Your glory in this outcry
Little sense comes from seeking worth in vanity
But instead let me find my worth in You
So that I can somehow maintain humble sanity.

Wow! Jesus really *Did* do everything!

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From July 2015, while I was in Seminary

The Gospel is often stated: “We are sinners, so Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. All you have to do is believe on him, and have a relationship with him, and you’re saved to go to heaven when you die.” That’s true.

But what about when you’ve lost a loved one? What about when you don’t know what to do with your life? What about when you feel like you’ve blown it and can never get back? What about when I am tempted to sin again? What about when I am alone, and burdened, and filled with anxiety about distressing circumstances in the present and the future? What about when I want to avenge my friend who has been abused? What about when I can’t sleep at night? How does Jesus dying on the cross to pay for my sins really help me deal with all of this?

The answer is not forced: there is a lot more to what Jesus did than his dying for our sins. Tonight in class, my professor showed us the whole work of Christ which impacts every aspect of our lives, our guilt, our wounds, our hurts, our lost-ness, our groaning, our purposelessness, our burdens, our vengeance. Here’s the Hope and Comfort of the Gospel revisited in the Seven things Jesus did for us, per Justin Holcomb and Ridderbos.

1. Pre-existed– Jesus always existed with the Father, as the Word of God. Everything good in this world was made through Jesus, so he is worth thanking for every good thing we have. Jesus was the Father’s plan all along.
Because of this, we can have confidence that God is up to something good in the world, something bigger than we can see at any given moment. And to know Jesus personally is to know His wisdom, His plan, His will, and His very thought.

Pretty cool huh? Just wait. It get’s better!

2. Incarnated– God became flesh, and dwelt among us. That means, He knows how to hunger, He knows how to be tired, and to hurt, to be marred, to thirst, to be alone, to be hugged, to sleep, to poop, to eat, taste, smell, hear, touch, see, have a family, speak, communicate, listen, to work, to play, to dance, to run, to walk, to jump, to create, to craft, to shape, to figure things out mathematically, to sing, to laugh! Jesus was completely Human!
Because of this, we can have full assurance that as a little Christ, He has actually showed that all the facets of humanity you were originally created with, are good. He knows how you physically feel, because He has physically felt. He knows how you intellectually think, because He mentally thought. He knows how you emotionally feel, because He emotionally felt. Jesus being incarnated shows that to be human is actually a good thing!

Now before you start thinking I’m un-God-ing Jesus, just wait for the rest. It get’s better!

3. Lived– Jesus lived a sinless life. He was faced with every type of temptation that we are, and he did not sin. So doing, He himself established an eternal reservoir of Righteousness.
Because of this we who are sinful human beings, are given the eternal reservoir of His righteousness to live out in our own daily lives. It is possible, to live as Christ did, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only made possible, because Christ did this on our behalf, and called us forth to the same love and truth He lived out.

Now, really, is this heresy? This sounds too good to be true.

4. Died– Jesus by his death paid the penalty of every human being who ever lived and would live, and by being the second Adam, by his death, he made complete substitutionary atonement for anyone who believed in Him. How could he do that? Because this was God’s plan from the beginning. To redeem the world, by himself paying for it with his own blood.
Because of this, all guilt of the past has no weight. All regrets lose their sting, because Jesus bore upon himself our shame, and our sickness, and death. It is paid for, and you are now free to live fully as what a human being was always created to be: God’s representative on earth, and Earth’s representative before God.

This is the part we always hear. But now we’re getting into the GOOD STUFF!

5. Resurrected– Jesus was proven to be good by being raised from the Dead. Jesus rose and gave us a hope of a life that we live right now that is eternal.
And because he was raised, we have hope after death. But we also have hope for life right now! Because Jesus was resurrected, we have a whole new life right now to walk out of, in the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. Because He was raised, the sick can be healed. Because he was raised, we are raised. We have a sure hope!

