Landslide

by

Seven Places

I feel crazy, hope is hazy right now- but I won’t freak out,
I won’t freak out at the sound of the
Landslide inside, fear wants to take my peace of mind.
Won’t run, won’t hide, I will lift my hands up high.
In my troubles I have doubled my prayers.
Because I need them, I need them like I need the air.

Landslide inside, fear wants to take my peace of mind.
Won’t run, won’t hide, I will lift my hands up high.
Here’s to the Name Above All Names, I will trust You Jesus I’ll be brave.

I will live my life day by day.
Because You’re the only Truth, the only Way out of this
Landslide inside, fear wants to take my peace of mind.
Won’t run, won’t hide, I will lift my hands up high.
Here’s to the Name Above All Names, here’s to the only one who saves.
I will trust You Jesus I’ll be brave.

See the music video for “Landslide” on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSXFeUQ32a4

“ Call up one by one the systems of tyranny and aggression and superstition which have cursed the earth, and which have long since disappeared. Call them out of their graves and ask them, ‘Who smote you? What made you pass?’ And one by one they answer, ‘Christ smote us and we died’.”

- Dr. C.E. Macartney

At first glance, the accusation of possible cultic activity transpiring within the hallowed non-walls of Xenos seems not only absurd, but laughably so.

But look at it from the perspective of an outsider:

1. They’re doing things I don’t understand.

1a. These things are making a difference in the attitudes and lifestyles of adolescents, written off by a culture who believes that no good is all an adolescent can be up to.

2. The difference, though positive, is of such depth and bears an all-encompassing aspect which is not easily shrugged off.

3. They keep saying the word “Grace.” As far as I know, grace is what you say before dinner. That’s it.

4. The group as a whole is very closely knit.

4a. I never had friends like that and look upon such groups with suspicion, as any American would.

The logical conclusion to anyone not familiar with the physical manifestation of a life lived completely as if Christ died once for all, is that the group must be a cult. I am convinced to some degree that this is because of the lack of association the typical (even a churched) American has with someone who lives in large part in accordance to biblical writ. To the outsider, whose experience with church was built upon rote, tradition merely for its own sake, clergy and layperson, earning your salvation, etc., a life lived under grace is such a foreign and unwelcome idea that it must be stigmatized in order to be justified.

I surmise that a great many people cannot abide the idea of a God who forgives all, because they know they do not forgive all, and “Who is more like God than me?”

However.

One has to ask if those accusing Xenos-goers of cultic behavior even took the time before their accusation to do any research to find out exactly what earmarks are displayed by a cult and whether Xenos actually bears any of them (which it doesn’t).

What makes Xenos not a cult? Several things.

Also supporting this aspect of Xenos’ non-cultic behavior is our reference to church authority even outside of The Bible- D.A. Carson, Ravi Zacharias, Watchman Nee, etc. These writers and speakers are not cut of the Xenos cloth, yet we look to them for strategy, input, wisdom and insight. Our willingness to consider alternative points of view and then adopting the one which seems to be most founded in Scriptural truth makes us not a cult.

Christianity, in the United States of America, is generally considered to hold certain truth values (I do not also mean that generally speaking, most people live their lives as if it was true). Christianity is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an unfamiliar topic of conversation or something which the average person has not at least experienced in periphery.

————————————————————————————-

I hope this little blog encourages you. We aren’t a cult. Most everyone knows that without even a considering aside. But perhaps someone was wondering deep within the recesses of their mind. I hope this settles it.

“… The world today is a world that has been ‘turned upside down.’ Is the world’s labor today done by slaves? Is one-half the population of the world slaves? Are prisoners when taken in battle put to the sword? Are little children exposed and left to die by their parents on the hillsides, and in the forests? Is woman a plaything and chattel of mankind? To ask these questions is to answer them. The power that wrought this great change was the Gospel of Christ.”

