Ode To Music

There is nothing more amazing than to listen to an absolutely brilliant song preformed by great musicians. One of these such greats comes in the form of a band called Coldplay. I know this might seem like a desperate hop on the band wagon stretch of desperation sort-of maneuver, but i assure you this is simply an admiration of greatness. This past weekend I was working at P.F. Chang’s going out of my way to walk past the bar in hopes of catching a bit of action from the Celtics Lakers game unfolding live on the television. After almost thirty minutes of not seeing anything i was finally able to make it past the bar only to see the Lakers literally hand the Celtics their Third victory. Depression set in and the rest of the night became a pending doom of nothingness. Until low before me shinning with glory was a commercial, no a show, no a message of hope sent forth with a beautiful array of colors unlike I have ever seen before. Could something so beautiful be shown through such primitive technology? There was no sound, just absolute, stunning glory. I had to know what this was and why it had come to me at such a needed time? Later that night as I consulted my most trusted source of information, youtube, I discovered that this gloriousness was in fact a music video for Coldplay’s knew song and album title “Viva La Vida”. This is the video that saved my night..

The Judah Video 2008

Laura is still in the hospital with Judah. It is about 11pm and I just left them there for the night, I didn’t want to go but had to be obedient to the rules set forth by the ever so wise Hospital administration. Don’t get me wrong… today of all days I am impressed and humbled to have my wife and child cared for by these wonderful people. Thank you Park View! None the less is was hard to leave them, but at the same time it will be equally as pleasurable to have my last solid nights wrest before the fury of a new child is released upon my every day.

Understanding that so many of our friends and family are far far away in different states and countries I felt it necessary to create as much media as I could for you and others to see of my Son Judah. This is a video I composed of the moments leading up to the delivery, during and after. I was fortunate to get some great shots and still be apart of the process, supporting Laura every step of the way. With out any other nonsensical phrases and quipets I give to you The Judah Video 2008″

Judah Jay-Matthew Moore

born June 4th 2008 12:38pm at 7.8 lbs and 20 inches. Laura was amazing and I cannot express how beautiful it was to see my son born. Here are some pictures and a video to look at until you get to meet him in person.

2:30am

Yesterday afternoon Laura started her contractions at about 4:30 and has continued up till now. Go figure this kid would be a night time event. Everything has been pretty simple, we went on a walk at about 10pm to help the process a little and then watched “Stranger then Fiction” with Momma Bugbee. Now we are all trying to get some rest and just let this happen. I know it will be next to impossible for Laura to maintain any comfortable unconsciousness and I myself am way too excited to shut my eyes.  So far the contractions have not been so unbearable that she  has called for death, like some people say, but we have installed a rating system for Contraction Pain Level (CPL). One being mild to moderate pain to Ten being “hell” pain. So far we’ve had a Seven.

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Okay there has been another attraction, umm… contraction at 2:39am exactly 15 minutes since the last. Laura has contemplated and declared that contraction a Seven and one fourth. More to come on the Decent of Judah.

A Truth of Life

If I start now I’ll never go back and everything that I have now will be decimated in the wake of my actions. But still I beg, let me go so I may run deeper into my plagued mind. One small step at a time, determined I would move in revolt of my entire life. My son, my daughter, my wife easily pushed to the waist side.

This Poisonous Venom

This venom
This poisonous venom
It burns my throat and causes me to vomit
I cannot feel
No longer is pleasure real
For I have substituted life for the vile seduction of strife
And in this agony I am content to live it on
Not recognizing the slow churning of my soul
Or the many simple choices that have come together in full

This venom
This poisonous venom
It has deluded the blood in my veins
Confusing the life of whoredom with being sane
Betraying my existence
I no longer see
Instead I wonder aimlessly
Gripping the same torturous doom
Excepting nothing all together too soon

This venom
This poisonous venom
A Truth so genuine
Death you bring but still I stay
Death you are and here ill stay
Prostrate and naked here I lay

Filth

…at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him… Proverbs 7:6-13

My mind is consumed with the filth of my past. They come back for me in new forms and with new shapes but all the same, they remain, filth. I find it, at my weakest moment, my most honest state, to be absolutely pleasurable and most appealing. It is in that moment that all else fails in comparison to the desire I have for filth. Why is it that the most pleasurable of the things native to my creation fail to subdue the filth that damns me? It could only be that the true affections I swore to hold do not, in fact, hold any real value to my heart. True affection are the only truths a lying heart tell, and all hearts lie. It is not confusing for the pondering mind to know true affection. For it is in the face of reality that true affection becomes evident to the thinker. If your agenda were more pleasing than obedience to a rule or law then why would you be a follower of the law? You would not! To say otherwise is a lie and is proved by your true hearts desire, your affections.

Cheetos Commercials – The Orange Underground

In the single most entertaining commercial advertisement ever made on this planet we now have an eerie cheetah manipulating mankind. In these random acts of horror, Cheetos are used to commit great atrocities. Watch and see for yourself.

