Eat some humble pie!

Well, I’m here chilling at the Word Retreat of the Year. We got some really cool high schoolers. Elli, Jordan, Boggs, and even Ryan all got up to talk about how others and the Lord Jesus Christ have been changing their lives! I remember back in the day that these kids were straight-up punks! Mean, lean, prideful mofos! And here they are today, making themselves vulnerable to their friends, and being grateful for the shit their friends had to put up with when they had to battle with their shit, their pride, their sin. There was some serious tear jerkers as well! It’s so beautiful to see these high school punks being so sincere and thankful for the shit they put others through, they’re building some significance! Why the fuck are these guys being so humble! A bigger question, why is being humble such a powerful thing??

Rich began this retreat with a teaching about humbleness, why the heck would a teaching on humbleness even incite any excite from a bunch of high schoolers? If that were me in the day, I’d be like dude! This shit is laaaaaame! You know what, though, it wouldn’t be just high schoolers, the world is lead by punks. Like the Rock, that dude has built a kingdom around himself, he earned his significance through ‘Layin’ the Smack Down’ and pinning his opponent to the ground!

Behold, the People's Elbow!

That is how the world system works! It’s all about being able to lay the smack down! Being able to beat your opponent to a pulp, then being declared the victor! The Rock is the perfect image of power in the world system. It’s about muscle, badassness, talkin’ smack, and being able to lay the smack down! It’s a system that builds itself up by tearing relationships down! It’s a system that builds autonomy, pride, and selfish ambition. But it doesn’t work! The Rock may be able to sit down in his throne of the Wrestling kingdom, but truthfully, is he really significant? He’s spent his life destroying the lives of others in the ring, and what’s with him at the top? Nothing! He’s on a throne where everyone hates him. The only reason why he’s got fans is because he hasn’t had to lay the smack down on them! He’s built his entire life around destruction, but what has he got to look forward to? He’s nothing but icon to the world, but in real life, he’s got no significance! He’s got no real love relationships! He’s made himself isolated, but it’s not all his fault. It’s how the system works! It’swhat the world promotes! Building a life of autonomy from everyone else, and holding out for yourself!

I saw the movie, The Wrestler, a couple months ago and that did an amazing job of depicting how cruel and evil this world is. It’s about this all-star wrestler (just like the Rock), and he’s grown old, he’s become a thing of the past and his fans have moved on. Where did he end up after he lost his precious wrestling career? He ended up with nothing! He was a old hag, living in a trailer park, without enough money to even pay for his rent! He’s useless, and there’s nothing he can do to gain the significance he once had because truthfully, the significance the world offers is extremely finite and only lasts for a few years or not even that much! It’s like that with everyone. You go to school, get a career, but once you reach your expiration date of usefulness to the system, you’re thrown out! You’re left with nothing! This is the way of the world, but Jesus Christ created something that last forever, love relationships.

Let the Love of the Brethren Continue!

That’s why it’s so cool to see these guys making themselves humble and vulnerable! They’re building some love relationships! They’re building up relationships that they can take with them for eternity! But they ain’t wimps either! Today, Christianity has become the puss and judgmental stereotype. Christians are running into their little nests. Their churches. And hiding from the real world! And they’re becoming losers! But why? Jesus Christ came and created such havoc and uproar in the Roman and Jewish civilization that all they could was kill him! But even that didn’t stop Him! Jesus Christ was the biggest badass in all of history! But how? All he came with was humbleness, kindness, and love. How does love create such an uproar? Such a havoc that the world could only kill him to try and stop him? It’s because God’s love is all about freedom! When Christ came, he exposed the Jewish leaders for their hypocrisy. He proclaimed himself to be God. He came to set the world free!

Gal 5:1
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
NASU

So why go puss? Because Christians today have lost substance. Why did that happen? Because they turn to autonomy! They turned to the system! Christians today build institutions, buildings that cost time, effort, and most of all money. The system is the institution! Christ came to disestablish what the evil one has created! Not create another institution! Jesus came to tear down the isolation, tear down the undercurrents of hate and deception. He came to bring life, joy, and significance! Honestly, how can we have significance if we were just created randomly, or when we die we just end up like a minuscule bug… No, Christ came to rise us up! He came to replace our cold, dead hearts and gives us a tender, loving, caring heart!

Eph 2:4-6
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
NASU

Christ came to make us alive and place us as authorities in heaven with him! He came to place us in a position of real power. That’s so fucking cool! It is so awesome to know that the God of the universe loves me and all his creation so much that’d be willing to offer us a way to be Kings along side his Son! And it is exciting to be apart of something that goes against everything the world system builds and represent. Praise God! Let’s tear down this bullshit system that does nothing but try to tear down the relationships that matter! Let’s rock this bitch!

