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Distortion

April 26, 2012 — 3 Comments

When things get loud and obnoxious, distortion happens. Typically, the volume is too loud, the levels are all jacked up, and people are starting to put in their ear plugs.

The wah-wah is a positive distortion!

But when we try to get a message across and see people putting in ear plugs, we should probably take note.

Check Your Levels

If we aren’t checking levels, they can get away from us and be a major cause of the EPE, or ear plug effect.

Imagine a gigantic soundboard with 10 billion input sources…one output, or expression. We are able to “check our levels” by acknowledging that Christ is the Great Mixer! He knows our levels. He gave them to us.

The way into this process is what is commonly known, in the Christian world, as salvation. However, I would encourage you to potentially discover more about salvation by following that link.

The simple part of “checking our level” is to hear Christ and believe into Him. That initiates an entirely different sound in our lives!

Keep Your Levels, well… Level

The GREAT thing about being in Christ is that we are eternally a part of His Body. We have been given a place to function and provide input, our portion.

In the process of gathering with believers and allowing Christ to be the “Great Mixer,” we are able to see the reality of Christ up close and personal. The Great Mixer, Who is Christ, disciples us in a way that our expression of Him is clearer and finer.

As He mixes all of our inputs in His Soundboard, we are given the One Channel output that is His Expression. How sweet is that!?

Appropriate Volume

When it comes to turning it up to 11, distortion happens. If we allow Christ to keep our levels according to His will, His is able to provide the appropriate volume at the appropriate time to the appropriate person.

Christ is appropriate.

As He is appropriately expressed, His glory is made known in a way that He has set forth.

May we remove our desire to strive for 11. May we allow Him to check our levels, and express Himself through us in an appropriate way. And may our noise and distortion be reduced to His Peace.

Peace on earth. That is something that obliterates EPE.

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Throw Back Series – 10 – What’s Your Donkey?

February 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

Wow. Wow. Wow. I now know the answer to this question! This Throw Back Series has really shown me a lot about the faithfulness of Christ and His Family. This was posted January 16, 2009. I hope you enjoy and are encouraged!

I was cruising around looking for some cool little verse about surrender. I told one of my friends, “Complete surrender is the most comfortable tension God has created.” I wanted to back that up with Scripture.

I got to Deuteronomy 20. That was the first reference it had. Guess what it’s about…”When you approach a city to attack it, offer its people a peaceful way to surrender.”

Context for me…wasn’t sure. I’ll get there later. However, I continued to read Deuteronomy 20. It’s about Rules of Engagement in War. That was pretty cool, so I read on into Deuteronomy 21. It talks about what a people group should do if a murderer can’t be found and it speaks of laws about marriage and family. Then there were various laws chapter 21 had. So I continued to read into chapter 22…

And that’s where I was confronted with this all-familiar passage that is referred to in the New Testament. Here it is:

vs. 10 -

Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

That’s it.

Don’t be unequally yoked, right? 2 Corinthians 6:14 – Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

Don’t hook up with a non-believer when you are dating and when you get married. That is what the New Testament was getting across…maybe.

But back to Deuteronomy. “Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.”

Does this mean that we shouldn’t get married to someone who we can’t match up with?

I have a question that I would like to propose to us for thought…

What is your donkey?

Could it be that the writer of Deuteronomy would be telling us that as we plow, to unyoke our flesh from our spirit? Having a donkey hold you back does not help you plow to what you’re called to. Giving full power to the ox will allow the plowing to be accomplished.

The application is that if I feed my donkey, I won’t get anywhere. If I feed my ox, I will plow. If I feed both, I will be battling the donkey the entire time as I plow with my ox.

If we feed our flesh, we will not be who God has called us to be. If we feed our spirit, we will be everything God has called us to be! If we feed both, we will have a miserable time serving. We will be going in circles because of our stubborn flesh. We will have to continue to “confess” and “repent” of our donkey…

because we keep feeding it!!

STARVE YOUR DONKEY!