-Dr. C.E. Macartney

j. ramsey

I’m filled with anger- so sick of this society.

It dictates norms and mores- dictates them unto me.

Its plans have just one purpose- telling me what’s normality.

What if I cast it all off? Unburdened by weights, I’m free.

And slow sinks down our culture- asphyxiated eternally,

Suffocated by its own standard- by its stifling density.

Atlantis- myth no longer, survivor to this day.

Swallowed by the sea of truth, our country fades away.

Praise the Lord

When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams,

And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes,

And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears,

Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear.

Praise the Lord!

He can work through those who praise Him!

Praise the Lord!

Our God inhabits praise!

Praise the Lord!

For the chains that seem to bind you

Serve only to remind you

That they drop powerless behind you when you praise Him.

Now Satan is a liar, and he wants to make us think

That we are paupers, but he knows himself- we’re children of the King.

So lift up the mighty shield of faith! The battle must be won!

We know that Jesus Christ is risen, so the work’s already done!

Praise the Lord!

By the age of 24, I had had enough of the mindset, ideology and underlying philosophy of the church which raised me and, with an unsettled heart and a head full of questions, left, thinking “This can’t be all there is to the truth.” However, if you had asked me at that time what my reasons for leaving were, I probably would have attempted to define the vague unease which at that time plagued my heart, soul and mind and would have failed miserably in giving that whisper a soapbox. It wasn’t until more recently, after attending Xenos, that I have been able to effectively articulate the reasons I left that church four years ago.

At that time in my life, the only real philosophical ideology to which I had been submitted was more self-determined than anything else, and therefore incompatible with abundant life as I understood it.

John 10:10

(Amplified Bible)

10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

I just could not reconcile the idea of “life…in abundance” and the current corporate mindset I endured through my immediate experience.

My former church, though the teaching was biblical in conveyance, was closer to the antithesis of biblical instruction in the day-to-day application. This became painfully obvious to me upon my introduction to the Xenos method of building relationships. I suddenly realized that in spite of twenty years of education in the church, my understanding of love began and ended with the famous passage of 1 Cor. 13, where Paul lists qualities of love. If articulated, my thinking may have sounded something like this “Ok, Paul says ‘love is patient.’ So if I’m patient, I’m loving. Paul says ‘love is kind.’ So if I’m kind and patient, I’m really doing well.” I had somehow completely missed the fact that love needs an environment in which to grow and be grown. Just as a plant needs dirt in which to be planted so does the dirt need a context in which to exist as well. Obviously this is the context of relationship where love is concerned. I suppose what I may have been seeking at that time was a sort of general love. I might have been pursuing a “love for all” kind of idea which ended up with me attempting to love in a vacuum. No context means no object in my experience upon whom my love could be attempted and refined! Useless! Vacuous! American!

Our church reflected our American culture. But instead of pointing out to us which parts of our culture were keeping us from knowing God and each other better, and working through, with or around these seeming obstacles, we may have taken our cues more from Captain Kirk and yelled “Shields up!” I have heard someone at Xenos mention a certain church which instructed the congregates to avoid a particular brand of breakfast cereal as that brand was currently festooning its packaging with cartoon depictions advertising the movie Hercules. I remember this dictum being issued at my former church as well, alongside caveats that the other things to be avoided were Halloween, dancing (this isn’t “wrong” per se, it just isn’t allowed at the church), bars, alcoholic drinks, piercing, tattoos, smoking etc. I don’t care to remember how many fruitless minutes I spent in debate with fellow church-goers about how drinking alcohol isn’t technically wrong.

There lies the rub. Anytime you’re talking with fellow believers about what the Bible has to say and someone (perhaps you) uses the word technically, the truth is revealed. My former church didn’t officially endorse such discussions, but when the mindset of the church is “Ok, grace, yeah whatever. Do A, B, C, stay away from D, E, F, ooh, some random person thinks we should stay away from B, but technically…” You’re not serving God anymore. You’re trying to entertain people and impress God. You’re putting on a puppet show as the puppeteer, the puppet and the audience all in one.

