The Sound

I just saw this music video, by Switchfoot, inspired by a Jubilee speaker from this past year, John Perkins.

Wow! Check it out...



Here are the lyrics:


The Static comes in slow
You can feel it grow
Our stream of conscience flows
Under the streets below

Ooooh

Ooooh

The rivers made of sound
Still running underground
Runs like a silent flood
We run as thick as blood

Ooooh

Ooooh

Can you hear it rise
Up from the ground
Can’t drown it out
Can you hear it now

This is the sound of a heartbeat
This is the sound of the discontented mouths
Of a haunted nation
We are the voice of breaking down

Can you hear me?
This is the sound of the desperation bound
By our own collision
We are the voice of breaking down

The static comes alive
Beneath the broken skies
John Perkins said it right
Love is the final fight

Let it rise above
Rise above
There is no song
Louder than love

This is the sound of a heartbeat
this is the sound of the discontented mouths
of a haunted nation
we are the voice of breaking down

Can you hear me?
This is the sound of the desperation bound
by our own collision
we are the voice of breaking down

Down

Down

Down

Can you hear it rise
Up from the ground
Can't drown it out
Can you hear it now

This is the sound of a heartbeat
This is the sound of the discontented mouths
Of a haunted nation, we are the voice of breaking down

Can you hear me
This is the sound of the desperation bound
by our collision, we are the voice of breaking down

This is the sound
This is the sound

No Line on the Horizon

Here are a few lyrics from U2's latest release, which I have been listening too nearly incessantly for the past two weeks. It gets into my brain:

"Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady"

"Only love, only love can leave such a mark / But only love, only love can heal such a scar. Only love, only love can leave such a mark / But only love, only love unites our hearts / Justified till we die, you and I will magnify / The Magnificent / Magnificent / Magnificent "

Anyhoo...I think it's a great album, you should check it out. Here's what Steve Stockman has to say about it!

Sacredness and Heaven

Well, I recently finished reading The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.  

This book was phenomenal.  I really think it's a book that all college-age (or older) Christians should read.  

It definitely challenged me in very good ways.  I know that I have a passion for knowing things and wanting to be able to explain things.  I'm coming 

to appreciate the freedom found in admitting that I doesn't know everything!  Praise God!  I often am tempted to give answers to people that do not leave them hungry for more...for going deeper.  I often find myself wanting to be able to give the perfect answer--air-tight, no holes, no way out.  This inevitably leads to suffocation.

Now, don't get me wrong, please please please seek answers!  Ask big questions, and look for big answers.  The problem is not with having answers...the problem is when we think our answers are the end of the line; when we think we have things sooo figured out, 

that there are no more valid questions to be asked.  When we cease to ask questions, perhaps this is the tell-tale sign that we think we are fully self-sufficient, making idols of ourselves.

Here's a blurb from Zondervan about the book: 

Is Your God Big Enough to Be Questioned?   

The freedom to question is an indispensable and sacred practice that is absolutely vital to the health of our communities.  

 According to author David Dark, when religion won’t tolerate questions, objections, or differences of opinion, and when it only brings to the table threats of excommunication, violence, and hellfire, it obstructs our ability to think, em

pathize, and live lives of authenticity and genuine engagement.

The God of the Bible not only encourages questions; the God of the Bible demands them. If that were not so, we wouldn’t live in a world of such rich, God-given complexity in which wide-eyed wonder is part and parcel of the human condition. The possibility of redemption and revolution depends on the questions we ask of God, governments, media, and everyday economies.   

It is by way of the questions that we resist the conformity that deadens and come alive to visions that redeem.

Here's a link to get it from Zondervan.  (Click here...you know you want to!)

Here's an interview with David about why he wrote it...check it out!  (Click here)

I know this is a long post already...but I haven't written in a while.

I'll try to be brief here...

I also just finished reading The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis.  Wow!  

I've owned it for about two years, but I only just read it.  I started reading it Friday, and I just finished it yesterday.  I think I read through it in 3 or 4 sittings.  Until the last 3 pages, it's actually a very easy read...but don't let that fool you.  It's very thought provoking.

So, I have to say, between David Dark's book, and C.S. Lewis', I think God is at work in my life.  On several occasions reading Dark's book, I would start to think about topics, or have certain thoughts...and then read further thoughts on those from Dark himself!  Like, God was preparing me to read it ahead of time.

Likewise, with Lewis' book, I had recently been thinking about our freedom of choosing Heaven or Hell...and if that still occurs after death.  I need to research more on the doctrine of Purgatory...

Here's what I've been reading in scripture that makes me wonder...

check it out

What do you think this means?

What was Jesus doing while in Hell if not preaching the Gospel?  

What does "to hold the unrighteous for punishment until the day of judgment" mean?

Make sure, I do not believe in the heretical doctrine of Universalism...I believe Jesus is very clear about this (see Matt. 25)...but what is currently happening after life before the Day of the Lord for those who never knew Jesus before death?

Anyhoo...I was discussing this with a student, and then he asked if I had read The Great Divorce.   I said, "no," but it's here in my bag, I've been wanting to read it for a while now.  Now I know why he asked me...because Lewis deals with this very topic in the story he tells therein.  I highly recommend it.  Check it out.