FEED YOUR OX!!

“Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.”

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow…

February 15, 2012 — 14 Comments

Sing with me if you know it…

Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high
There’s a land that I dreamed of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow,
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow,
Blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why, then, oh, why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh, why can’t I?

Written by E. Y. Harburg, Over The Rainbow

Little did I know, Harburg had a difficult time with government…and religion, for that matter. But I digress…

I was finishing up some work and heard a piano playing this lonesome song. I’ve always wondered why people have been enamored with this song sung by the likes of Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz…or Harry Connick Jr…or Billy Ray Cyrus…or numerous others.

When I sang it before, I would always sing, “Somewhere over the rainbow…water melon. Watermelon. Water. Melon. Watermelon, Watermelon…” And so on. Since I know the lyrics are not watermelon, looking them up, I can now appreciate them.

I believe Harburg was on to something. He writes that there are blue skies over that rainbow. And the dreams that you dream really do come true…I believe this at my core. Deep down I believe that my dreams really will come true. Deep down.

That deep down, in my core, where my deepest thoughts come from, that source…I am not used to that source. I don’t usually think through my inner most core. I usually dream from my simple mind…or do I?

I used to have this recurring dream and it went a little something like this:

I was running through a forest dodging trees whizzing by my head. I felt this sense of escape and that I needed to run even faster or I would be captured. I sensed something chasing me, perhaps a wolf. I looked back and saw this evil wolf chasing me. I looked forward again and saw an opening in the forest as if there were light at the end of a tunnel. The light through the trees got brighter and brighter and larger. I knew my escape had come. I reached the end of the darkness. I reached the end of the chase from evil and stepped into this bright space…

What I didn’t realize is that it was the edge of a cliff. I couldn’t stop and I fell off the face of the cliff. It seemed like I fell forever. I saw the water getting closer and closer and closer. And then, SMACK! I hit the water, I saw dark, dirty water. I realized I was going to drown…

Then I woke up.

That was the recurring dream I had time and time again. It all started around when I was 10. After a few times of waking up in a cold sweat, I realized I was tired of falling off the cliff. So I would begin to manipulate the dream and I would wake myself up before I hit the water…because that was the worst part!

Then I would make myself stop right before the water and hover and inch or so off the water…

Then I would stop, hover, and twist my body in a way to where I would be facing the sky…

Then I would stop, hover, twist, and then flap my arms…

Then I would stop, hover, twist, flap, and then begin to fly up to the sky…

Then I realized…why fall? Why not just take a running start and jump off the cliff and begin to fly from the leap. I would flap my arms and fly and float and soar and like Icarus, break a sweat. But what I could see was beautiful!

It was “over the rainbow” and blue.

Where in the world did that dream come from?! It didn’t come from this world. It came from deep down inside me. Past my body. Past my mind. It came from my inner most core, my spirit.

My spirit was telling me to take a leap. Don’t be afraid to fail. You will see what is over the rainbow. You will see the Dream that is the Hope of all nations.

The wolf in the forest just wanted a piece of me, or wanted me to fall in the abyss. Little did the wolf know that now, I don’t miss the forest for the trees. Now I can see the Glorious Splendor that is over the rainbow.

This Dream spoken of is given to us if we listen deep down. If we stay focused and behold just long enough…past the noise…past the chasing opponents…past the branches and trees…

…past gravity…

For you know…The Dream, the Hope, the Purpose, the Reason…created gravity.

Perhaps, if we behold and listen just past all of these things, our dreams will begin to dissipate. Our dreams, perhaps, will be reformed and reshaped and renewed. Our dreams disappear, and behold, His Dream, His Hope, His Purpose becomes reality in our lives…and His Dream and Hope and Purpose comes true.

Harburg’s song ends with a bit of dismay, a lack of hope. But he was on to something.

May we wish upon a star. May we put our hope in the Hope of the world, the bright Star, Who is Christ. And we will wake up with the clouds and troubles of this world far behind us.

That’s where you’ll be found.