You’re more concerned with the law then you are with God’s grace.

You’re more concerned with saving face than saving grace.

Did my former church teach that it was possible to be saved by works? No, it never taught a works-based salvation message. It did, however, lead people to believe that part of a successful Christian life was living in a constant state of panic that some of your current habits would be construed as “inappropriate” and you would be forced to succumb to the will of the congregates.

The Emergent Philosophy

The problems with the emergent church system are numerous. Their underlying ideology is difficult to determine, even by those proponents of it. This in itself is a problem, as there is no group focus, no goal seeking to be attained by all. Some of their main points, as near as I am able to discover, seem to be:

• The soft categorical assertion that true understanding of the Bible only comes with experience, not study.

At times they take this one step further and claim that study of the Bible actually hinders spiritual growth.

• The soft categorical assertion that truth is ultimately unknowable.

This is perhaps best displayed in the argument that:

1. God is infinite. 

2. God is truth. ← A breakdown occurs here in that there is no distinction between God being the revealer of truth and God being the same as truth: God is true but truth is not God.

Therefore

3. Truth is infinite. ← A second breakdown occurs here in that truth is not infinite. A limited number of things are true, even about God. This has, however, no impact on his nature of infinity. It only says “There are qualities God does not possess.” This would only limit the number of true things about him, not the things about him that are true.

And

1. Humans are finite.

2. Finite humans cannot comprehend infinite truth. ←  A third breakdown occurs here as a result of assuming that an infinite God cannot reveal any truth to a mind not capable of comprehending his infinite nature, or that a finite mind is incapable of being revealed to by an infinite God.

 Therefore

3. Humans cannot comprehend truth. ← The final breakdown occurs in the ultimate conclusion. If the conclusion was something like “Humans cannot comprehend infinity,” I would agree with it.

• The desire to avoid allowing internal and external contradiction to cause division.
• The soft categorical desire to avoid coming to any conclusions about the origin, nature and meaning of truth,
• From which naturally follows their desire to avoid reaching conclusions.

This idea I think is best summed up in a quotation from the leader of the emergent group in Columbus, Ohio. In a web log posted on December 12, 2007, he refers to a PBS documentary which had reference to the emergent movement, and encourages his group to watch it. His statement runs as follows, “Since I generally try not to know about things, and have done a pretty good job of this when it comes to my faith, I learned a lot from it.”

• The assertion that the idea of atonement through penal substitution is divine child abuse.
• The assertion that the letters and instruction of Paul “color” the “Gospels” in a certain way and what our view might be if we disregarded his input.

Please note I am still in the process of sifting through the grains of sand that fill this hourglass.  The emergent movement is, as of yet, undefinable.  Thus it is incredibly dangerous as they are not possessive of a SOP.  What focus there is seems to be on “knowing that you don’t know.” This to me has the ring of eastern mysticism where great knowledge is supposedly in aphorisms like “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”  This is actually very close to describing the emergent movement because if you consider one hand to be the study of Scripture, the other hand to be its application to life and the clap to be a successful Christian walk in which one grows closer to God as one grows closer to people, they have removed the hand which values the input of Scripture and are still trying to make a successful clap.

He sees us without our masks.  He sees us without our lies.  And to many in this world He would appear as The Red Death.  How do you see him?

The Interred

j. ramsey

He’s the guest without a mask in this Prospero’s Ball,

The uninvited blood-red stain incurring horror on the faces of all.

They see him- the sick surprise.

He sees you- without the lies.

He sees them- they gawk and stare,

and move in circles to anywhere.

The bastard son of some bastard’s son is the first to seal his fate

And stricken with truths he cannot comprehend is the first served with death on his plate.

First with just one

And then with the others,

Ignoring their wives,

Ignoring their lovers,

The throats of the unclean are opened and cut,

Their necks torn asunder to never be shut.