Lets Disastablish the Establishment!

So in a nutshell, I am super excited to see what this Word ministry can do. These guys have a heart and a fire to spread the Word and burn down the institutions that work to destroy the Gospel of the Lord. These guys have got some power and significance, and I know the Lord is going to be changing some lives! Let the love of the brethren continue…

Welcome to Zombieland

Well today has been a sweet day, pulled an all-nighter, slept through my first two classes (oopsy daisy), could barely keep my eyes open in Chem (but didn’t sleep through it), had discipleship with Joel and Tom, studied for my teaching, took a nap, taught  (for the first time in basically a year), saw Zombieland (proud sponsor of twinkies), read Tom’s blog, and now am writing this blog. It’s been very edifying getting under the Lord’s authority and finally teaching his word! I decided I wanted to write a blog because of the insight I got from my rap on suffering and utterly powerful and beautiful it is.

Suffering is a not-so-talked-about topic in Christianity these days. I mean, why would suffering even seem like an enjoyable thing to talk about? In our culture, it’s all about fulfilling your deepest desires. The desire for money, fame, acceptance, power, and even feelings of love through sex, drugs, and alcohol. It’s such a contrast to what God has designed for us! People today are very shallow in their hopes and dreams, striving to be like celebrities with fucked up personal lives. All just to have the fame and popularity. Why strive for something so temporary as that? Well, it’s because we strive to rebel! Rebel against God! We strive to be our own God!

Living the American Dream

The American Dream is all about being able to make it for yourself, without help from anyone else. Own a home, get paid well, and having a family that looks happy and nice. Seems like an appealing life to me! It’s all about growing up, getting an education,  starting a career, settling down with a family, growing old in a nice home, and then death. Oh wait, death? That doesn’t sound too appealing at all! That’s the secret to the American Dream, the world system, the Kosmos. Death. We live in a world that’s only temporary. And it’s utter bullshit! Why the fuck do we put up with the fact that everyone has an expiration date? The fact that the people we love and care for will never come back once their gone? This is the way of the world system. Death. And it’s the exact opposite of what God had designed for us!

The truth is, we do live in Zombieland. We live in a world of corpses walking around waiting for their expiration date to transpire. We live in a world that revolves around hate. That’s what it really comes down to! It’s what makes such beautiful things like landscapes, relationships, and the universe seem so sad because we live in a world were we have no real love relationships. Down to the very core, we all are out for ourselves. Ready to blow away anyone who’s inner zombie rises to the surface. It’s so heart breaking! Why do we have to blow away the people we love just because we finally see their inner zombie? The disgusting truth that we’re all so deeply fallen from the image of God? It’s the unnatural feeling of heart break, that reveals the truth of this world system. This is not how the world is supposed to be.

We weren’t designed to be this way. We were meant for so much more. We weren’t meant to destroy the relationships we build up in our life times when times get rough, when our inner-zombies are exposed and take us over. We were meant to have Joy! We were designed to delight in the presence of God, and have an eternal, joyful relationship with him! This is why love is so revolutionary to our culture! It is the opposite of the American Dream! It’s Life. It’s the joy and excitement and having eternal relationships. It’s the joy and excitement of being Kings and Queens with significance. We suffer because we fight for a cause that the world hates the most! It’s the love of the brethren that has the world gnashing at the teeth, but also at its knees.

The greatest part of love is that it has authority over hate! It is a concept that our fallen nature cannot overcome or explain! It can evoke emotions of anger, hate, and jealousy, but even more so it evokes joy, hope, humility, and love! With love as our weapon, the evil one doesn’t stand a chance! How do you fight someone who continues to love you, when all you do is humiliate, abuse, persecute, and hate them? How do you break down someone who continues to sing songs of joy when he’s thrown in jail for spreading the love of Christ? How do you control a society, when it’s people are ready to die for the sake of loving the lost? It can’t be done! The love and grace of Jesus Christ has done nothing but grow over the the past 2000 years that it’s been spreading after countless efforts to put it to death!

It's Time for a Love Revolution

The concept of love can dismantle the world system from the inside out. It is a revolution, but a revolution that builds people up, establishes love relationships, and emanates Joy and excitment! It disestablishes the institution, and replaces it with the organic Body of Christ. It turns the concept of autonomy and turns it into repentance and reconciliation to God and relationships. Christ came to flip the world upside down, and there’s no better way than establishing an anti-system of love and unorganized Joy and relationships.

It’s time for the revolution of love to take over Kent State. Things will never be the same…