Politically Wrong

Life has resumed for the part time student with a day job.

It was hard trying to balance work, education, life group leading and worship ministry. Some would say that I lack faith. But the burden was too much to bear.

Now I thank God that with my Saturdays free, I can concentrate more on my other aspects of life like my family whom I hardly see given my hectic work/study/ministry schedule. I also have more time to catch up with my studies, coz I'm not a genius, I have to work hard to even barely survive maintaining a reasonable GPA. I also have more time for my social life, which is sadly lacking.

I'm starting to realize how much I've neglected my 'outside' friends - my old MRF pals, my classmates and my colleagues. Ironically it was my army friends and colleagues who remembered my birthday last year instead of those who were close to me - perhaps familiarity really does breed contempt. I've grown so warm and cozy in church that I forget that there's a real world out there that needs to be influenced. Though I am no great man of faith, I try at least to do my part to live differently, which is the hard part.

Everyone loves a hero, I guess that's the saddest part. Maybe that's why we wear masks, like the ancient Greek actors bearing the images of Herakles or Achilles. Some say that we wear masks everyday - its a catch-22. Either we wear masks or we be branded as faithless/deviant etc. Either ways we are all dead. The whole game here is to strip off these masks as we grow. So will have no problems with getting rid of them quickly; yet for some it takes a longer time.

So the cardinal question here really is this:

Would you still love and accept me if you really knew who I am?

Sometimes I feel the last thing I need is for some saint to tell me how wrong I've become and what I must do to make things right, like Job's 3 friends. Sometimes I feel all I really need is a sinner to share my grief with me, to mourn and to encourage me.

It sounds politically wrong.

Sometimes we do take a tumble, and our walk becomes a crawl.

And I'm not exactly doing very well now.

But would you still love and accept me?

Is Lifehouse a Christian Band?

One of the guys where I work has a Lifehouse CD. Some of their lyrics seem really Christian, and I love their sound! Are they a Christian band? I have been wondering because I try not to listen to secular music. —Emilie

Let me begin by simply listing a few facts about Lifehouse:

• The band's songwriter/singer Jason Wade and bassist Sergio Andrade met in Malibu, California, at Vineyard, a non-denominational church.

• Both Jason and Sergio were involved in the church's youth group and played worship music at the church.

• "Everything," a song about God's love written during those early youth group days, appears on the band's platinum-selling No Name Face CD.

• When Jason was a young boy, his parents were missionaries in Hong Kong.

• Sergio's parents were also missionaries; his dad has also served as a music minister for a church.

• Jason has said that the Christian band Delirious has had a big influence on his music.

• In the liner notes on No Name Face, Jason thanks God and says: "All this is because of You. All this music came from You and all of it goes back to You."

• Lifehouse's CD was reviewed positively in CCM—a Christian music magazine. The reviewer said: "Lifehouse … sports more poetic sense and spiritual insight than most rock bands currently on the traditional Christian circuit."

So, is Lifehouse a Christian band?

Here's how Jason has answered the question:

"We are not a 'Christian band,' but I'm a Christian, and the bass player [Sergio] is a Christian," Jason told UCLA's Daily Bruin Online.

And then in a Rolling Stone magazine interview, Jason said, "My music is spiritually based, but we don't want to be labeled as a 'Christian band,' because all of a sudden people's walls come up and they won't listen to your music and what you have to say."

Jason apparently feels that using the word "Christian" to describe Lifehouse is a turnoff to people. His reason for feeling this way may have something to do with how he felt other Christians treated his family during his parents' divorce, which took place when Jason was 12.

"[The divorce was] the turning point in my life," Jason told Rolling Stone. "I really disagree with a lot of things that the church does—the Christian church. Just religion in general, I see a lot of things that seem off. I saw firsthand how someone like my dad—maybe he fell, maybe he made some mistakes—but then people from the church would basically say, 'You're going to hell.' And then turn their back on him. To me, God is all about love and mercy and compassion, and I don't see a lot of that today."