Their life’s blood runs out and leaks onto the ground

As cries of “It’s Murder!” are heard all around.

But sitting alone and forgotten for now,

I could hear in my ears as the fragments rolled down

Invading words of the whispering wise:

Fire! Fire!

There’s an arsonist here!

Blaze! Blaze!

But what wilting tear

Could you shed to extinguish these lies?

Unspeaking, removed, both my mask and face fell.

I turned to recieve but could hear no death’s bell.

No lingering toll,

No wisp of a cut,

No lack of a soul,

No neck unshut.

For me, a forgiveness

As The Maskless reached up

And lifted his own head

And his own neck he cut.

It’s tattooed on my left arm- Pride Kills.  The tattoo, like this poem, address the idea that self-pride is ultimately what keeps us from acknowledging the Lord Jesus as Savior.

The Pallbearers of Hope

j. ramsey

Strangulation,

Execution,

How have I come this far?

In spite of relentless opposition

I’ve set my sights upon His star.

Somehow it shines so brightly,

Yet so few are those who see-

As the few who, long ago, brought gifts and tempest

To that Child, falling to their knees.

Dimly- eyes of pagan glories

Blink and bat,

Grow old and fat.

Wasted- eyes of truth revealers

Roll and stare,

Become less aware.

Numb to the moving of His hand’s progress,

We retreat into shells of ourselves- nameless.

Just us, not Him,

Though walls are thin,

We can’t hear the knocking

Over selfish mocking.

Look now!  It’s your pride on the gallows.

And somehow it will hang today.

Against your will, or with it,

You both will die, or it will fade away.

Few things are more disgusting to me than All-You-Can-Eat-Buffets.  Whenever I see one, images are conjured up in my mind of picnic food laying unattended in the sun with flies, ants, and centipedes having their way with it as an unattended child, hands gleaming with the grease of an earlier food encounter, shovels steaming mayonnaise into its mouth.

Last night I ruined a personal record in avoiding buffets when I attended “Golden Corral” with my family in the celebration of my grandmother’s 86th birthday.  It took only five minutes for me to remember what made me avoid them in the first place.

I’ll ignore the fact that the floor was sticky, the chairs were sticky, the tables were sticky, the walls were sticky, the employees appeared to be sticky, and after 10 minutes somehow my hands were sticky.

I’ll ignore how the line to the cashier resembled the weave of those steel railings which lead to a ride at an amusement park.

“ALL YOU CAN EAT! $9.99” a sign screeched in bright red lettering at anyone in the foyer of the restaurant. The sign only said All you CAN eat! Not ‘All you should eat’ or ‘All that is healthy to eat’ or ‘All we’ll allow you to eat.’ Noooo, it was all you CAN eat. If you’re able to eat it, you’re allowed to eat it, because you should and it’s healthy! Basically I think they were saying that most people might want to chew their food but if you are in that minority of the population that considers chewing an affront to common social standards, by all means, gulp your food the way a thirsty person gulps refreshing water.

Ah-choo! *sniff*

A few years ago I came to the independent conclusion that anything which needs a so-called “Sneeze shield” to protect it isn’t going to find its way into my mouth. You know what a sneeze shield is. It’s the big slanted piece of glass you stare through and see the food on the other side. An awkward stooping at the knees and over-extended reach of the arm is required to attain food. Sneeze shield? Oh, I get it. The food goes UNDER it…to protect it from what else but a sneeze! I guess a sneeze shield in and of itself doesn’t bother me as much as the ideology behind the reason for their invention. Some hundreds of years ago, there was probably a slew of unshielded buffets. Then some health inspector/ doctor type said to himself “I wonder if some kind of covering over the community food would help to stem this outbreak of whooping cough!” And lo! The sneeze shield was born. Of course the earliest sneeze shields were made either of wood or leaves. But at least they became invented.