 

 

The Cheetos company has launched what I think to be the most brilliant advertising series since the Marlboro Man in 1954. You think cigarettes were bad, wait till you see Cheetos sticking out of every orphus of the human body.

The Redemption of the Damned

A friend of mine replied to the “Damned Americans” Blog, this was her response.

“That’s great and all… but doesn’t it say in Romans (10:9-10)
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dad, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. I don’t understand why someone would say that just because you may struggle at times, you aren’t REALLY a Christian….. after all… we’re not perfect and God doesn’t expect perfection from us.”

These are great thoughts and questions that we as Christians need to ask. If we are not willing to wrestle with these issues then it does not matter if we are right because our relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is demoted to nothing more than a convenient belief.

This was my response to her questions and concerns.

You brought up Romans 10:9 “… and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” The word and makes that statement a requirement to confession by mouth. You can confess with your mouth and those words can be empty. But confession with a truly convicted heart, a heart that does not just know and understand the life and work of Christ but is pushed by it, that person is saved.

Matthew 7:22-23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

People believe their faith in Christ is Genuine all the time. Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” But many people are deceived by themselves, the world and the American Church.

Confessing with your mouth can happen for any number of reasons, fear, loneliness, desire, want… but none of these are enough to merit salvation from Christ. We as humans cannot desire God enough on our own to ever need salvation the way and reason Christ intends to give it to us.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God” Blessed are those who are desperate to be saved from themselves, who recognize that they have no ability for righteousness on their own. What seems to be so confusing about Christianity these days is that people think they can get to God on their own. But we can’t. We are so radically immersed in unrighteousness that no man apart from God could or would ever recognize his own despair. Nor would they want to change for a God who loves them and offers them a way out of their own selfishness. Unless God sends his holy spirit to that person and turns their stubborn heads towards Christ NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW GOD.

When a church simply has a prayer and announces a conversion on spot with no accountability to that person’s intension or transformation, or when a leader comforts a person’s troubled heart by assuring their salvation we see a flood of people mislead and headed on the wide path.
I hear you. We all struggle. But we are not the ones who assure people of their salvation, we show them how to be one; leave it to God to give and assure salvation. And I think that if we evaluate many of the life styles of Christians, we will see more than simple inconstancies or struggles, we will see a very self involved desire for what makes them most happy, and it is not GOD.

I will end my long rant on your last comment. You said “we’re not perfect and God doesn’t expect perfection from us.” That is a dangerous thing to say. Because what are you condoning, or what are you saying God condones. Our relationship with Christ is a pursuit. It is a vigorous pursuit that is full of passion, zeal, desire, want, anticipation, it is a fight. It’s a fight away from impurity, adultery and a fight towards righteousness and fidelity. Since being married I have learned how much I do not value Christ. With my wife, I pursue here more intimately now than ever before, I anticipate her needs and I desire her joy. I watch after her heart and desire more than anything her happiness. Do you see this… we don’t even value Christ like this. But we should fight too every day. This relationship with God has to be passionate, and though it will not be perfect on our account, we fight for it.

I would say this instead…

God expects a deeply passionate pursuit from us, incomparable and untamable.

The Damned Americans

The Damned Americans

The way you live, the way you talk, the way you look, what you watch, what you listen to, what you want, what you let go unchallenged, how you relate, how you engage, how you fit in, where you go, where you mind goes, where your heart goes, where your eyes go and who you date will show if you are or are not a person called from darkness into light, rescued from sin into eternal life. You will be made evident by the way that you demonstrate yourself in secret and in public, to some and to the others, to your family and to your friends. Sin is not just the bad things that you do, but it is the complete lack of Christ in your life. You are not just s a sinner when you steal, lie, cheat, murder, hate and rape; you’re a sinner just because you do not possess a relationship with the God of all time. What you value and what you show to the world as most important will demonstrate your true affections.

If you struggle to value the things of God and lack an interest in his words and his teachings then why would you be a Christian? If the way you live, the way you talk, the way you look, what you watch, what you listen to, what you want, what you let go unchallenged, how you relate, how you engage, how you fit in, where you go, where you mind goes, where your heart goes, where your eyes go does not resemble a person captured by God’s grace, mercy, justice and love then why would you be a Christian?

What if you’re not a Christian and you are just posing as one because all you know is an America that has raised you to believe that this is what you are. Have you prayed a prayer, have you walked down the aisle and hugged tightly a pastor and confused your sins, well then, you still might not be a Christian!

“The genuine Christian has been given a new nature… If you doubt you are a genuine Christian exam yourself, test yourself in the light of the scripture because a Christian will be different than the world.” What is the difference between a genuine Christian walking in the narrow way and those who do not. “If you are genuinely a born a again Christian a child of god you will walk in the way of righteousness, as a style of life, and if you step off that path of righteousness the father will come for you, he would discipline you, he would put you back on that path. But if you profess to have gone through the narrow gate and yet you live in the broad way, just like all the other people in your high school, just like all the other people who are carnal and wicked the bible want you to know that you should be terribly afraid, because you do not know God.” Paul Washer

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

HeartCry’s founder and director Paul David Washer