6. Ascended– He ascended to the right hand of the father. He is interceding on behalf of his people RIGHT NOW! He is interceding for you! He is drawing all men to himself. He has all authority on earth and in heaven. He is at the hand of all power in the universe. He is ruling from his throne over all the course of world events. He is at work in the world doing something Awesome! He is refashioning the image of God in the world, for the Father’s glory. He is making the church, and He is making a mature man out of many imperfect creatures, made into new creatures.
Because of this, we needn’t worry. God is perfecting His body on earth, and we who believe in Him are that body. He is ruling now, so we get to follow His rule, and See His work first hand through our own hands.

7. Returned– when he returns, and all time is completed, he will exact vengeance upon the earth in the fierceness of His wrath. And once all evil is purged, He will restore all things into a new heaven and new earth.
Because of this, we needn’t avenge ourselves. Instead let us keep cultivating the good that God has given us, which will last forever to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Wow! Jesus really *DID* do everything!

Therefore, what should I do? Sleep! because it’s 11:49 p.m. and I gotta go back to class tomorrow.

Outcry: A Venting of Poetic Anxiety

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AIEE! A shade, a shadow, a block
The sun is bright, but I cannot see
My eyes have seen into the depths
Of what can but must not be

I retch and heave, the asphalt black
Has scorched my feet with trepidation
My riven side is cracked with fever blisters
My tongue is aching with the stomach’s refusal

How brisk this scattered search for light
That my eyes will light on a single star
And pray that it rise like a morning sun
To light my day with hope and life

But here I sit swallowed up with strings
They strangle me with the impediments of actionless-ness
They bite at me like a siphoning stringent strain
That leaves me beleaguered

Except for when I’m with her.
The light of favor in another’s eyes
The buy-in that requite Heaven’s treasures
To see them reflected in the pure pools of a beautiful soul.

But alas should that pool with mud be thick
For then the ways of my feet cannot be quick.
I move like a drunken man, and make myself sick
I strive to break my stride of one man carrying the weight of bricks.

The echoes of a heart that long to be begotten
Lest all its treasures that once fell ripe off the branch might be forgotten!
Nay, it shall not be . . . the light of day comes to make a planet new
But how am I to face the sun, without a bead of dew?

So happens when the eye is drawn to split his view
Between Heaven and Earth to dig the old for the new
To partner with the souls that seek a home
And find a place to rest from life’s torpid foam.

A stirring deep within me centers quietly
Tis goodness to be wrought from His seed planted.
The tired steps I take toward Eve’s bower.
When I do not know if she is even there.

Will I the man find a place for my hand
To till the ground and serve the land
Or will the earth not yield her strength
To make the seed bear fruit again?

A risk to walk one path with Him
And then to join into one way two
Shall I well-serve His pleasure here
And give water to she who still misses her home?

The Mystery of Prophecy: The Eye of the Body

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Let two eyes see
And let the body discern
Let the eye safe-guard his vision
Let the body accept him
Let God be seen

My eyes are weak
The left one is stronger
I see out only one eye at a time
My lenses protect them
I can see for two

The heart is one
The truth must be shared
The body must be able to see Him
To do the work of service
Representing God

With his music
Like tears, his eyes weep
In ecstasy and agony of seeing
He cleans out devil’s dust
So he can see

From his words
The body feels visions
They come to recognize His face
They know His character
They do His will.

More is seen
Than what is focused
The whole is known peripherally
The mind can’t grasp
All of sight.

So a prophet
Sees more than he knows
Telling what he has seen beyond.
Body, listen to his words
He sees Him.

Politics Play

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I feel like I should apologize for this. But history as my witness . . . I will not lest one can show me I am wrong.

The Generation rises to take their stand
Upon the political world stage
To fight for justice and freedom’s brand
That has inked the Declaration’s page.

The stage is set with prop and dot
Where powers quoth their scripted lines
And decisions break like winds of plot
Entangling their opponents in jungle vines.