“Don’t worry bro, our food is good. We’ve got brand-new sneeze shields.”

“Ooh, they’re so clean! So shiny! Whoops, except for this one…looks like someone sneezed on it. Ah well, I don’t think it hit the lettuce… although I wouldn’t try any croutons until they replace that batch.”

“Oh no prob. Here, let me Windex that right up (Lots of spritzing over the food).

Ugh. Buffets remind me of a community food trough. Hey! Free microbes!

Yummo.

My parents pointed out the sign advertising shrimp. Expecting, I guess, that I would share in their awe of the availability of such a delectable dish at a buffet! My only response was a disparaging look and the admonition that “I don’t like seafood.”

Shrimp? SHRIMP? If those things lived on land, we’d buy sprays and traps to keep them off our lawns and out of our houses! Same with crab! “Oh darn,” I’d say to my wife, “Time to go to the hardware store and get some good strong crab traps.” The horror of the texture alone should be enough to dissuade even the most hearty proponent. Then factor in the taste and you’ve got a recipe for something that, if it took human form, would resemble the monster Grendel. And I’m no Beowulf.

I had frog legs once. Know what they tasted like? A swamp. A big, green, algae-infested swamp with mosquitoes and malaria and Kermit the Frog singing “The Rainbow Connection” on a moldy old tree stump. Shrimp, crab, frog legs: they all taste like a swamp! Maybe occasionally you’ll hit one that tastes like licking the underside of an old John-Deere riding lawnmower. Consider yourself lucky. I hate the texture, the taste, the look, the idea. I don’t eat things that a. have feelers or b. start off as a tadpole. Sorry. Whoever the guy was that first said “Frog legs? Sure, they taste just like chicken” was a mental. Apparently someone out there was raising chickens in swamps to make sure they absorbed all that natural swampy goodness.

See? SEE? SEE THE MALARIA!?

Everbody Just Party Down

I can see it all now. Some mook trying to buy a house has to have it inspected. The inspector comes out, inspects the house and in a somber tone manages to whisper through his tears to the future homeowner, “I’m sorry! You’ve got….shrimp.” “NOOOOO,” Screams the schmuck, “WHY ME?!” On land there would be no stopping them. Even the most potent “Shrimp-Away-Spray” would only be a temporary solution until they ate right through the timbers and joists that hold up your WHOLE HOUSE.

Light Bulb!

Ooh, Ideaaa! Know how some whales strain krill through their baleen and eat millions in a single salty gulp? Let’s serve krill at restaurants! They’re really just teensy tiny shrimp anyway. They could be like a shrimp flavored coffee. Mmmmmmmm… Hot Krill. Just like Mom used to strain through her baleen.

 

My Personal Baleen

 +

Their Krill

 =

The Perfect Storm.

When I started working at The Press of Ohio I made a decision to never tap-dance around my faith in God. This has led to a great many conversations with people from all walks of life, and topics have varied greatly. I’ve discussed all kinds of things with my fellow employees. My only guideline has always been to present an answer I know to be in keeping with the tenets of Scripture. If I didn’t know of an answer directly given, I tried to answer based on my knowledge of God’s character. Below find a list of some of the questions I’ve been asked.

• Do you think animals go to heaven when they die?
• Why did Noah live to be so old?
• Do you think Jesus would listen to Ozzy Osbourne?
• Doesn’t the Bible say that if you get a tattoo you’re going to hell?
• Doesn’t the Bible say that if you commit suicide you’re going to hell?
• I’ve decided to follow a mix of Christianity and Buddhism. What do you think?
• How can you be sure that what you believe is true?
• What does the Bible say heaven will be like? I thought I read that we turn into angels.
• How can you have tattoos and call yourself a Christian? (this one asked by a fellow believer in Christ)

Believe it or not all of these questions were asked in sincerity, even the one about Ozzy Osbourne. Now at the end of my career, I can only conclude one thing- people are searching for truth. Ironically enough they create it half the time. The other half of the time they’re worried about what the Bible might say. But that’s not the point of this writing. This past Friday I was asked yet another question.