While Jason's words may seem harsh, he speaks as someone who is still hurting deeply from a very difficult time in his life. And it seems that he blames the entire church—when, most likely, only a certain church or a select group of Christians may have treated him and his family wrongly. Let's just hope and pray that his friends at Vineyard (or whatever Christian fellowship he may now attend) will keep demonstrating God's love toward him so that his views of the church may soften in time.

I'm honestly not sure what all this says to you personally. You say you only want to listen to Christian bands. And I respect that. Many Christians listen to bands that have values and lyrics which run counter to Christian beliefs. Lifehouse is certainly not one of those bands. And I believe there's evidence of faith in what they do. I also believe they want to live as decent, moral human beings—something rare in the world of secular music. But if it still bothers you that Lifehouse won't label itself "Christian," then you'll want to avoid listening to them. But even if you make that choice, I hope you'll extend grace to those who have an opinion that differs from your own.

Article taken from Chrisitianity Today.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/cl/2001/006/22.28.html

I just don't want to give up

Everyone is afraid of falling, but sometimes fall we must. Its part of the growing process.

I'm sorry to say that the past two months had been difficult for me. I'm sorry to say that things are so much different when I'm out of the system. I'm sorry that there are times I do fall. However I do take comfort when I read the accounts of the people in the Bible whom had an encounter with God, almost all of them fell at a certain point of their lives, and yet God still engaged them. Could it be that falling is a part of God's plan in molding His people? This I will never fully comprehend.

I must confess that it hasn't been easy on me. While people talk about grand dreams and great endeavors for God, all I want to do now is to simply survive. While some may see this as lack of faith, or backsliding etc ad nauseum, it isn't. And yes its true, God wants us to prosper, and that we're more than conquerors etc. I'm not denying that these are true.

Just that these are times when I'm struggling to fit all these into my own life.

Would you still consider me a lesser mortal?

Sometimes I'm just so tired from trying. Yet I know I've got nowhere else to go, there's no one else whom I can hope in. I had enough of people telling me that "Oh there's something very wrong in your life", as if I've committed a cardinal crime in a Soviet Bloc state just because my ways of expressing my faith are different, or that I'm not meeting the status quo.

No, I'm just trying to find my way around. Sometimes followers do get lost. Sometimes followers do get lost in the desert. Sometimes followers do get burnt out. Sometimes followers do end up in the belly of a whale. There are times when we just gotta learn things the hard way; sometimes we just gotta relearn things.

I know I've neglected my spiritual life for quite awhile. I know that I've ventured into the world trying to find that seemingly-lacking peace and satisfaction, and have come back full circle to where I once started, realizing that yes its true, the world can offer us alot of things, but they are just temporal. At the end of the day, when I'm quiet and all alone, I realized that all that the world had to offer cannot buy me anything worthwhile, and my heart is drawn back to the cross once again, hanging onto it and barely surviving.

Its true, I need help, God.

I think people should be honest of their struggles and failings, instead of trying to hide behind some facade of strength or "orchestrated humility" to earn some brownie points for attention. You can really tell when a person is genuinely baring out his pains and fears, all his failings and struggles. The burden should not be theirs alone to bear. To us who are so quick in offering solutions, we should all just shut up and listen. Don't fall in the the category of Job's friends who were so eager to justify what they believed in and apply it totally to Job without even considering his situation, bombarding him with opinions and half-baked solutions. It was said that Job's friend mourned with him for 7 days - they should have mourned and kept quiet even longer if necessary.

Storm

How long have I been in this storm?
So overwhelmed by the ocean’s shapeless form
Water's getting harder to tread
With these waves crashing over my head

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I could see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I will get lost into your eyes
And everything will be all right
And everything will be all right

I know you didn’t bring me out here to drown
So why am I ten feet under and upside down
Barely surviving has become my purpose
Because I’m so used to living underneath the surface

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I could see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I will get lost into your eyes
And everything will be all right
And everything will be all right

-Lifehouse