That is…if you were ever lost in the first place.

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A butterfly’s view

February 8, 2012 — 4 Comments

There is something we all have. Yet some choose to gain more, or someone else’s. It is subjective. It isn’t valuable, unless you think it is…

Perspective.

Gaining perspective can be priceless to those who have been rambling on and on with none, or only their own.

Discussing caterpillars and butterflies, the freedom of death reveals it’s self. As we all know, caterpillars cocoon and basically die…for a time. When they come out of the cocoon, they are transformed into a butterfly. The butterfly sits there for a second and pumps blood into its wings, and they stiffen with the aid of chitin, becoming two layers…and such…

But when they get all butterfly-ed up, the insects look away from their cocoon…never to return…

And fly.

Think about that for a second. They crawled to where ever they pitched their tent…I mean, cocoon.

Crawled.

Then, on the other side of transformation, they began to fly.

No longer do they inch along on the ground and through the dirt. No longer do they crawl up plants, and stems, and leaves. No longer do they take days to travel a few hundred feet.

They fly.

Flapping their wings they are able to move from the branch where they cocooned and take into the air. They can drop, and float, and soar, and see much more than the ground, the dirt, the plants that are in front of them.

They see from a much different perspective. They see a bigger picture. There are trees and lakes and streams and mountains and valleys. There is more to this life than crawling and inching along.

After transformation, we are able to see Abundant Life. When we step away from our place of transformation, and move into and through our New Life, we are able to view a bigger picture, a bigger earth, a bigger creation…

And be overwhelmed with thankfulness…

That we are flying.

Have you been transformed?

How’s the view?

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Marketing Grape Water

February 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

I’m not sure how you market grape water. Or raspberry water, for that matter.

Even beyond that…how do you even come up with the concoction of water and grapes? How does one go to a mountain stream, get a bucket of water, put some grapes in it, take a swig, and say, “Ahhh.”

Grape water…that’s disgusting.

Water is good.

Grape juice is good.

But grape WATER?

Nonetheless, a major beverage company has perfected it…

And I like it.

Today, I overheard a conversation. A 10 year old-ish boy had purchased some “water” for his grandmother. She thanked him, opened the bottle and drank…

and almost tossed her cookies.

I then heard her say, “What is this? Grape water?”

To which the boy replied, “Yep.”

She followed up with, “This is disgusting!”

Think with me for a minute. A 10 year old boy has a dollar to buy a bottle of water…and sees his options, which are: water or grape water.

If you were that 10 year old boy, which would you choose? I was a 10 year old boy once. I would have gone for the grape water as well. Besides, who would want just plain, old water?

Granny almost tossed her cookies and told the boy to buy her a “regular” water and then instructed the boy to throw the grape water in the trash.

The boy didn’t throw it away. He dropped it in the trash can after he looked at the grape water one last time. Being that it was an almost entirely full 20 ounce bottle, and because there wasn’t much in the trash can, the bottle went straight to the bottom of the can with a thud. It wasn’t in slow motion, but if I was making a movie…definitely would have been in slow-mo.

Granny gave the boy another dollar and he was on his way to re-purchase some water.

I wonder if the boy had the same tug for the grape water when he went for the second purchase. I wonder what his little brain told him about the regular water. I wonder if his fear of Granny’s cookies on the floor helped him purchase the “regular” water.

We have been given the opportunity to drink water. Some of us have been given the opportunity to drink more than just “water.” Some of us have ice in our water, some have hot water. Some have lemon water, some grape water. Some of us have stagnant water, and some of us have Living Water.

That boy bought grape water with his dollar because he had two options: water or grape water. That major beverage company didn’t have a commercial for grape water. They didn’t sell him on how much better it was for him. They didn’t give him a package deal because that would entice him over to the grape water side.

The grape water was simply presented beside the regular water. He wanted more.

There are other people who just want more. Present them with a drink of the Living Water…

And they will never thirst again…

Even if Granny tosses her cookies.

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