The self-portrait of their belief structure.

Answering The Question

I was returning to my station after a bathroom break when three guys working at another machine called me over. “Jeremiah!” they yelled. I turned to see them waving me over, so over I went. They all started talking at the same time. I asked them to slow down and hurry up because I had to get to my station. Finally one piped up, “Joe told Tony that the Bible says that when we die, we forget everything. Is that true?” My response was short and sweet and the best I could do in the thirty seconds allotted me. “No,” I replied. “The Bible says nothing of the kind. In fact, it alludes to the exact opposite.” They were satisfied with my answer. Mostly, I think, because they just wanted Joe (whom they don’t like) to be wrong. But it was a good question and one I considered that evening on my drive home.

Questioning The Question

Look! That answer fits me perfectly!

“Do we forget everything when we die?”

My answer at the time was based solely on logic. In about 15 seconds I had to consider the ramifications of an eternal human spirit with a finitely existent memory. Where does the spirit stop and the memory begin? Are they not part and parcel? Basically what I concluded was that if it was true that we forget everything, people who entered heaven (or hell) would have no clue who they were, where they were, or why they were there. I am convinced that we will have memory of the decision we made to follow Christ if we are in heaven and if in hell, a person may be able to recall opportunities they had in life to receive Christ and didn’t, thus adding to their eternal torment.

Rock This Town

Interestingly enough, God uses all kinds of things in Scripture to help people remember. The Israelites are always setting up some pile of rocks or another so when their children happen upon it in the future and ask “What is this pile of rocks?” the parent can answer “This is the place where God did such-and-such for us.” Specifically I recall their carrying of the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan River. God stopped the water so the priest’s feet would not get wet. Once all were across, he instructed them to set up a pile of stones for this very reason of remembering. God values memory to the point of making sure it is reinforced by physical means.  He’s in the business of making mnemonic devices!

Remember When You Decided Not To Decide?

I'll just sit here and that'll be great!

 A parable comes to mind to illustrate the survival of it even into the afterlife. In the gospel of Luke, chapter 16:19-31, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and the beggar. It is a rather long excerpt so I will not quote it in its entirety. Suffice to say we see a prime example of a dead man remembering something:

25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish’.”

Abraham literally tells the rich man to remember! He prompts him! Remember how comfy you were? Remember how you wanted for nothing? Oh yeah, he remembers. And he’s miserable.

Two verses later we see an example of unprompted recollection on the part of the rich man:

27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, send him to my father’s home. 28 For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them about this place of torment so they won’t have to come here when they die’.”

Apparently the rich man remembers quite a bit in death. He knows he has five brothers, some or all of whom live at his dad’s house. And he also knows they’re going to end up in the exact same state of eternal want that he is currently experiencing.

What Was I Talking About Again?

It seems like an easy question to answer, “Does the Bible say we forget everything when we die?” But like many of the questions surrounding biblical precepts, answering one only seems to spawn more questions, or rhetorical questions, that must be considered to arrive at a biblical conclusion.

• If we do forget everything when we die, then Jesus must have forgotten everything when he died upon the cross. Did his memory return upon his resurrection? How?
• Jesus resurrected a man named Lazarus after he’d been dead for three days! If we forget everything when we die, Lazarus had no clue who he was when Jesus brought him back!

These are just a couple of rhetorical examples that come to the surface when you consider the ramifications of an eternal spirit coexisting with a finite memory.  A better question to ask might be “Can the dead experience regret?” As to this I would answer a categorical “Yes.” But only the dead in a certain place experience regret, since it is a concomitant of a state of desire. In heaven there is no state of desire, only a state of sufficiency. So what is the other place?  Hell.  And it’s…well…hellish.

The sign will be less frozen...