कुम्भ मेला 2010

Kumbh Mela. This is the largest religious gathering in the world. 60 million Hindus gather, 4 times every 12 years, to bathe in the waters of the Ganges river. They believe the river to be a goddess, and that as they ritually immerse themselves, there sins are washed away.

This is whats known as a beautiful lie. The reality is that this is one of the the dirtiest, polluted, disease infested river in the world. It has no power. “They worship the creation rather than the Creator.”

This year, Kumbh Mela is at Hardiwar, India. January 14 through April 28. We can join in prayer, believing that God will save those lost in darkness. That they would be baptized and in the name of the true God!

[journal entry: Thursday Febuary 4th 2010 1:09]

Freemont, north of Seattle. This city does not sleep. It’s after 1:00 in the morning. I’m sitting on a chair outside a coffee shop, wishing I could somehow make a difference. These people have little concern for anything beyond the party. “Everything is fine, lets have a good time.”
But I see the truth. Man was not created to live apart from God, and the happiness is nothing more than a shell, to hide from the truth.
I talked with a number of people during the two nights of my stay, but Charlie is the one who will stand out the most in my memory.
Charlie thinks he is a god. As I was writing, he came up, and asked for money to buy coffee. We got coffee and headed up to his home. He lives under the bridge, next to the famed Freemont troll statue. He says he was once a student of political science and philosophy at the University of Berkley. Now he spends his days talking to spirits. We talked for about an hour, and for much of the time, Charlie would stop talking to me, and begin an argument with a spirit next to him. Sometimes he would agree, sometimes he would fight. I would call his name, or ask him a question, and he would snap back, himself, and resume our conversation. There wasn’t much question in my mind as to the reality of the spirits. They seemed just as real as Charlie or myself. I read him scriptures, and he disagreed, in his quiet, mumbling way. He said that man is the ultimate god, and that we each must become God ourself. I shared with him truth, and love, and he did not accept. He is n God’s hands. I told him I would come and see him again.
In Charlie, I saw a picture of all the hip people sipping cocktails in the bars around me. The conversations were certainly of a different nature, but the fundamental question was the same. Does man need God?
This was the original sin. “you shall be as gods.” It is the ultimate lie.
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32
These people are blind. They hold up freedom as the most important thing. They can not see that they are in fact slaves. Slaves to sin and themselves.
For people such as these, for people such as myself, did Christ die. At the cross, He bore the sin of the world. He broke the power of death, and brought life and immortality to light through his resurrection.
He offers salvation to all who would call upon His name. There is hope for this city. Love could wash these streets clean.
I look up and down the block. Most of the people are starting to head home. A prayer: “May those who walk in darkness see the great light. Father, that they would turn, and you would heal them.”
Love will wash these streets clean.

Chasing Horizons, Volume One

Once as a child I stood

Innocent, white as the blinding Aspen

Horizon stretched above

`

Content to stare in wonder

At peace with the unknown

Just resting in God’s love

`

Years pass in continuum

Months chase away peace

And I make as this wandering dove

Caprock Canyon [journal entry: Saturday, April 11 2009 16:00]

This land defies poetry

A man feebly attempts to

capture it in words…

And this land remains

silent, unscathed by frail

descriptions…

Love for the saved. Love for the lost. Love for my Savior…

[from earlier this year, right after we got back from India]

“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs is the divine glory, the covenanats, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.”
Romans 9:2-4

So this is the question that I ask myself: Do I have this same love? To consider myself cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers? Do I truly love my neighbor as myself?

I know that I would never be cut off from Christ for another man, that could not happen, however the question remains, do I love my brother that much? Our Father loved us that much, and His Son was cut off for us.

Praying to know what it truly means to love, praying to be formed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Absence of God, absence of light.

[thoughts from this time last year]

“And the Lord God said, ‘ “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil…” ‘
-Genesis 3:22

We had class with Dave Chupp teaching morning. We were discussing being at peace with God’s ways, and I asked the unanswerable question.

“How did evil come into being?”

Our options are this. One, evil has existed forever on its own outside of God. This would imply that God is not omnipotent, that there are things that exist without him forming them.
Or, two, and nobody even wants to bring this up, God created evil.
Both of these are clearly false. Are there any other answers?

Mr. Chupp shared this, “God did not create evil, He gave free choice to mankind and the angels, and we created evil when we chose.” (My paraphrase)
I found this helpful and insightful, but still not satisfying. There would have to be preexisting evil for a person to be able to make a wrong choice.

And the tonight Danny told me a story about children in a classroom. One child asks, “What is darkness?” “The absence of light.”
“What is evil?” “The absence of God.”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28
This is His promise to us. I still have questions, but I have peace. We are finite beings, trying to understand infinite matters.
His love endures forever.

Before His Throne

He’s in your presence

Arms raised in worship

Head bowed in reverence

 

This city sleeps in silence

His prayers are quiet

Joy expressed in reliance

 

And You smile

Your child’s love

Poured as incense before your throne

 

Based on Revelation 5:7

This Blessed Tide

I am beginning anew

My old self

Drowning in ocean of grace

 

In awe of you

My sight blinded

By the light of your face

 

And I break form

This fractured life has shattered

Sails torn by disgrace

 

So I’m beginning anew

In an ocean of grace

As this blessed tide brings me to you

Exposition on “autumn pretense”

This is a something I wrote about this time last year. It is only a fragment, a quote from a longer piece that was never actually written.

“…breaking this perfect circle of seasons, longing to dwell in everlasting Autumn, where trees shed their pretense, and souls bare their true colors.”

Let’s do some exposition. This is a simile, the tree being a person. We shroud ourselves in leaves, in smiles and manners, to cover up the truth. The leaves are very pretty, but the soul, and the truth, is in the branches, trunk, bark and wood. The reality of who we are, our hopes, what we struggle with are held on the inside. When you think of autumn, a few things come to mind, the closing of summer, the threshold we cross into winter, and of course, the colors. At no time of the year are we so stunned by the colors around us.

Yet something we must realize is that those colors are actually signs of destruction. Each change of shade brings the leaf closer to death. But it is not death without purpose, it is absolutely necessary for the life of the tree. And similarly it is absolutely necessary for us to shed our own pretense, and be honest about ourselves, honest about our faults, and ready to be changed. The analogy breaks down, as all analogies do, if you push it past a certain point, but the message is there.

Thus, in the end we see, that to be broken, in God’s eyes, is beautiful.

Hope

Hope