How proud the idealist takes the floor
His eyes glazed by the light above.
He cannot see the long-locked door
Where no one cares to see or move.

The plays play on, the powers clutch.
The bills are passed, the upstarts fail.
But mighty arms of play power touch
Not the women who weep and men who wail.

Outside the theatre people starve.
The rich feast preying on the undeserving.
The French Revolutionaries carve.
A guillotine for the nerve-less head’s un-nerving.

So men will cast their ballots down
Like tickets to a show they’ll never see.
May God have mercy on the clown
Who thinks the world thus better will be.

The theatre will close. The powers scatter.
The people will seek out the purpose of living.
Then they will remember the soft pitter-patter.
Of the child they lost in their taking and giving.

Tornados in Oklahoma; A Burden for America

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Oklahoma got hit by tornadoes.
There was a sign reported on the news:
A cross hanging on power lines.
A woman said. “God is with us.”
This is my interpretation.

A cross hangs from the power-lines
Lifted unlit by the sun brightened clouds
The judgment of a nation brought down from the sky
Stopped short at the suffering servant raised up
Before the swirling torrent of the Heavens
Which could touch the land with fingers
Not a fist.
There are intercessors fitting into His palm.
Who pray that His hand might open.
He is good. But will He find faith upon the earth?

To you who pray for God to bless America, and to have mercy on us, but are unwilling to get involved, I have this word against you.

Why do you pray
And ask Me for things
When you are unwilling
To do anything
As a part of the solution?
Who do you think I am?
Who do you think you are?

God’s Restorative Word~ Psalm 19:7

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So, last Friday, I didn’t start off my day reading God’s Word. The result was not pretty. I ran around all day trying to do stuff, and it be futile, and trying to plan stuff and it falling through, praying to thank Him and things not getting better.

When I finally got home, I dove into God’s Word, desperate to find Him, and get back to Him. Just one verse,and my flesh was just retching, like a man encased in darkness, who is confronted by a bright light he cannot bear at first. One verse at a time, He restored me. This is what I saw as I wrote in prayer to Him:

Your Word is like a steady diet of meat and potatoes;
You spoon-feed me, and my body convulses as light is tasted again.
O the dark shadows that lick my heart with black flames
Meets a tiny brilliant spark as white as a snowdrop.
And are cast back to their tiny black foothold
Of hurts un-relinquished by my God-hating nature.
The snow drop soothes and bathes my soul
The tears that flow are purified with salt
The embers kindle a bright new flame afresh
And I laugh to thank God for His Good word to me.

Seek His face, and the shadows will be driven away, and the dross will be purged, and the dirtiness cleansed. Seek His face!

True Repentance vs. Forgiving Yourself

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After a weekend at Seminary learning about the gospel in the book of Romans, I was sitting in Sunday School at my church. I noticed my fellow singer in praise team sitting nearby, and Jesus laid it on my heart to pray for her. During Sunday School class about letting go of the past, I understood the following and wrote it down in my journal. I shared it in Sunday School class, and she asked me for a copy of it, because she felt like it was for her. Then she gave that copy to a friend and asked me for another copy so I decided to post it here:

Why is it so hard to forgive myself? Because I’m not letting go of my own being the Judge. I’m beating myself up because I am the one deciding, “This is bad, therefore I will assign my own punishment.” This is foreign to the true repentance of Righteousness. The true repentance of righteousness is releasing your own judgment of right and wrong by which you determine how right or how wrong you are. And once you have released your own standard of right and wrong, that silence is next filled with the terrifying, uncontrollable reality of God’s Righteousness– the true standard of right and wrong. And in looking at the Righteousness of God, we see our sin, and we confess it, and He forgives us, and we are deeply and truly forgiven, because we have a voice of “You are forgiven” from the Father, and not yourself.

So the question is not, forgiving yourself. You don’t have the right to forgive yourself!